Anza's Extraordinary 1774 Trip
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: ·4 .....,,< .. ,,.. .• ':', . f"~~4 .'~ ~\~41\. m. - \.i.iJ~. ', ' 'i---... ~>< . Volume 1 Number .3 Juan Bautista de Anza National Historie Trall December 1992 Anza's Extraordinary 1774 Trip Historical PerspecUvet The two expeditions by Juan BauUsta· de Anza ·to Alta Califomia were efforts of · tremendous pr:oportion. Although the · second trip in 1775-1776 carricd with it co/onlsts and livestock, the first expedition chronicled here was an adventure into the desetj unknown. It was.undertaken in J n4 to determine the feasibility of returning. with 240 .emigrants and almost 1,000 head of livestock. Watering spots anct pasturage, . so important to a desert crossing, were · carefully charted and contacls were t;sta.blished with lhe native trlbes along the route. So began an adventure to colonize whal was to become Califomia. f'rom a painting by Lloy<;J J1artlng, printed wfth permission of tlle Copley L./brary. The painting depicts the 1775 campsite at San Sebastian that Anza named for · 5eba$tlan Tarabal. Anza's t;xtraordinary 1774 Trip Presidio at Tubac, in what is now by Marck 0. Vaught. State Park Ranger southern Arizona. Under orders with permission of the Anza-6orrego In this lssue••• · Desert f'Jatura/ History AssociaUon. of the "viceroy of N·ew Spain, Condensed by Meredith ffi:1plan. Anza would lead an expedition · across the deserts of Sonora and Task Forc.e Work .m agine standing within Alta Californiå: Ultimately Anza .Begins · I the w~ll ~ of an adobe presidio, would shepherd 242 ~migrants. a fortress at the edge of "the on the first overland .coloriizing Arizona desert wilderness: Gazing· expedition into California. Notes from Heritage westward, your dream is to cross . Tråils· the unknown expanse to the The Anza Expedition was once great Pacific Ocean. lmagine , ·described as being a greater ·. Resu~ts from the doing this on horseback in 177 4 achievement than ttiat of Lewis - no four-wheel-drive ·vehicles, anp -Clark. According ·to the Ca~iforn_ia P lanning no freeze-dried food, no motels daim, tne Lewis and Clark Expe Meetings - only hundreds of miles of dition would campare to Anza's if desert, filled with,unknown · Lewis and Cl~rk had gone all the ."Cartas" -A·New adventures. · · way back to their beginning, Feature picked up 240 people and 1,000 Such a dream was held by a third head of liveStock, and retraced generation Spanish soldier, Juan the entire route to coJonize the Wanted! Bautista de Anza, captain of the northwest, ' After mass on Sunday morning, Gregorio - later known as Notes from January 9, 1774, t~e expedition Bofrego Spring. ·ary force of thirty-fot,Jr soldiers led Q:eritage Tralls Do nf Hubbard by Anza lett the prot~ction of the The journey·continued through Presidio at Tubac heading south . Coyote Canyon and Nance (Note: This. to Altar, $onora. From Altar.they Canyon descending thro.ugh· column isa traced a route northwest through Bautista Canyon and on to San regular feature of the barren reaches of the Sonoran Gabriel Mission. Here Anza met Noticias de Anza) Desert. Water and pasturage Pedro Fages, whose tra~ks he had were scarce. They were assisted seen in the hardened mud of. in their crossing of the Colorado Cåyote Canyon. Ahza and four by Chief öf the Yumans, Salvador of his soldiers completed their ur new president, Bitt Palma, and his tribe. journey on to Monterey. Upon. Clinton can count on an their return t9 Sån Gabrie!, they 0 enthusiastic and growing constitu After the Yuma river crossing, the were accompanied by six of ency for the Juan Bautista de desert would become more Lieutenant Fag~s · soldiers for the Anza National Historie Trail! In difficult as the route traversed long t~ip back to Tubac, where sand dunes and headed north they arrived on May 26, 1774. the påst six wee.ks, Meredith Kaplan has forwarded me close to ~est into the lmperial and Anza had covered almost two 200 volunteer questionnaires" Borrego Va!leys. Five hundred thousand miles,.but he still had to · miles lay behind .the expedition by trave I to.Mexico City to report his .signed ~y eager trail advocates ready to work. · the time it reached the Borrego adventures to the Viceroy of New Desert and a marshy arroyo · Spain·, a journey of another three Over forty volunteers signed up which became camp. Anza thousand miles. · named the spring Sari Sebastian _at the September 15 meeting at De Anza College in Cupertin'o, after his lndi'an guide, Sebastian In Mexico City, plans were drawn California. The meeting was· neld Tarabal. up f9r Anza's Feturn to Alta at the California History center on California, this time in the com the campus of De Anza's nalT)e