Rancho Jurupa At about the age of 30, Wilson came to California with the
Workman-Rowland Party in 1841, which was seeking passage to China. In 1842, Wilson bought a key portion of Rancho Jurupa from
Juan Bandini, a section that was later named Rancho Rubidoux. Encompassing most of present-day
Rubidoux, California, as well as a significant portion of downtown
Riverside, California, Wilson became the first permanent settler in the Riverside area. In 1844 he married his first wife, Ramona Yorba, whose father
Bernardo Yorba, was the prominent Spanish (Mexican) landholder of
Rancho Cañón de Santa Ana. Wilson gained a local reputation and was often asked to assist with Native American affairs. Wilson was appointed as Justice of the Peace of the Inland Territory.
Big Bear Lake In 1845 Wilson was asked to pursue a group of Native Americans led by a man who had escaped from the San Gabriel Mission. They were stealing numerous horses from local ranchers. The Indians drove the horses, numbering in the thousands, up to the high desert near Lucerne. In his pursuit, Wilson sent 22 men through the
Cajon Pass and led another 22 into the depths of the
San Bernardino Mountains. According to Trafzer, the resident
Serrano people let Wilson pass through their territory in pursuit of the raiders. Wilson later sent his 22 men in pairs on a bear hunt, gathering 11 pelts. On their return trip to Rancho Jurupa, they gathered another 11 pelts. He named the place
Big Bear Lake. The lake today is known as
Baldwin Lake, after
Elias J. "Lucky" Baldwin. The name Big Bear Lake was assigned to
a reservoir built nearby in 1884.
Political activities In 1850, Wilson was elected to the
Los Angeles Common Council. A year later he was elected as the second
mayor of Los Angeles after California was admitted to the US as a state. He also served as a
Los Angeles County supervisor (
1853, 1861–64). He was elected to three terms of the
California State Senate.
Rancho San Pascual In 1854 Wilson established
Lake Vineyard, his own ranch and winery near modern-day
San Gabriel, California. He had acquired the property from the widow
Victoria Reid, an indigenous woman of social standing in Mexican California who had received the rancho in a land grant in her name. He had been appointed by Americans as her conservator after the
Mexican Cession. They assumed that an indigenous woman was not competent to manage her affairs. Wilson next acquired possession of adjoining
Rancho San Pascual (present day
Pasadena) through a series of complicated land deals, which began with his lending money to the Rancho's owner
Manuel Garfias in 1859. In 1863 Wilson and Dr.
John Strother Griffin, who had also lent Garfias money, bought the entire rancho property outright. They diverted water from the
Arroyo Seco up to the dry mesa via an
aqueduct called the "Wilson Ditch." Wilson and Griffin undertook many business deals together in early Los Angeles, including railways, oil exploration, real estate, farming and ranching. In 1864 Wilson took the first expedition to a high peak of the
San Gabriel Mountains, which was later named
Mount Wilson. He hoped to harvest timber there for the making of wine vats, but he found the wood inadequate. The Wilson Trail became a popular one or two-day hike to the crest of the
San Gabriel Mountains by local residents for years to come. In 1873, Wilson and Griffin subdivided their land (with Griffin getting almost of the property, but Wilson retaining some better landeast of current
Fair Oaks Avenue, near his Lake Vineyard property). Griffin then sold 2,500 acres (10 km) of his property to the "
Indiana Colony," represented by Daniel M. Berry. In 1876, after the Colony had sold most of its allotted land and established what became the
City of Pasadena, Wilson began subdividing and developing his adjacent landholdings which became the eastern side of the new settlement. ==Legacy==