Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail

Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail. In Commemoration of the Anza Expedition 1775-1776. , After successfully locating an overland passage to Alta California in 1774, Juan Bautista de Anza led 300 people and 1000 head of livestock on the first overland colonizing expedition into California. This expedition resulted in the establishment of the Presidio in San Francisco and the missions San Francisco de Asis (Mission Dolores) and Santa Clara de Asis. It successfully opened an overland route of emigration and supply from Mexico to the missions and settlements of Alta California. The Anza expedition set out on October 23, 1775 from Tubac in Sonora, Mexico (Arizona today). , After a month's delay at the Mission San Gabriel, the expediton headed north on February 21, 1776. On the first night they reached Puertezuelo, gateway to the San Fernando Valley in current day Griffith Park, and made camp along the banks of the Los Angeles River (Anza trail camp #72). Griffith Park is part of the Rancho los Feliz, lands granted to Jose Vincente Feliz, an Anza settler whose wife Maria Pinuelas was the only person to die on the Anza expedition. The next stop for the expedition was Aqua Escondida (Malibu Creek State Park). , Dedicated during the centennial year of Griffith Park on September 28, 1996.