Discovering the Anza Historic Trail With Its Out Superintendent

With a fog-shrouded Golden Gate Bridge visible off in the distance, Naomi Torres leaned against a reproduction of the foundation for a chapel that once stood in the Presidio on San Francisco's northwestern edge. A few feet away lay the unearthed remnants of the original building constructed in 1780.

The site, adjacent to the former military base's Officer's Club, is the northern terminus for the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail. Designated by Congress in 1990 as part of the National Trails System administered by the National Park Service, the 1,200-mile Anza trail retraces the route taken by the initial colonizers of San Francisco.

"The Anza expedition arrived to settle the Presidio and the Mission of San Francisco," explained Torres, who was named the trail's superintendent in 2009.

Led by Spanish Lieutenant Colonel Juan Bautista de Anza, a party of 240 people departed from San Miguel de Horcasitas, Mexico the morning of October 2, 1775 to begin their strenuous overland route through the arid grasslands of Sonora and the desert borderlands of today's American Southwest, and later, along the coastal region of what was then known as Alta California.

"The purpose was to have a colonizing expedition of families here in Spain's northern most frontier," explained Torres, 49, a lesbian who lives in Berkeley.

Thirty different families made the trek, arriving in what they called el Rio San Francisco on June 27, 1776, mere days prior to the American colonists declaring their independence from England on the other side of the continent.

"They were lower caste Afro-Latino. The generation before them had been slaves in Mexico, so California is settled by black and brown people," said Torres. "De Anza was a son of Sonora. His father was a Basque from Spain, but he was born and raised in the New World. It was his father's dream to settle Northern California."

The names of many of the families remain to this day, as city and street names throughout the Bay Area, such as Berryessa, Moraga, Peralta and Alviso. For making the journey with Bautista, they were promised land as payment.

"It is an American story. They came for opportunity and became landowners," noted Torres.

The Anza trail's brown signage, featuring de Anza on horseback accompanied by a Native American guide, should be familiar to residents throughout the Bay Area. The signs, marked either historic route or auto route, can be found throughout the East Bay and along the Peninsula.

An exhibit about the trail is housed at the John Muir National Historic Site in Martinez, and inside the Presidio Officer's Club information about the Anza expedition, including a reproduction of the Spanish Colonial saddles they used, is part of the Presidio Heritage Gallery.

As the superintendent for the trail, Torres works with partner agencies, such as regional and state parks, to protect the sites along its path and interpret the story of the expedition. The official map for the Anza trail features the names of the various tribal communities that the expedition encountered, such as the Ohlone in the Bay Area and the Chumash near Santa Barbara.

The assistance they lent to Anza and the settlers is credited for leading to the expedition's success. Tragically, it also resulted in the eradication of the tribes and their lifestyles.

"It is part of the story we tell," said Torres.

Focus on diversity

With the National Park Service marking its centennial Thursday (August 25), parks officials have made it a priority not only to tell a more diverse narrative of the country's history, including that of the LGBT community, but also to attract more people of color as visitors.

Torres has been assisting with that effort ever since she joined the park service in 1989 as an interpreter at Alcatraz, the former prison in the middle of the bay. She later worked at both Crissy Field, part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historic Park in Richmond.

A year prior to being named superintendent of the Anza trail, Torres was the chief of interpretation for four national park sites in the East Bay, including the Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Monument in Concord and the Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site in Danville.

"As a population we are more diverse, so the stories that are told should also reflect the events that occurred at these places and reflect a broader story," said Torres, who grew up in El Paso, Texas.

The story being told through the Anza trail is unique in that it is a south-to-north migration route, noted Torres, whereas so much of the founding of the western U.S. is focused on the treks originating from the East made by the likes of Lewis and Clark or the Mormon settlers of Utah.

"It is a very unknown story," she said.

Most of the details about the Anza expedition come from the diaries of both Anza and of Father Pedro Font, whose detailed writings covered three diaries. Upon seeing San Francisco for the first time, Font remarked that of all the sites he had seen in his travels, "I saw none which pleased me so much as this. And I think that if it could be well settled like Europe there would not be anything more beautiful in all the world."

Other California sites that encompass the Anza trail include the Presidio of Monterey and Mission San Antonio de Padua, which is now surrounded by Fort Hunter Liggett near Hearst Castle. Another stop along the trail is Coyote Canyon inside Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, near the Salton Sea.

From there the route snakes its way to the Yuma Crossing in Arizona and east to the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument outside of Tucson. The Anza trail's American southern terminus can be found in Nogales, Arizona.

"There are so many beautiful sites," said Torres, to be discovered along the trail. "And there is so much history at these sites."

Because of the Anza trail's unique composition, covering various locations in two states, it is unknown just how many people visit it each year. In addition to the Anza trail's vehicular route, there are also 500 miles of certified hiking trails along the path taken by the expedition. Spurs can be found in sections of the East Bay Regional Park District as well as along the Los Angeles River.

"Some people have walked the entire route. It is rare, though people do it," said Torres.

Another 600 miles of the Anza trail can be found south of the border in Mexico. This November, Sonoran officials will commemorate the Anza expedition's initial departure.

"We are working with the state of Sonora to understand the people and culture that influenced Northern California," said Torres.

To learn more about the Anza trail and its various sites, visit https://www.nps.gov/juba/index.htm