Last updated: August 1, 2022
Article
Trail Building along the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail in the Heart of the San Gabriel Valley
To the east of Los Angeles, California, the San Gabriel Valley stretches along the southern foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. The area is split by the San Gabriel and Rio Hondo Rivers, whose surrounding lands comprises the ancestral homeland of the Tongva people. Today, the San Gabriel Valley is home to two million Angelinos: numerous urbanized communities with bustling cities, major freeways, logistics hubs and housing developments, making for an exceptionally diverse part of the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area.
Amigos de Los Rios, a non-profit organization based in the San Gabriel Valley, has been working since 2005 to complete a visionary park network project called the Emerald Necklace: a natural infrastructure network of green spaces, green schools, parks, and trails throughout under-served communities in the Los Angeles Basin. One of the Emerald Necklace sites is situated in El Monte, CA between La Primaria Elementary School, and the San Gabriel River, now flanked by a 34.5-mile paved bike route. Thanks to the work of Amigos de los Rios, this site now provides a green space abundant with drought-tolerant native plants, bringing pride to the area and creating a safe place for residents and trail users to visit what is otherwise a high-traffic intersection along the I-605 freeway and busy Ramona Boulevard. Amigos de los Rios ultimately aims to connect the San Gabriel mountains to the sea, offer equitable access to nature, and protect the environment and urban communities of the San Gabriel Valley from the threats of climate change, which is exactly what La Primaria provides to the Valley’s community.
In addition to offering an oasis to neighboring students and regional trail users alike in El Monte, Amigos de los Rios has partnered with the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail to install interpretive signage at the site of La Primaria, detailing its historical connection to the Anza Expedition of 1775-76. The Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail, administered by the National Park Service and part of the National Trails System, commemorates, protects, and interprets the multicultural 1775-76 Anza Expedition, led by Juan Bautista de Anza, where more than 240 men, women and children embarked on an epic 1,200-mile journey to establish the first non-Native settlement at San Francisco Bay. According to a historic entry from Anza’s diary, on January 3, 1776, the expedition party set up camp for the night near the site of present day La Primaria after two arduous river crossings and a long day spent traversing the valley floor, following the route of Indigenous wash-side trails. With an exhausted expedition party and livestock, Anza realized he would not be able to successfully lead the group to the new San Gabriel Mission before nightfall, so the group spent the night there on the western bank of the river, a site the diary and historians refer to as Campsite 61.
To establish the partnership between Amigos de los Rios and the Anza Trail, Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail brought on Diego Borgsdorf, a Latino Heritage Internship Program intern. He will assist in mapping historic sites such as Campsite 61 using Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping software to create new maps of sites along the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail. He is also responsible for visiting other known landmarks or areas in the LA area that could have future potential as established trail sites.
National historic trails are more present in highly altered urban settings than one might think, however, this presence is obscured by development and the history is challenging to reveal. Partnering with organizations such as Amigos de los Rios, who have strong connections to the communities they serve, is an impactful way to grow the Anza Trail’s recreational route, as well as to share the complexity and diversity of our histories with locals and visitors. Trail building and interpretive efforts, such as installation of interpretive signage or storytelling panels create community engagement. The Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail seeks to continue forging partnerships with local groups to raise awareness about its story.
Visit the Amigos de los Rios website for more information about the organization and the Emerald Necklace.
To learn more about the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail visit https://nps.gov/JUBA.
