**Be sure to park in Grijalva Park for the hint to make sence. I recommend walking down to the riverbed to see an occasional turtle.
Who is Grijalva Park named after? Minor ranchos were created from this large rancho, and the smaller rancho created out of it includes the Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana. The first individual land owner in the area was Don Juan Pablo Grijalva. He was a retired Spanish soldier. Spanish king granted him permission to establish and own a ranch.
The Grijalva history dates to the 16th century, but the start of the story in California is when Juan Pablo Grijalva came with the Spanish army for the Anza expedition. He was stationed in San Francisco for 10 years and San Diego for 11 years before retiring in 1796.
Upon his retirement, he petitioned for 130,000 acres from the Spanish government in what is now the Camp Pendleton area. The petition failed, but he later succeeded in his petition for 60,000 acres that encompassed what’s now Orange, Santa Ana, Tustin, Villa Park, Costa Mesa and parts of Anaheim Hills and Newport Beach. He called it Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana. His adobe was the first private dwelling in Orange County outside of Mission San Juan Capistrano.
When Juan Pablo Grijalva died in 1806, his son-in-law, Antonio Yorba, and grandson, Juan Pablo Peralta, took over the ranch.
For a long time, Juan Pablo Grijalva’s story had been lost in Orange County history in favor of the Yorbas and Peraltas. But Eddie Grijalva, who used to live in Orange, worked for years to make sure his forefather was remembered.