You can see the pictures
I took on this leg of the trip, or you can trace the route by seeing them on
this map.
My first stop was the San Luis Mission where Anza and his followers
wee greeted with a nice celebration.
These days people in the mission neighborhood in San Luis seem to think
Anza is coming through every evening. There
is a constant celebration there. But I guess that is what it is like at Cal Poly
these days. One of the things I really
liked at the museum was an installation of five mission bells, three in the
front and two along the side, named after the first five missions in California: Carlos, Antonio,
Luis, Diego, and Gabriel. Each play a different note – it is all explained on
the plaque on the wall by the door that I took a picture of.
Anza visited all of those missions on his 1775-76 trek.
While most of the expedition stayed at Mission San Gabriel, where they arrived
on Jan 4, Anza and twenty soldiers accompanied Commander Rivera from Monterey to San
Diego to help quell an Indian uprising that was occurring
there. The Indians had killed two priests and several other people and Anza and
Rivers wee “to collaborate in punishing the Indian rebels should it be
necessary, and to take the field against the gentile Indians who made the
attack on the Mission San Diego. Ana and
Font, and their soldiers, returned to San Gabriel
on February 12 and after a few days of R&R they left San
Gabriel on Feb. 21 and arrived in San Luis Obispo on March 2.
Their next stop is uncertain. There is no entry in Font’s
diary for March 3 – but after their greeting when they arrived at the mission
they may have had to rest a day from over indulging in aguardiente during the
celebrations. The route from San Luis to
their stop along the railroad tracks in Atascadero
on Mar. 5 is in doubt. One stop is only a short distance from them mission at
the foot of the Cuesta grade and the mouth of Cuesta canyon. That is where the old sage route over the Cuesta
grade started. That road is still used by hikers and bicyclists to by pass the
very steep freeway over the 1500 ft. Cuesta summit.
With a little (actually a lot) of searching involving diving
over the Cuesta Grade and back, then to Morro B ay and back, and finally to the
little park – which was about across the street where I had spent the night.
The park was also the site of the animal shelter. I encountered
a woman who was there with her two children – one a toddler and the other a
babe in arms. I told her that this might have been the Anza camp site and asked
her if she knew who Anza was. She did not, so I told her, and said that seeing
her their with her children reminded me of the fact that if the Anza expedition
stopped there there would have been mothers with children, some of whom were
about the same age as the youngster she had wrapped up in her reboso. I asked if I could take her picture, and she
said that she would rather I would not – so I didn’t.
I then headed back up the Cuesta grade and on the other side
took the road to Santa Margarita.
Unfortunately, the driving guide for that area was a bi vague, and there
wee no places with monuments of recognitions of the passing expedition. Occasionally
as I drove on the back roads from Santa Margarita to Atascadero,
Templeton, and Paso Robles I would see an “Anza Trail Historical Route” sign, but
their placement seemed a bit haphazard.
The Brown edition of Font’s Diary has pretty specific identification for
each of the stops along the route and perhaps by referring to those
descriptions it would be possible to more closely approximate the Anza route.
But it is pretty evident that the expedition followed two
routes – geographically and historically defined by the Salinas River,
and currently and developmentally defined by the railroad tracks. The amount of rural development along the
driving route is pretty amazing – vineyards about, large developments, and
gated communities abound. One that was most fantastically elaborate looked like
the combination of a Chinese monastery guide, a mission church entrance, and
something out of a fantasy computer game. You can safely retire to your 4000
square foot retirement home there for a couple a million bucks, and enjoy the
cultural benefits of Templeton just a short drive away.
I followed the driving guide along the River Rd. to Paso Robles, and then took
CA 41 and County Road G14 toward Lake
Nacimiento. Lake
Nacimiento is a reservoir
behind a large earthen dam. The water
level looked pretty low, and the information I Googled indicated that the Lake is filled only to 5% of capacity. There are a number of nice homes on the hills
surrounding the lake. I noticed a long, white object on the hillside across the
lake – maybe five miles away – and thought it was a pipeline. The road went
right past there and it turned out to be a white rail face. IT was at least half a mile long built right
o the edge of the hill overlook the road that was cut through. The owner of that
property must want to make sure that you knew it was his. Made me think of the title that would be a
great country song, or a refrain from a song titled “Fences.” The line is “Nothin’
says its mine like my white rail fence.” Not barbed wire in any of the dozens
of varieties that have been produced, not like a homespun-looking split rail
fence, not as hokey are tires or wheel rimes, nor as permanent as a stone wall,
and not as traditional as a white picket fence.
That white rail fence made the “Beware of dog” sign prominently posted o
the front gate rather redundant. And the
’57 Chevy parked in front of the garage was a nice touch – “we’re just folks
with an old Chevy” – that had probably been restored to the tune of $50,000.
Another hour on G14 brought me to my last stop of this trip –
Mission San Antonio de Padua. Located on
the grounds of Fort
Hunter-Liggett it is my
favorite of the California Missions. Manly because it still stands where it was
built, and the land around it has not been developed. The last Franciscan priest left the church ten
years ago and the Parish is trying to survive.
There are 33 families who worship there, some driving an hour through the
Fort Gate
to the church for Mass. The church is about 20 mils from Highway 101
in King City and Anza arrived there on March 6
The expedition was greeted there with great rejoicing by the
Mallorcan priests who had come there from Mission San Carlos in Monterey, Font notes
with approval that the priests made presents of a pig to the soldiers and the
muleteers, and the priests “also brought forth a great deal of lard that was
shared among the people who had not tasted any in a long time.”
Because the priests there were from Mission San Carlos, Anza
and his party must have been told that they we only a week away from their
primary destination – Monterey. My next stop, hover, after gassing up in King City, was
Oakland. The exploration of the remaining portion of
the Anza Trail, which goes into San Francisco to
Fort Point, then back around the Bay to the Sacramento River delta, then back
to Monterey,
will have to wait until another time.
No comments:
Post a Comment