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The Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail is a trail extending from Nogales on the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona, through the California desert and coastal areas in Southern California and the Central Coast region to San Francisco.http://www.nps.gov/juba/ de Anza National Historic Trail . 9/9/2010 The trail commemorates the 1775–1776 land route that
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
commander
Juan Bautista de Anza Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto (July 6 or 7, 1736 – December 19, 1788) was an expeditionary leader, military officer, and politician primarily in California and New Mexico under the Spanish Empire. He is credited as one of the founding f ...
took from the
Sonora y Sinaloa Estado de Occidente ( en, Western State; also known as Sonora y Sinaloa) was a Mexican state established in 1824. The constitution was drafted in that year and the government was initially established with its capital at El Fuerte, Sinaloa. The f ...
Province of New Spain in Colonial Mexico through to
Las Californias The Californias (Spanish: ''Las Californias''), occasionally known as The Three Californias or Two Californias, are a region of North America spanning the United States and Mexico, consisting of the U.S. state of California and the Mexica ...
Province. The goal of the trip was to establish a mission and presidio on the San Francisco Bay. The trail was an attempt to ease the course of Spanish colonization of California by establishing a major land route north for many to follow. It was used for about five years before being closed by the Quechan (Yuma) Indians in 1781 and kept closed for the next 40 years. It is a
National Historic Trail The National Trails System is a series of trails in the United States designated "to promote the preservation of, public access to, travel within, and enjoyment and appreciation of the open-air, outdoor areas and historic resources of the Nati ...
administered by the National Park Service and was also designated a
National Millennium Trail National Millennium Trails are 17 short- and long-distance trails selected from 58 nominees as visionary trails that reflect defining aspects of America's history and culture. The trails were chosen on June 26, 1999, by the White House Millennium ...
.


History


1st California Trip

Juan Bautista de Anza Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto (July 6 or 7, 1736 – December 19, 1788) was an expeditionary leader, military officer, and politician primarily in California and New Mexico under the Spanish Empire. He is credited as one of the founding f ...
leading an exploratory expedition on January 8, 1774, with 3 padres, 20 soldiers, 11 servants, 35 mules, 65 cattle, and 140 horses set forth from Tubac Presidio, south of present-day
Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...
. They went across the Sonoran desert to California from Mexico by swinging south of the
Gila River The Gila River (; O'odham ima Keli Akimel or simply Akimel, Quechan: Haa Siʼil, Maricopa language: Xiil) is a tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. The river drains an arid watershed of n ...
to avoid
Apache The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño and ...
attacks until they hit the
Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. sta ...
at the
Yuma Crossing Yuma Crossing is a site in Arizona and California that is significant for its association with transportation and communication across the Colorado River. It connected New Spain and Las Californias in the Spanish Colonial period in and also duri ...
—about the only way across the Colorado River. The friendly Quechan (Yuma) Indians (2,000–3,000) they encountered there were growing most of their food using irrigation systems and had already imported pottery, horses, wheat and a few other crops from New Mexico. After crossing the Colorado to avoid the impassable
Algodones Dunes The Algodones Dunes is a large sand dune field, or erg, located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of California, near the border with Arizona and the Mexican state of Baja California. The field is approximately long by wide and ...
, they followed the river about to approximately Arizona's southwest corner on the Colorado River. There Anza turned westward following along a seasonal dis-tributary river of the Colorado until it turned northwest near present-day Mexicali, Mexico and then turned north through present-day
Imperial Valley , photo = Salton Sea from Space.jpg , photo_caption = The Imperial Valley below the Salton Sea. The US-Mexican border runs diagonally across the lower left of the image. , map_image = Newriverwatershed-1-.jpg , map_caption = Map of Imperial ...
. Anza then turned northwest again crossing the remaining desert and mountains before reaching the coastal valleys of Southern California and the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel near the future city of Los Angeles, California. The
Pueblo de Los Angeles In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...
would be established in 1781 by eleven families recruited mostly from Sonora y Sinaloa Province. It took Anza about 74 days to make this initial reconnaissance trip to establish a land route into California. On his return trip he retraced his path to the Yuma Crossing of the
Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. sta ...
and then went down the
Gila River The Gila River (; O'odham ima Keli Akimel or simply Akimel, Quechan: Haa Siʼil, Maricopa language: Xiil) is a tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. The river drains an arid watershed of n ...
corridor until reaching the Santa Cruz River (Arizona) corridor and continuing on to
Tubac, Arizona Tubac is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, United States. The population was 1,191 at the 2010 census. The place name "Tubac" is an English borrowing from a Hispanicized form of the O'odham name ''Cuwak'', which tr ...
. The return trip only took 23 days as he now had found a trail with sufficient water to make land access to California possible. On the Gila River, he encountered several extensive villages of Pima (
Akimel O'odham The Pima (or Akimel O'odham, also spelled Akimel Oʼotham, "River People," formerly known as ''Pima'') are a group of Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans living in an area consisting of what is now central and southern Arizo ...
) Indians. These were a peaceful and populous agricultural tribe with extensive crops and irrigation systems located along the river.


