Up until 1821, the land that Westlake Village sits on now had been owned by Spain, and the king had distributed land grants in the area to notable families. The “Rancho Conejo” was originally deeded to two Spanish soldiers who had been stationed at the Santa Barbara presidio.
However, Mexico had been fighting a war of Independence against Spain and successfully annexed California. The Mexican government honored the land grants that Spain had already deeded and the two brothers kept their claim.
Together, Ygnacio Rodriguez and Jose Polanco shared a claim to “Rancho Conejo”, an area covering almost 49k acres.
One Soldier, Polanca abandoned his claim to the land, but only after the influential Spanish army officer José de la Guerra y Noriega denounced Polanco’s use or misuse of the land, and was granted Polanco’s portion of the claim by the Spanish Governor, Pablo Vicente de Solá.
So as of 1822, De La Guerra and Ygnacio Rodriguez have dual ownership to 49k acre “Rancho Conejo”.
There is a great amount of intrigue and mystery surrounding De La Guerra from ruins to treasure. It is said De La Guerra built an adobe in the area of Westlake Lake and what remains is covered by water. Even better, there is said to have been gold hidden by De La Guerra somewhere in the valley. I’ve heard some of the ruins were relocated to a site in Simi Valley and I will find out if there is any truth to that!
Stay tuned for the next post in the History of Westlake Village, by the Singer Group