If it weren’t for some dubious Yankee wheeling and dealing, Chino might be the county seat of San Bernardino County today. And it might have even been Chino County.

The reason that never happened can be blamed on Isaac Williams who Mormon leaders believed in 1851 would sell them his Rancho Santa Ana del Chino so they could establish a Mormon outpost in the Inland Empire.

But after several hundred Mormon settlers arrived from Utah that year, they found that Williams reneged on the deal.

Ultimately, they obtained other land — today’s San Bernardino — but for three months the Mormon settlers became the area’s first homeless problem.

A perceived deal with Williams for the Chino rancho grew out of the desire for Mormon leaders in Salt Lake City to set up outposts to the coast to more easily supply the settlement at Salt Lake City. Their original plan, using a route directly west across the Sierra Nevada, was deemed impractical due to winter snows so often blocking mountain passes.

Representatives of Brigham Young had spoken to Williams on several occasions about selling the ranch, according to Leo Lyman, author of “San Bernardino: The Rise and Fall of a California Community.”

One of those, Robert Cleft, wrote Young in December 1850, saying that for $150,000 Williams would sell the ranch to the Mormons. Cleft noted that they could realize a large share of the purchase price by merely herding the thousands of cattle on the Chino ranch to the north and selling them at inflated prices in the Northern California gold camps.

The deal seemingly secure, more than 400 Mormons, many veterans of earlier cross-country trips to reach Utah, took off for Southern California, arriving at Cajon Pass in spring 1851. They encamped in the mouths of Cajon and Lytle Creek canyons, awaiting instructions to move on to their new homes in Chino.

But that word never arrived. When leaders Amasa Mason Lyman and Charles C. Rich arrived in Chino, Williams greeted them with a much higher asking price. And in fact, he really didn’t want to sell at all because he also knew shipping his cattle north to the Mother Lode country would realize him tremendous profit. Lyman and Rich, with no signed sale agreements, were left with no land, or cattle.

A bit desperate, Lyman and Rich rode into Los Angeles looking for land to purchase, they examined parts of today’s Orange County and even considered the Lake Elsinore area for settlement.

But it turned out the San Bernardino Rancho of the Lugo families — just a few miles from the Mormon encampment — provided most of the attributes they were seeking,

Lyman wrote Young the fall that San Bernardino was “a place which combines the natural facilities of timber and water in abundance to sustain a settlement of up to one hundred thousand inhabitants.”

In early July 1851, Lyman and Rich met with the congregated settlers saying the plan was to buy the San Bernardino property but raising the $77,500 price wouldn’t be easy. The two leaders warned each settler they would be expected to contribute their share to reduce the debt of the purchase.

Lyman immediately went to the northern gold camps and solicited tithes from Mormon miners.

On Sept. 22, 1851, that was used for the $7,000 down payment to the Lugos for the property. The remainder was taken in a loan at 3 percent interest compounded monthly — the usual rate in those times that quickly increased the Mormons’ debt. (Ironically, such escalating interest rates were similar to those charged in loans given to the Mexican landowners in those days, often causing them to lose their lands to foreclosure,)

The deal struck, the Mormons moved from their three-month encampment to today’s downtown San Bernardino and by early October were busy building homes before the winter rains arrived.

Joe Blackstock writes on Inland Empire history. He can be reached at 909-483-9382, email at joe.blackstock@langnews.com or Twitter @JoeBlackstock.