2nd California Trip

In Anza's second trip (1775–1776) he returned to California via the Gila River path he had discovered with 240 friars, soldiers and colonists with their families. They took 695 horses and mules, 385
Texas Longhorn The Texas Longhorn is an American breed of beef cattle, characterized by its long horns, which can span more than from tip to tip. It derives from cattle brought from the Iberian Peninsula to the Americas by Spanish conquistadores from the t ...
bulls and cows with them—starting the cattle and horse industry in California. In California, the cattle and horses had few enemies and plentiful grass in all but drought years and essentially grew and multiplied as feral animals, doubling roughly every two years. They started from Tubac Arizona on October 22, 1775 and arrived at San Francisco Bay on March 28, 1776. There they established the Presidio of San Francisco, followed by
Mission San Francisco de Asís Mission San Francisco de Asís ( es, Misión San Francisco de Asís), commonly known as Mission Dolores (as it was founded near the Dolores creek), is a Spanish Californian mission and the oldest surviving structure in San Francisco. Located i ...
(Mission Dolores) – the future city of
San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
. In 1779, Father Francisco Garcés was assigned to establish a mission at Yuma crossing of the
Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. sta ...
. In 1780, the Spanish established two combination missions and pueblos at the Yuma Colorado River Crossing of the Anza trail:
Mission San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuñer Mission San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuñer was founded on January 7, 1781, by Spanish Padre Francisco Garcés, to protect the Anza Trail where it forded the Colorado River, between the Mexican provinces of Alta California and New Navarre. The ...
and
Mission Puerto de Purísima Concepción Mission Puerto de Purísima Concepción was founded near what is now Yuma, Arizona, United States, on the California side of the Colorado River, in October 1780, by Father Francisco Garcés. The settlement was not part of the California mission ...
. Both these pueblos and missions were on the California side of the Colorado River near the mouth of the
Gila River The Gila River (; O'odham ima Keli Akimel or simply Akimel, Quechan: Haa Siʼil, Maricopa language: Xiil) is a tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. The river drains an arid watershed of n ...
but were administered by the Arizona authorities.


Later use

The settlement of Los Angeles, California involved two groups totaling 44 persons including 22 children. One group under Alfèrez Ramon Laso de la Vega crossed the Gulf of California on launches and then travelled overland to San Diego and up to the San Gabriel Mission. The second group, under Fernando Rivera y Moncada, took an overland route over the Anza trail through the desert from Sinaloa Mexico. They passed through the new missions on the Colorado River,
Mission Puerto de Purísima Concepción Mission Puerto de Purísima Concepción was founded near what is now Yuma, Arizona, United States, on the California side of the Colorado River, in October 1780, by Father Francisco Garcés. The settlement was not part of the California mission ...
and
Mission San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuñer Mission San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuñer was founded on January 7, 1781, by Spanish Padre Francisco Garcés, to protect the Anza Trail where it forded the Colorado River, between the Mexican provinces of Alta California and New Navarre. The ...
. The group arrived at the Colorado River in June 1781. Rivera y Moncada sent most of his party ahead, but he stayed behind to rest the livestock before continuing their drive across the desert. His party would never reach San Gabriel. In July, Rivera was killed along with the local missionaries, settlers, and travelers with them in the
Yuma revolt Fort Romualdo Pacheco also called Fuerte de Laguna Chapala was a Mexican (Mexico consumed his independence in 1821 from Spain) fort built in 1825 and was abandoned a year later in 1826. The fort was 100 feet square with thick stone and adobe wall ...
of the Quechan Indians in 1781. The Quechan and Mojave Indians rose up against the party for encroaching on their farmlands and for other abuses inflicted by the soldiers. On July 17–19, 1781, the Yuma ( Quechan) Indians, in a dispute with the New Spain government and church, destroyed both missions and pueblos – killing 103 soldiers, colonists and Friars and capturing about 80 more (mostly women and children). Included in the casualties were Fernando Rivera y Moncada military commander and former governor of California and Father Francisco Garcés founder of the missions on the Colorado River. In four well-supported punitive expeditions in 1782 and 1783 against the Quechans, the Spanish managed to gather their dead and ransom nearly all the prisoners but failed to re-open the Anza Trail. The
Yuma Crossing Yuma Crossing is a site in Arizona and California that is significant for its association with transportation and communication across the Colorado River. It connected New Spain and Las Californias in the Spanish Colonial period in and also duri ...
and the Anza trail were closed for Spanish traffic and would stay closed until the late 1820s. As a result, California was nearly isolated again from land-based travel, and about the only way into California from Mexico would now be a 40- to 60-day voyage by sea.Santiago, Mark; "Massacre at the Yuma Crossing: Spanish Relations with the Quechans, 1779–1782"; University of Arizona Press (2010); According to historian David Weber, the Yuma revolt turned California into an "island" and Arizona into a "cul de sac", severing Arizona-California and Mexican land connections before they could be firmly established.


