Why did the Anza expedition come to California?
    How many people did Anza bring?
    Whom did Anza bring?
    Why did these people come on the expedition?
    What is the second expedition timeline?
    What effect did the expedition have on the population of California?
    Who were the native populations that Anza encountered?
    What is the difference between the expedition route and the national trail?
    Is the recreation trail a hiking trail?
    What is the National Trails System?
    Why is the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail a national trail?
    Who administers the National Trail?
    How many miles is the National Trail?
    Who was Juan Bautista de Anza?
    Is it Anza or de Anza?
    For further information:
    End Notes

Why did the Anza expedition come to California?
During the late 1700s, Spain had a world empire that included much of the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico.  In order to prevent rival European powers from gaining control of California, Spain made a major attempt to occupy and develop the region.  As part of the larger project to extend Spanish political control, Lieutenant Colonel Juan Bautista de Anza, the commander of the presidio (military outpost) of Tubac, in modern-day Arizona, received permission from the viceroy of New Spain to lead two expeditions to California. The first, in 1774, established an overland route from Sonora to the California coast, where Spain was creating settlements. The next year, a second expedition under Anza was launched from Tubac on October 23, 1775 to bring 30 families of colonists comprised of soldiers and their families (197 people) to California. This second expedition had the immediate objective of creating a new military outpost at the strategic harbor of San Francisco. It arrived in Monterey, the regional headquarters of the Spanish army in California, on March 10, 1776. A small group led by Anza then reconnoitered the Bay Area. The final outcome of the trek was the founding of the Presidio of San Francisco, two missions, and the pueblo of San José. The Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail commemorates the second of these two expeditions.

How many people did Anza bring?
The answer to this question is complicated, first, because Father Font is on record in his diary saying that 240 people left Tubac, so 240 is the number that has been used for years, and second because we do not know exactly how many people may have stayed in California. However, after Herbert Bolton published the translation of Font’s journal in the 1930s and used the number 240 in his own writing, Donald T. Garate found an untranslated report from Anza dated October 20, 1775 from Tubac which lists the name and age of everyone on the expedition. The list totals 195. Included at the end of the list is a comment that “it is very probable that there is yet a third part made up of mule packers and other servants and like members of the expedition.” On the trek, after this listing was made by Anza, one woman died and three babies were born. So, we say that Anza brought 197 settlers—87 of whom were age 12 or under—but the entire expedition numbered around 300. (i)  However, Anza reports on April 14, 1776, as he leaves Monterey that he is leaving behind two cowboys, four servants, all but six muleteers (how many came in the first place?), four of whom were sentenced to work at the presidio as deserters and thieves. What were the names of these people he left behind? How many others may he have left behind?

Whom did Anza bring?
Seven presidios in what is now Sonora, Mexico each offered a soldier to establish the new garrison at San Francisco. (ii)  The rest were recruited and trained as soldiers by Anza.  All were told to bring wives and children.  The racial mix of the colonists was a cross section of New Spain at the time. Expedition members were Criollo (persons of European parentage born in the Americas), Peninsular (persons born on the Iberian Peninsula or the islands off the Iberian Peninsula), mulato (persons with half-European and half-African parentage) and Mestizo (persons of mixed European and Indian parentage). Those people of African descent on the expedition were not slaves or servants, but were free blacks.  Independent of their racial group, the colonists were considered gente de razón (people of reason) and shared a common language, religion, and many other important cultural traditions. The surnames of the expedition members include: Aceves, Altamirano, Amézquita, Linares, Tapia, Vásquez, Bernal, Berreysa, Bojórques, Galindo, González, Higuera, Pico, Pinto, Soto, Alvarez, Castro, Féliz, López, Mesa, Moraga, Peralta, Sánchez, Valencia, Valenzuela, Villela. Aside from the colonists, a portion of the people on the trek were hired by Anza as muleteers and cowboys.

Why did these people come on the expedition?
We have no direct knowledge of the colonist’s motivation for joining the expedition, but we do know they were volunteers and were not forced to go.  A new set of 1772 laws made it possible for people who joined the army to gain title to land and other economic opportunities. The people who found these opportunities the most attractive generally belonged to the frontier’s middle economic group. Most had backgrounds in ranching and farming, and many had some knowledge of mining. On the other hand, Anza wrote in his diary that he started his recruitment in the poorer part of New Spain in Culiacán.  Suffice it to say that they came to settle California, and while some were poor and others were not, they came because it offered an opportunity to better their lives.

