Alta California

American  

[ahl-tuh] / ˈɑl tə /

noun

1. a former Spanish colony of New Spain, in the modern-day states of California, Nevada, and N Arizona: ceded by Mexico to the United States 1848.

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Example Sentences

Take “Recuerdos: Historical and Personal Remembrances Relating to Alta California, 1769-1849” by Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, which was written in Spanish in 1875 and finally published in English this year by the University of Oklahoma Press.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 16, 2023

While doing more research on the history of the estate, the brothers discovered an 1872 news clipping from the Alta California, a daily newspaper published in San Francisco.

From Washington Post • Sep. 22, 2022

Headed to Oregon again without explicit orders to either assault or avoid California, he made an intrusion into the Mexican region called Alta California.

From The New Yorker • Jan. 20, 2020

Cattle ranches later took shape on huge private land grants, but Alta California still grew slowly, with a Hispanic population that did not reach 1,000 until 1790.

From Textbooks • Jan. 18, 2018

During all this time, not a European boat cut the surf of the northwest coast; not a foreigner trod the shore of Alta California.

From The Story of the Innumerable Company, and Other Sketches by Jordan, David Starr