250th Anniversary of Anza Expedition encampment along Burlingame Creek

Some five months later, on March 10, 1776, they arrived at what was then Spain’s most northern presidio, Monterey, having traveled some 1,200 miles by horseback, mule and by foot. Despite enduring blazing-hot deserts, icy-cold snowstorms and one of California’s first recorded earthquakes, only one person died on the trail, the mother of a new-born baby boy who was born breech. She died from childbirth complications.

Soon after arriving in Monterey, Capt. Anza left with a small reconnaissance party to find a site near the San Francisco Bay for the new mission and presidio. On their way north, they spent the night of March 26 by Burlingame Creek, near today’s Heritage Park. On their return to Monterey after finding the sites that would become today’s San Francisco presidio and mission, the exploratory expedition camped March 29 near San Mateo Creek (across from Mills Hospital). In June, just one month before the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia, Captain Anza’s second-in-command, Lieutenant José Joaquín Moraga, led the colonists up the Peninsula to found the city of San Francisco. The large group of immigrants camped and rested at San Mateo Creek for three nights before continuing their journey north. (California Historic Landmark No. 47.)

The anniversary of the Anza expedition is a local kickoff for America’s 250th birthday. At 2 p.m. Sunday, May 17, in the Burlingame library, the Burlingame Historical Society will feature a program on the Anza expedition and the establishment in 1990 of the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail. All are welcome.