What is the second expedition timeline?
Spring 1775            Anza begins recruiting
September 29,1775        Settlers leave Horcasitas
October 23,1775        Expedition departs Tubac
October 31,1775        Anza and Font explore Casa Grande
November 28,1775        Expedition reaches the Colorado River
December 24,1775        Child born in Coyote Canyon
January 4,1776        Expedition arrives at Mission San Gabriel
February 21,1776    Expedition departs Mission San Gabriel after delay by San Diego uprising
March 10, 1776        Expedition arrives in Monterey
March 23-April 8,1776    Anza explores the Bay Area
April 14, 1776            Anza leaves for Sonora
June 27,1776            Colonists arrive at the San Francisco mission site

What effect did the expedition have on the population of California?
It more than doubled the population of Spanish colonials, numbered at 170 in January 1775. (iii)

Who were the native populations that Anza encountered?
In Arizona and California, they passed through the lands of the Tohono O’odham (Papago), Akimel O'odham (Pimas), Quechan (Yumas), Cahuilla, Luiseño, Tongva (Gabrieleño), Chumash, Salinan, Rumsen, Esselen, Ohlone, and Bay Miwok.  At the time that Anza came through, these tribal areas were each comprised of many villages, often with very separate identities. The National Park Service is committed to interpreting the cultures of these tribes at the time that Anza came and as they are today.


What is the difference between the expedition route and the national trail?
The expedition route is the corridor that Anza followed to recruit and lead settlers to Alta California, select sites for the presidio and missions at San Francisco Bay, and explore the East Bay of San Francisco. It begins in Culiacán, Mexico and could be said to begin in Mexico City, where Anza, a string of pack mules with supplies, and undoubtedly several of the muleteers who went to California, started. The 1200-mile Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail commemorates that expedition route in the United States, beginning in Nogales, Arizona. It does not include all the places Anza went on his journey. It provides opportunities for visitors to experience landscapes similar to those the expedition encountered and to visit sites associated with the expedition, its members and descendants, and the American Indians who allowed the expedition passage and are here today. The Trail was designated a national historic trail by the U.S. Congress in 1990. There is an auto tour route marked in California and about 250 miles of marked recreation trail on or parallel to the historic route. The Comprehensive Management and Use Plan sets forth a vision for a continuous recreation trail for hikers and equestrians from Nogales, Arizona, to San Francisco and around the East Bay.

Is the recreation trail a hiking trail?
We intend for the recreation trail to be a shared use trail appropriate for hikers, equestrians, and bicyclists. In practice, use depends upon policies of the various managing agencies, but all portions of the trail should be available to hikers. The National Park Service owns only three miles of the trail (in the Presidio of San Francisco) and therefore relies on other federal, state, local, and private partners to construct and maintain the trail. The NPS generally signs and interprets the trail and supports trail and site protection in a variety of ways. Trail segments available for use can be found on our website: www.nps.gov/juba. Click on “In Depth.”

What is the National Trails System?
The National Trails System now consists of 24 long-distance trails designated by the U.S. Congress. It contains nine scenic trails, which are continuous protected scenic corridors for outdoor recreation, and 15 historic trails which recognize broad facets of history such as prominent past routes of exploration, migration, trade, communication, and military action.

Why is the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail a national trail?
The Anza Expedition of 1775/1776 had far reaching consequences for the eventual development of an important region of the United States. It helped to establish a strategic northern Spanish military outpost that eventually evolved into the modern City of San Francisco. The creation of the trail also established important links between California and the rest of New Spain, Mexico today. It provides the opportunity to present the legacy of Spain and Mexico in California and Arizona and to connect with Hispanic populations.

Public interest in the trail was stimulated during the 1975/76 bicentennial when the Anza trek was reenacted following the diaries of the expedition to the day and the hour for the entire route, beginning in Mexico City. This reenactment was organized by the bicentennial committees of each state and Mexico, and the committees within each county. George Cardinet, Director of Heritage Trails Fund (HTF), organized the equestrian part of the trek. After the reenactment, HTF initiated the idea of the national historic trail, encouraged Congress to include the trail in the 1978 amendment to the National Trails System Act, and worked for a national trail study, which Congress requested in Public Law 98﷓11 (March 1983). With continued support from HTF and a broader public, Congress made the trail a component of the National Trails System in August, 1990 (Public Law 101﷓365).  The official trail, from Nogales, Arizona to San Francisco, California, includes the loop on the east side of San Francisco Bay.

Who administers the National Trail?
The National Park Service has responsibility for the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail in perpetuity. It is administered from the Pacific West Regional Office in Oakland, California.

