Juan Bautista de Anza

Explorers Juan Bautista de Anza Blazed the Anza Trail

Juan Bautista de Anza was the first European to establish an overland route from Mexico, through the Sonoran Desert, to the Pacific coast of California. New World Spanish explorers had been seeking such a route through the Desert Southwest for more than two centuries. Born in Mexico in 1736, Anza joined the army in 1752 and served on the northern frontier of Sonora. In 1774, he led a small expedition from the presidio at Tubac (now in Arizona) to the mission at Monterey, California. The following year, he led a second colonizing expedition with livestock and more than 200 people, to establish the mission and presidio at, what would become, San Francisco. At the time of Anza's first expedition, the English still called California New Albion, the Russians were stalking the Pacific Northwest coast and the American Revolution was still years away. But starting in 1768, the Spaniards had already established a series of presidios and missions along the California coast as far north as Monterey.
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Upon his arrival back in Tubac on May 26, after traveling more than 2,000 miles, Anza immediately began plans to return to Alta California with a colonizing expedition. Colonizing Expedition A year later, after receiving permission and funding from Viceroy Bucareli in Mexico City, Anza began organizing his second expedition in the fall of 1775. Authorized to colonize the San Francisco Bay area by transporting 38 families, together with livestock and soldiers, he began to recruit from among the poor in Culiacan, 600 miles south of Tubac. The assembled expedition finally left from Tubac on October 23, 1775, with 245 people (155 of them women and children), 340 horses, 165 pack mules, 302 cattle. Father Pedro Font was selected to accompany this expedition, because of his expertise with navigation, along with a number of soldiers, 28 of whom would remain at the presidio once it was built in the San Francisco Bay region. The diary Font kept remains one of the great historical documents of the time. … Unlike the first expedition, they headed due west past Pilot Knob, arriving again at Yuha Wells on December 11. From there, this expedition followed the same route to San Gabriel Mission as the first expedition. After a freak desert snowstorm killed a number of their livestock, they headed up Coyote Canyon, going through San Carlos Pass on December 26. They arrived in San Gabriel on January 4, 74 days after leaving Tubac and 8 months after leaving Culiacan, the principle point of assemblage. He had succeeded in leading an enormous expedition safely to its destination through 1,800 miles of desert wilderness. On February 17, Anza and his expedition resumed their march north, traveling the familiar El Camino Real to Monterey, where they safely arrived on March 10. While the colonists remained there, Anza with Font and a squad of soldiers spent the following month exploring the San Francisco Bay area. Before leaving, Anza designated the future site of both the San Francisco Presidio and Mission Dolores. On April 13, 1776, Juan Bautista de Anza left Monterey and returned to Tubac. On June 17, the colonists left Monterey to sew the seeds for the city of San Francisco. Two weeks later on July 4, 1776, the 13 American colonies on the eastern shore of North Åmerica formally declared their independence from England.

Postscript: Upon his return to Sonora, Juan Bautista de Anza Anza was named governor of New Mexico. He died 12 years later on December 19, 1788 and was buried in Arizipe, Sonora, Mexico. Although rivals attempted to discredit his achievements, Anza's legacy is well established in history. He opened the overland corridor to the Pacific Southwest and had a primary role in the European settlement of California. Anza arrived in California with two more people than he had left with. Three children were born along the way; one woman died in childbirth. This almost doubled the population of California. The colonists who traveled the Anza Trail also gave birth to the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Jose. Their cattle and horses provided the foundation stock for the vast herds that would establish the great ranchos of California in the following years. In 1990, U.S. Congress created the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail, comprising the overland route of the colonizing expedition from Tubac, Arizona to San Francisco, California. -- Bob Katz [Crockett should have been on the trail - but it's not. Keith]