Editing Burbank, California (section)

=== Mexican rancho era and early American era ===
New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, and from 1824, [[Rancho San Rafael]] existed within the new Mexican Republic.

[[File:Dr David S Burbank portrait.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[David Burbank]]]]
[[David Burbank]] purchased over {{convert|4600|acre|km2}} of the former Verdugo holding and another {{convert|4600|acre|km2}} of the Rancho Providencia in 1867. Burbank built a ranch house and began to raise sheep and grow wheat on the ranch.<ref name="Ref-1"/> By 1876, the [[San Fernando Valley]] became the largest wheat-raising area in [[Los Angeles County]]. But the droughts of the 1860s and 1870s underlined the need for steady water supplies.

[[File:Scott Tract Burbank.png|thumb|right|The Jonathan R. Scott tract, forming eastern Burbank along San Fernando Boulevard, called here the "Camino Real"]]
A professionally trained dentist, Burbank began his career in [[Waterville, Maine]]. He joined the great migration westward in the early 1850s and, by 1853 was living in [[San Francisco]]. At the time the [[American Civil War]] broke out, he was again well established in his profession as a dentist in [[Pueblo de Los Angeles]]. In 1867, he purchased Rancho La Providencia from [[David W. Alexander]] and [[Francis Mellus]], and he purchased the western portion of the Rancho San Rafael (4,603&nbsp;acres) from Jonathan R. Scott. Burbank's property reached nearly {{convert|9200|acre|km2}} at a cost of $9,000.<ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-then3jun03-story.html | title = What's in a name? Clues to a city's past | first = Cecilia | last = Rasmussen | date = June 3, 2007 | work =[[Los Angeles Times]] | access-date = January 4, 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110228022049/http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jun/03/local/me-then3 | archive-date = February 28, 2011 | url-status = live }}</ref> Burbank would not acquire full titles to both properties until after a court decision known as the "Great Partition" was made in 1871 dissolving the Rancho San Rafael. He eventually became known as one of the largest and most successful sheep raisers in southern California, and as a result, he closed his dentistry practice and invested heavily in real estate in Los Angeles.{{r|Ref-1}}

[[File:Burbank-1889.jpg|thumb|left|Olive Avenue in Burbank, 1889]]
When the area that became Burbank was settled in the 1870s and 1880s, the streets were aligned along what is now Olive Avenue, the road to the [[Cahuenga Pass]] and downtown Los Angeles. These were largely the roads the Native Americans traveled and the early settlers took their produce down to Los Angeles to sell and to buy supplies along these routes.