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

A sample was sent to the governor of Alta California, who was rumored to have had some made into earrings for his wife.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 11, 2025

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

It was such struggles for local business as this that led the San Francisco Alta California, a paper bitterly opposed to the Central Pacific, to denounce the railway, in 1866, as the "Dutch Flat Swindle."

From The Lake of the Sky Lake Tahoe in the High Sierras of California and Nevada, its History, Indians, Discovery by Frémont, Legendary Lore, Various Namings, Physical Characteristics, Glacial Phenomena, Geology, Single Outlet, Automobile Routes, Historic Towns, Early Mining Excitements, Steamer Ride, Mineral Springs, Mountain and Lake Resorts, Trail and Camping Out Trips, Summer Residences, Fishing, Hunting, Flowers, Birds, Animals, Trees, and Chaparral, with a Full Account of the Tahoe National Forest, the Public Use of the Water of Lake Tahoe and Much Other Interesting Matter by James, George Wharton