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Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic TrailHighway 238 in Maricopa County, also known as the Dead Cow Highway, linking Gila Bend and the town of Maricopa.
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Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail
Nature & Science
 

The most thorough current source of information on the Anza expedition can be found at the Web De Anza site. Use the maps found there to locate your area of interest, then contact a local park for more information.

The journals of Anza and Font describe the many environments the expedition passed through on the way to the San Francisco bay. These include the saguaro-filled Sonoran desert, the cottonwood/willow riparian habitat along desert rivers and streams, the cold mountain passes of the lower Sierra Mountains of California, and finally the moist and fertile grasslands of the central coastline of California.

Father Font used an astronomical quadrant on the trip to fix the group's location so that the trail could be mapped and followed by others.

 
Anza didn't visit the La Brea tarpits, but saw another oil seep nearby.  

Did You Know?
Juan Bautista de Anza, who established the Anza Trail, led 300 settlers up the California coast in 1775. They experienced a 3 minute earthquake one day. Another day they saw crude oil bubbling out of the ground and found more oil on the beach as it bubbled up and washed ashore.
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Last Updated: October 30, 2007 at 17:03 EST