California became part of the United States at the end of the Mexican–American War in 1846, and American settlers began to arrive in California in large numbers with the California Gold Rush of 1849. The Cucamonga Rancho changed hands several times, but the area that present-day Upland occupies was little more than an uninhabited ranchland and a place to pass through until the arrival of George Chaffey in 1882. Chaffey, a Canadian shipbuilder from the province of Ontario, had already established the Etiwanda irrigation community in 1881, irrigating the land with a series of flumes carried water from the mountains to a reservoir from which water would then be sent to the relative land sites. In 1882, Chaffey purchased 6,216 acres of land in the Cucamonga Rancho, along with significant water rights from San Antonio Creek, for $60,000 Additional purchases brought the size of the land to over 8,000 acres of land for a total purchase price of $90,000