The San Bernardino Valley was originally home to Southern Athabaskan Native American tribes. Spanish missionaries, including the Jesuit missionary Father Eusebio Kino, were the first Europeans to visit the site, in 1694. The Marquis de Rubí proposed the building of the San Bernardino Garrison, which was occupied from 1775 to 1780. The original Mexican land grant of , where the San Bernardino Ranch sits today, was purchased by Ignacio Perez in 1822 for 90 pesos (plus additional fees). He was chased from his land grant by local Apache Indians in the 1830s. In 1846 the Mormon Battalion came through the property on their way to California. A historical marker commemorating their passage can now be seen at the beginning of the road leading to the front gate. Prospectors and pioneers continued to trek through the valley in the 1840s and 1850s on their way to California. On June 8, 1854, the valley officially became part of the United States following the Gadsden Purchase from Mexico.