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De Anza Crossing of the Santa Ana River, 1775 and 1776

De Anza Crossing of the Santa Ana River, 1775 and 1776 is a California Historical Landmark in Rubidoux, Riverside County.

Riverside County · Near Union Pacific Bridge, Jurupa Heights, Rubidoux · location approximate

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On January 1, 1776, the first party of colonists to come overland to the Pacific Coast crossed the Santa Ana River south of this marker and camped between here and the river. Recruited in the presidios of Sonora, Mexico, and led by Lieutenant Colonel Juan Bautista de Anza, who had established the trail a year earlier. This humble and heroic band of 242 men, women, and children continued north to found San Francisco; thus was set a boundary to Russian expansion from the north. Three precarious missions were maintained by uncertain ocean voyages prior to the opening of de Anza's trail. Afterward, the flourishing missions and ranchos of Spanish California sprang from the droves of cattle, sheep, and horses brought over the trail.

1971 register text, presented as a historical document. It uses the period's terms for Native people; the state's landmark listings still carry most of this wording, and the California Office of Historic Preservation maintains the program's current texts.

Many of these plaques have since been recast or their texts revised. The California Historical Landmarks program and its current texts are maintained by the California Office of Historic Preservation. California Office of Historic Preservation ↗

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

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under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s

what this marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years here

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Marker data: State of California, Department of Parks and Recreation, California Historical Landmarks (1971)

De Anza Crossing of the Santa Ana River, 1775 and 1776

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