The same drought that caused a terrific loss of stock and forced Juan Temple to sell Los Cerritos for $20,000 proved fatal to Don Abel’s ownership of the Los Alamitos and eight months after the Flints and Bixby bought Los Cerritos the Sheriff sold Los Alamitos to Michael Reese for $31,000, approximately $1.10 an acre. In 1881 the Estate of Michael Reese sold the rancho to John W. Bixby, who in turn conveyed a one-third interest each to I. W. Hellman and Jotham Bixby. Under the Bixbys both ranchos flourished. When the Bixbys purchased Rancho Los Cerritos and later Rancho Los Alamitos nothing was farther from their thoughts than that they were purchasing the site of the future City of Long Beach but they had the good judgment to hold their land and California, oil and Iowa did the rest. Four thousand acres of Los Cerritos were sold in 1880 by Jotham Bixby Company to W. E. Willmore, who platted Willmore City, surrounded by the American Colony Tract, composed of farm lots. Tremendous effort was put forth by Mr. Willmore to make his city successful. He advertised all over the country and even ran a special excursion from Chicago with prospective Willmoreans. But the plan was premature and not enough purchasers could be found to buy the city lots at $25.00 to $100.00 each or the farm lots at $15.00 an acre to enable Willmore to meet his agreement with the Bixbys and several years later he abandoned the land to them. But Willmore had planned well—his streets were wide, 80 and 100 feet being usual, and one, American Avenue, being 124 feet wide, and the natural beauty of the land and ocean frontage made it attractive to others. Soon a syndicate under the name of Long Beach Land & Water Company took up the sale of the lots and Willmore City took the name of Long Beach. Now the two families of the Bixbys, one from their hacienda, the former home of Don Juan Temple on the Los Cerritos, the other from their hacienda, the former home of Don Abel Stearns on the Los Alamitos, watched Long Beach grow from a subdivision to a city. The Alamitos Tract and the Townsite of Alamitos Bay were platted. In 1897, William A. Clark, Montana Copper King and builder of the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad, purchased 8,139 acres of Rancho Los Cerritos for $405,000. This vast tract, known as the Montana Ranch, has been held practically intact to the present day. Early development, however, is planned for this property by the Janss Investment Company, Los Angeles Realtors, who have announced that they will build a model city on the ranch.