Old Spanish Trail map Monument Peak is a summit in the San Bernardino Mountains, of

San Bernardino County, California San Bernardino County (), officially the County of San Bernardino, is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is located within the Inland Empire area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 2,181, ...

. It lies at an elevation of 5272 feet.

History

Monument Peak is the location where the

Mohave Trail The Mohave Trail was a Native American trade route between Mohave Indian villages on the Colorado River and settlements in coastal Southern California. History Starting from Mohave villages along the Colorado River in the upper Mohave Valley, t ...

crossed the crest of the San Bernardino Mountains after ascending from the headwaters of the

Mojave River The Mojave River is an intermittent river in the eastern San Bernardino Mountains and the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, California, United States. Most of its flow is underground, while its surface channels remain dry most of the time, ...

up Sawpit Canyon and descended down the ridge between Cable Canyon and Devil Canyon to the

San Bernardino Valley The San Bernardino Valley ( es, Valle de San Bernardino) is a valley in Southern California located at the south base of the Transverse Ranges. It is bordered on the north by the eastern San Gabriel Mountains and the San Bernardino Mountains; ...

at the mouth of

Cajon Pass Cajon Pass (; Spanish: ''Puerto del Cajón'' or ''Paso del Cajón'') is a mountain pass between the San Bernardino Mountains to the east and the San Gabriel Mountains to the west in Southern California. Created by the movements of the San Andr ...

. The Garces-Smith Monument is located on the summit on Forest Road 2N49. This marker indicates the path of the Mohave Indian Trail, a centuries-old trade route linking the tribes 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. s ...

to those of the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

. It also memorializes two noted early travelers, Father

Francisco Garcés Francisco Hermenegildo Tomás Garcés (April 12, 1738 – July 18, 1781) was a Spanish Franciscan friar who served as a missionary and explorer in the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain. He explored much of the southwestern region of North Am ...

, who in 1776 became the first known missionary explorer to travel across San Bernardino County and leave a written record of his experiences and Jedediah Smith, who in 1826, was the first known Anglo-American to use the Mohave Trail. A historical marker was placed on the site September 19, 1931, by the San Bernardino County Historical Society. This became California Historic Landmark no. 618 on September 11, 1956. In 1829–30 Santa Fe, New Mexico, merchant

Antonio Armijo Antonio Mariano Armijo (1804–1850) was a Spanish explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of ...

led a trade party of 60 men and 100 mules to California, opening the Old Spanish Trail, following most of the route pioneered by those two pioneer explorers. Armijo did not cross over the mountains by the Mojave Trail route over Monument Peak but followed a route he called "San Bernardino Canyon" from the upper Mojave River west through

and down

Crowder Canyon Crowder Canyon, originally Coyote Canyon, is a valley in San Bernardino County, California. Its mouth was at an elevation of at its confluence with Cajon Canyon. Its source was at an elevation of 4200 feet at near Cajon Summit. The canyon runs s ...

and

Cajon Canyon Cajon Canyon, originally named El Cajon De San Gabriel De Amuscopiabit, ''El Cajon'' in Spanish meaning "the box" in English, is a long valley ending in a box canyon in the northeastern San Gabriel Mountains, within San Bernardino County, Californ ...

, known to the

vaqueros The ''vaquero'' (; pt, vaqueiro, , ) is a horse-mounted livestock herder of a tradition that has its roots in the Iberian Peninsula and extensively developed in Mexico from a methodology brought to Latin America from Spain. The vaquero became t ...

of the

San Bernardino de Sena Estancia The San Bernardino de Sena Estancia (also known as the San Bernardino Rancho or Asistencia) was a ranch outpost of Mission San Gabriel Arcángel in what is now in Redlands, California, United States. It was built to graze cattle, and for Indian ...

who had come to their aid with food.

Marker

The marker at the site reads: *''Traveled by Fr. Francisco Garcés, March, 1776, and Jedediah S. Smith, November, 1826.'' Erected 1931 by San Bernardino County Historical Society. (Marker Number 618.)Marker Database (Marker Number 618.
/ref> California Historic Landmark guide reads: *''NO. 618 GARCÉS-SMITH MONUMENT – This monument marks an old Indian trail, the Mojave Trail, used by Father Garcés in March 1776 on his trip from Needles to San Gabriel. The same trail was used by Jedediah Smith in 1826 on his first trip through San Bernardino Valley.

References

Mountains of San Bernardino County, California Old Spanish Trail (trade route) Mountains of Southern California Mohave Trail {{SanBernardinoCountyCA-geo-stub

History

Marker

See also

References