Stanley C. Bond, PhD.,  Superintendent
David Smith, Interpretive Specialist
National Park Service
1111 Jackson Street, Suite 700
Oakland, CA 94607
510-817-1438 (Bond)
510-817-1323 (Smith)

How many miles is the National Trail?  1210 in the United States

How many miles was the expedition?
613    Miles from Culiacán to Tubac, the final staging area
890    Miles from Tubac to Monterey where Anza left the colonists
133          Miles from Monterey to site of San Francisco Presidio
213    Miles of reconnoitering trip around East Bay back to Monterey
1849    Total Miles in Mexico and the United States

Who was Juan Bautista de Anza?
Juan Bautista de Anza was born in July 1736, possibly at Fronteras but more likely at Cuquiarachi, Sonora, Mexico. Both his father and maternal grandfather had served Spain on the northern frontier of New Spain for the greater part of their lives. Anza joined the militia as a volunteer in late 1751. In 1754 he began his service in the presidial cavalry as a cadet under the tutelage of his brother-in-law, Captain Gabriel de Vildósola.  He spent his first 25 years of military service in Sonora, defending the frontier of New Spain against various hostile Indian tribes, most notably the Apaches and Seris. Captivated by the idea of an overland connection between the Sonora frontier and the western frontier of New Spain in Baja California, he gained permission from the Viceroy to conduct an exploratory expedition in 1774. With success of the trek, Anza was awarded the position of Lieutenant Colonel and ordered to take colonists to find sites for a presidio and two missions at the harbor of San Francisco.

Because of Anza's exceptional service, the king appointed him governor of New Mexico on  August 24,1777. As governor, Anza made several expeditions and explorations along the northern frontier. In 1779, he led 800 men against the Comanches, defeating them in two battles. In the following year, he scouted a much-needed trail from Santa Fe to Arizpe. In addition, Anza and Comanche Chief Ecueracapa orchestrated a peace treaty between the Spaniards and the Comanches, Utes, and various other tribes and factions in 1786—the longest lasting peace treaty ever signed with the Comanche nation. The peace treaty was fully in effect when the United States westward movement across Comanche lands began. Without that treaty, the history of the United States might have been written differently. Anza requested to be released from the governorship of New Mexico on November 18, 1786. He remained at Santa Fe until after his replacement, Fernando de la Concha arrived on August 25, 1787. Anza left Santa Fe in November 1787 to take up new duties as Captain of the old Fronteras Presidio. Upon arrival in Sonora, he was made commander of all the Sonoran troops, a position that he held for nearly a year. He received his final commission as commander of the presidio of Tucson on October 1, 1788. However, he had known it was coming and had already completed a review of the troops on September 27th. Returning to Arizpe, Sonora, he died on December 19, 1788 before having the chance to officially move his family to Tucson. (iv)

In 1761, Anza married Ana María Perez Serrano in Arizpe. They had no children. However, they did take over raising the two daughters of Anza’s brother, Francisco, after he died. Francisco had married Ana Maria’s sister. Both girls were born in Tubac. They were María Rosa born in 1772 and Ana María born in 1775. (v)

Is it Anza or De Anza?
Research by Donald T. Garate, Interpretive Chief at Tumacacori National Historical Park, of hundreds of official documents signed by Juan Bautista de Anza or referring to him has turned up no use of “de Anza.” He seems to have been known as Juan Anza to friend, foe, and self. Therefore, when we shorten the official name of the trail from Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail, we always use Anza Trail. (vi) For more information, see also http://anza.uoregon.edu/resources.html


For further information:

For the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail
www.nps.gov/juba

For the diaries of the expedition in Spanish and English, maps, and other materials
http://anza.uoregon.edu

Overall history of Spanish colonial period and Anza
Don Garate
Chief of Interpretation
Tumacacori National Historical Park
P.O. Box 76
Tumacácori, AZ 85640
520-398-2341 x 25
FAX 398-9271
Biographer of Anza and his father

Dr. Jack S. Williams
Los Californianos
11047 Pegasus Avenue
San Diego, California 92126
858-693-4926
sdpresidio@mindspring.com

Phil Valdez
Anza expedition descendant
26691 Hawk Terrace
Willets, CA 95490
707-459-9063
deanza8g@aol.com

Santa Clara County/San José
Hon. Paul Bernal
Superior Court Judge
County of Santa Clara, California
Anza expedition descendant
Chair, Superior Court Historical Committee
Former chair Historical Heritage Commission of Santa Clara County
For quick response:
Instant Superior Court Judge locator: 408-299-2074
email: pbernal@sct.co.scl.ca.us

Monterey County
Greg Smestad, Ph.D.
P.O. Box 5729
San Jose', California
95150-5729 U.S.A.
415-979-8730 voice mail only
URL:    http://www.solideas.com/