Modern touring

Along the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail route, visitors can experience the varied landscapes similar to those the expedition saw; learn the stories of the expedition's events, members, and descendants; better understand the Native American diversity of cultures in their homelands and their guidance on the expedition; and appreciate the extent and lasting influences of Spanish colonial settlements in present-day Arizona and California. The Trail was designated a
National Historic Trail The National Trails System is a series of trails in the United States designated "to promote the preservation of, public access to, travel within, and enjoyment and appreciation of the open-air, outdoor areas and historic resources of the Nati ...
in 1990 and a
National Millennium Trail National Millennium Trails are 17 short- and long-distance trails selected from 58 nominees as visionary trails that reflect defining aspects of America's history and culture. The trails were chosen on June 26, 1999, by the White House Millennium ...
in 1999. In 2005,
Caltrans The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the cabinet-level California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA). Caltrans is headquartered in Sacra ...
began posting signs on roads that overlap with the trail route so that California drivers could follow the trail.


Designated sites

The National Park Service has developed a printed and online
Brochure Map for driving
and guides for auto tours
hiking sections
and designated Historic sites, landmarks, and museums open to the public. Schedules of Anza celebrations and other historic events are on an update

The detaile

show more points of interest, trailheads, and local lore.


Growth

The Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail project is growing as local, state, and NPS efforts establish more trails, signage, and interpretive programs. The Trail is inspiring activities at existing
municipal park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to resi ...
s, neighborhood greenbelts, regional parks, and large open space preserves. Such opportunities can be discovered and tracked at the officia
Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail
website.


See also

*
Las Californias The Californias (Spanish: ''Las Californias''), occasionally known as The Three Californias or Two Californias, are a region of North America spanning the United States and Mexico, consisting of the U.S. state of California and the Mexica ...
– ''1786–1804'' *
Alta California Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...
– ''1804–1848'' * Spanish missions in California *
History of Arizona The history of Arizona encompasses the Paleo-Indian, Archaic, Post-Archaic, Spanish, Mexican, and American periods. About 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, Paleo-Indians settled in what is now Arizona. A few thousand years ago, the Ancestral Puebl ...
*
History of California through 1899 Human history in California began when Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Americans first arrived some 13,000 years ago. Coastal exploration by the Spanish began in the 16th century, with further European colonization of the Americas ...
*
Spanish missions in the Sonoran Desert The Spanish missions in the Sonoran Desert ( es, Misiones jesuíticas en el desierto de Sonora) are a series of Jesuit Catholic religious outposts established by the Spanish Catholic Jesuits and other orders for religious conversions of the Pima ...
*
California Coastal Trail The California Coastal Trail, or CCT, is an environmental project by the California Coastal Conservancy, an organization developed to enhance coastal resources and promote access to the shore in 2001. The trail is designed to connect the enti ...


References


External links


official U.S. National Park Service "Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail" website


* ttp://www.nps.gov/juba/planyourvisit/upload/Anza-Trail_Brochure-driving-map.pdf NPS: Brochure Map for driving Anza Trail
NPS: Historical destinations-events Guide



A Recent Journey Along the Anza Trail

Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail
– BLM page {{authority control Historic trails and roads in California Hiking trails in California National Park Service areas in California Historic trails and roads in Arizona National Park Service areas in Arizona Colonial United States (Spanish) National Historic Trails of the United States