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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
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Cover of WNPA Anza Trail booklet

WNPA

New Revised Edition for 2009 - Enjoy this 16-page booklet about the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail published by Western National Parks Association. (Former version available in Spanish.) It is written by Don Garate, Anza historian and re-enactor. The booklet is about the Spanish officer, Anza, and 1775-76 expedition when he led 240 colonists 1800 miles overland from New Spain to establish San Francisco in Alta California.

To purchase individual copies, visit www.wnpa.org, click on Shop Online and in the search window type in “Anza Trail.” To order in bulk for resale outlets, contact the WNPA central warehouse at (888) 569-7762. Retail cost is $4.95. (English version ISBN 978-158369120-5, Spanish version ISBN 1-877856-73-8)

 
Cover of Anza Trail book

Heyday Books

Anza Trail and the Settling of California - This publication was one of the Anza Trail Challenge Cost Share projects in 2006 and produced through Heyday Institute. Author Vladimir Guerrero saw the trail Auto Route signs and decided to find out about the Anza Trail. This book is the result of his discovery. It records both large-scale epic history and intimate personal drama. With original translations, fresh commentary, and fifteen new trail maps, it synthesizes firsthand documents and diaries from the expeditions to illuminate and bring to life this important but little-known chapter in the history of the American West.

Available online at www.heydaybooks.com.
Retail cost is $16.95. (ISBN 1-59714-026-0)

 
Cover of Anza Trail Guide book

Los Californianos

A Guide to the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail (Antepasados Volume XI - 2005) - This publication was one of the Anza Trail Challenge Cost Share projects in 2005 and produced through Los Californianos. Greg Bernal-Mendoza Smestad, Ph.D. traveled the entire Anza Trail in Arizona and California to write this guide. Each section covers a county along the trail and provides maps, driving directions, hiking/biking suggestions, historical background, sites of interest, and a CD with music, sounds, and interviews. This Anza Trail Guide is availabe on-line at www.solideas.com/DeAnza/TrailGuide/.

To purchase a black and white paperback version contact: Los Californianos, c/o Maurice and Marcy Bandy, 4002 St. James Place, San Diego, CA 92103-1630, or visit www.loscalifornianos.org/publications.htm. (ISBN 0-9651592-7-2)

 
EgertBook_frontcover

Nina Egert

Tracing Anza’s Trail: A Photographer’s Journey - In this book, anthropologist and award-winning photographer, Nina Egert, Ph.D., combines her stunning images of the trail today with excerpts from the explorers’ diaries to relay a different sort of story about Anza’s and Font’s insights and struggles as they negotiate the landscape before them.

For more information, visit www.tracinganza.com.
Send orders to: P.O. Box 42, Canyon, CA 94516

 
Native People, the Anza Expedition, and the Settlement of California - This pamphlet has been moved to the History & Culture section of the website on the People webpage.
The Quechan people live near Yuma, Arizona.  

Did You Know?
In 1774, Spaniard Juan Bautista de Anza met Chief Palma of the Quechan (pronounced khet-chan) tribe and they became friends. When Anza returned a year later with 300 settlers bound for California, Palma gave Anza 6000 watermelons. The Quechan people still grow these watermelons today.
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Last Updated: January 13, 2009 at 14:24 EST