Anza Trail Student Papers -

 Santa Clara University


Unique among most National Historic Trails, the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail possesses a comprehensive, first-person history of the exact events that transpired during the expedition that led to the creation of this trail. The extensive diaries kept by expedition commander Juan Bautista de Anza and priest Father Pedro Font paint a vivid picture of life on the trail during the winter of 1775-1776. Through the eyes of these eighteenth century Spanish frontiersmen, a world unfolds that is often hard to reconcile with twenty-first century eyes. In their journals, they describe  a wilderness of oak woodlands, immense deserts, and pristine seashores peopled by diverse indigneous communites. Into this landscape and these people, they tried to describe themselves - hundreds of Spanish settlers with nearly a thousand animals, exploring an uncharted land on their way to a better life.

But where Anza and Font gave readers good descriptions of changing landscapes and their mission to settle in California, they failed to give an idea of the very basics of what life was like on the trail. The reader is left wondering about education - how were the children educated and what was it like? About cooking - what type of dishes would Spanish and indigenous people prepare? And games - what kind of games would children have played? For most Americans, our knowledge about life on the frontier often comes from suspect sources. Romantic novels about Californian history, movies about life on the Spanish frontier, and stories about various American Indian cultures find their way into common knowledge. More often than not, these images are far from accurate and are based more on fantasy than on reality.

Dr. Russell K. Skowronek, anthropologist at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California, realized the need for additional research in the daily life of people during the time of the Anza Expedition. Turning to one of his upper level classes -  Anthropological  Perspectives on the Spanish and Native American Experience - he asked students to discover what life was like along the Spanish frontier in 1776. Using both primary and secondary sources, they assembled reports that give the reader a much richer idea of what life was like. Exploring subjects such as hygiene, health, vice, and death, these students completed their projects in the spring of 2004, with the understanding that the National Park Service would share them with readers interested in the story of the Anza Trail.

The trail staff appreciates the work the students of Dr. Russell K. Skowronek's spring 2004 Anthropology 146 class put into trying to create readable, useful papers that would be useful to visitors trying ot learn more about the Anza Trail.


Disclaimer - Although students footnoted heavily to back-up the validity of their statements, the accuracy of the original sources cannot always be verified. Readers are encouraged to use these papers as a starting point to understand a little more about life on the Spanish frontier. If errors are discovered, please contact the trail (david_smith@nps.gov) so that they can be corrected.