At the marsh of San Sebastian, pany of settlers and livestock. sake college, thanks to the . the group. heard tales of a group . Three babies. would be bom on enthusiastic support of Dr. Robert of horsemen who had passed the trip in 1775-76, and orie Smithwic;k, founding president of thmugh some two years before. woman would die in childbirth. the college district, ~n avid · Anza would discover later that The group would settle the horseman and history buff. A Don Pedro Fages, military gover Presidio of the village later known reception was sponsored by Heritage Trails Fund assisted by nor of Alta California, had trav as San Francis-co. They were the the generosity of Jeannie Ryder ot eled from Mission San Diego de first qverland emigrants to· settle , the Cupertino Historical Society. Altala in pursuit of deserters in in Alt.i Californi~ under the flag 1772. Fages had dropped into of New Spain. In later years, The standing room only audience the desert· via Oriflamme Canyon· Anzå's trail would serve the represented numerous hiking, and continued on to Cajon Pass military, settlers, .cattlemen,·and biking, equestrian groups and to reach the coast at Mission Sar:i desert travelers. Scout programs. Featured speak Luis Oblspo. er~ on the prog(am included More can be learned about the George Cardinet of Heritage From Sa-n Sebastian, the Anza interesting story of Juari Bautista Trails Fvnd, Joe Adamo (organizer Expedition· followed San Felipe de Anza at the Anza-Borrego of the 1976 Bicentennial De Anza Wash to the northwest. On the State Pa'rk Visiter Center or by Reenactment in Santa Clara . east side of Borrego Sink they set lacing up your boots and taking a .(ounty), and James C Williams, up camp at a small Indian village hike along the.Anza Trail - and executive Director of the Califomia situated next to ·a muddy seep. back into the colorful history of History Center who gave an inspiring Anza called the watering spot San California. -!. lesson on Juan Bautista de Anza. N.otlcfas de Anza 2 Resalts from the meeting: Joe it happen, in the. place that he Adamo, Steve Haze, and Joan ca/led home, as Commander of Throgmorton are busy doing map the Presidio. Tfris time, a reenad . work for the Santa Clara County ment; this tirrie, a very short trek · section of the trail; Jodi Storaasli from th~ Mission at Tumacåcori has come up with some great ·National Historical Park to the video ideas to promote the trail; Presidio of Tubac, over the first and Dot ·sch'reiner, Car:ol Gottlieb, segment of completed histqric trail. and Kathy and Barrie Freeman · are lookirig into the poss.ibilities This trail e>dsts through the for De Anza Days in the tos generosity of-Roy Rossand the Altos, California area. Brasher family, who literally gave the right of way for the trail. · Nancy Dupont, president of HTF, and.an avip trail rider, repre Carmen. Nickel had invited me to sented HTF at the Anza Days join this glorious dedication and Festival at Tubac Presidio State shepherded my frien~, Joan Jacks Historical Park,. October 23-25. of San Rafael, California, and me The enthusiasm·she feels for a through a lively two days·of 1Bth project that is "f~r more than just century interpretive study and an Cannen Nickel. the "'nza Trail 11oiunteer a trail " comes through loud and coordinator fot Arizona. models the authentic good time. authentic costume she wore for lhe dear in her letter which follows: I 975-76 reenactment. We began our trek in the "The haunting strains of the wrapping my ·senses in the Alabado fil/ the warm morning Tumacåcori Mission, where David mystique of the ancient Moars. air. The sounds of nickering Shaul, dressed in a grey . horses and footsteps of many Franciscan robe, played 1Bth . We then walked part wayon the . people announce the beginning Century Spanish music on an trail, which is comp/etely signed of the trek, much like that of Juan original harp. The music lilted with the icon of a presidio soldier Bautista de Anza in 1775. In the softly a·s a cooing dove, then on horseback. The trail mea·n footsteps of the man who made ascended to the fire of flamenco, ders joyfully through Palo Verde Trees, crossing creeks and ravines on its four m71e trip tö Tubac . The miles ·are logged on separate posts. We returned to the Mission to drive to the Presidio and the ceremonies to follow. At the .Mission, we met Hilda Alegria whose softly patting hands were creating the most wonderful tortillas which she toasted on a . metål plflte over an open fire, ·much as the Aztecs did for .hundreds pf years prior to the arrival-of the Spanish Conquista Pictured al the public meeUng in Cupertlno, Califomia, sponsored by lhe National Park Service and Heritage·Trails Fund, are lefl.