Red Bluff owes its official existence to a 156-year-old court decision determining ownership of the land on which it sits.
When California became a state in 1850, land not granted to individuals by the previous Mexican government became public domain. Desperate for revenue and not willing to wait for the federal government’s official survey (which happened in 1853), California began selling.
Homesteads were in jeopardy. Suddenly, settlers became squatters on land they thought was theirs. They had reason to worry. After public lands were surveyed, they were put up for auction by the federal government. People who had settled on unsurveyed public land risked losing everything to monied land speculators. To stop this, Congress passed the Pre-Emptive Act in 1841, allowing settlers to buy up to 160 acres (at $1.25/acre) at pre-emption sales before the official auction. If they couldn’t afford to buy the land, it went to the highest bidder at auction…