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As commemorative festivities get underway nationwide to mark the 250th year since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Bay Area historians, parks officials and educators are in the throes of parallel remembrance events aimed at showcasing and reflecting on what was happening on their side of the continent in the same year.
2026 also marks the 250th anniversary of the Anza Expedition’s trek through Arizona and California, in which Spanish colonists first brought along families and livestock with the goal of establishing a permanent settlement for the empire as it expanded its missionary system into the Bay Area, leaving a permanent mark that continues to shape the region in the present day.
While the expedition was framed at the time and in earlier studies of its history as one in which new lands were discovered and new civilizations were developed, organizers and historians behind this year’s events are seeking to provide a more nuanced and accurate view into the legacy of Spanish colonization and the violence and displacement that ensued for the region’s existing Indigenous populations.
In particular, that means recognizing that the route the expedition took and the Indigenous people who helped them along the way goes back much further than 250 years.
“What is known as the Anza trail has existed well before Spanish colonists set out from Miguel de Horcasitas, Mexico in 1775 to trek 1,800 miles to the San Francisco Bay,” wrote Sherry Rupert, CEO of the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association in a tour guide prepared by the National Park Service to mark the expedition’s sesquicentennial.
In addition to the anniversary of the expedition itself, this year’s events signify the culmination of a yearslong effort for the NPS and the Anza Trail Foundation to collaborate with and showcase voices of the ancestors of the wide range of indigenous civilizations who had set down roots on the land long before Juan Bautista de Anza’s time, according to San Ramon Valley historian and retired elected official Beverly Lane.
Lane is among the crop of local history buffs and trails enthusiasts who are familiar with the expedition and the route of the commemorative Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail that was first recognized in 1990.
The 250th anniversary of the expedition’s foray into the Tri-Valley was April 5, marked by an ongoing exhibit at the Museum of the San Ramon Valley, a symposium at Los Medanos College and a guest speaker set for a virtual discussion later this month.
The exhibit at MSRV in downtown Danville also has its own history, according to Lane.
First installed at the Martinez Adobe at the John Muir National Historic Site in partnership with the NPS, the exhibit had been set to be in its permanent home. That changed in 2019 when the adobe began sinking and began an ongoing closure for structural repairs the following year that continue to have no clear end in sight.
Lane, who was familiar with the exhibit and the situation from her work on the trail board, began moving pieces of it to the Danville museum where she continues to spend much of her time curating exhibits despite having retired from a decades-long career in public service, departing the East Bay Regional Park District Board of Directors in 2022.
“We wanted the public to see it,” Lane reasoned.
That goal was finally achieved years later, when the exhibit debuted for its monthslong run on Feb. 1.
One highlight of the previously displaced exhibit that is now on display through late spring is a series of paintings commissioned by a partnership between the NPS and the California Indian Heritage Center Foundation to artists descended from the Indigenous peoples of the region who first encountered the vast expedition that would go on to pave the way for the expansion of the Mission system and the squeezing of California’s Indigenous cultures into its servile and religious confines.
Disrespect and disregard for the Indigenous tribes encountered in the expedition was well-documented in the writings of both Anza and his chaplain Pedro Font on their journey, as in particular was abuse of Indigenous women by Spanish soldiers according to Lane.
But the major goal – and ongoing significance – of the voyage that distinguishes it from previous visits to the area by the Spanish was establishing a permanent presence that would seek to win over Indigenous inhabitants by conversion to Catholicism rather than enslavement sheerly by military action and brute force.
Although the rhetoric of the time justified the enslavement of Indigenous people as a supposedly civilizing effort that was part of a greater mission of taming and mapping the natural world, tribes along the expedition route had already been managing, documenting and developing travel and trade routes – including what is now known as the Anza Trail – for centuries prior.
“The 1,210-mile U.S. section that begins in Nogales, Arizona, passes through the lands of the many Indigenous Peoples who lived in the deserts, wetlands, mountains and coastlines of today’s Arizona and California,” Rupert wrote.
“Native communities had already created a vast network of trade routes, forging paths between their homelands long before European arrival,” Rupert added. “Villages shared these routes with Anza and supported the Anza Party as it crossed the Colorado River and sought other water sources along their journey. In addition to water, Tribes shared food, shelter and vital knowledge of the terrain. Without Native help, the Anza Party would have perished.”
While the Bay Area region and much of present-day California had already been claimed by the Spanish empire, Anza’s expedition was motivated by potential challenges to the empire’s control of the territory without a permanent Spanish settlement amid Russian colonization efforts to the north and the establishment of the colonies to the east.
That logic behind the Spanish missionary system ultimately led to the establishment of Mission Dolores 250 years ago in October, with construction on what has become the oldest structure in San Francisco being completed by the indentured Ohlone people of the region years later between 1788 and 1790.
In addition to the remaining marked headstones of numerous European settlers that would come to the region in the years that ensued, the cemetery at Mission Dolores is now home to a statue commemorating the estimated 5,000 unmarked graves of Indigenous people who died following its establishment.
While a small token, that tribute is part of an ongoing effort in historical circles to recognize, account for, and face head-on the often troubling past behind some of California’s most prominent landmarks. For Lane and the MSRV, that meant complimentary displays aimed at recognizing indigenous heritage and the impacts of the mission system were already on hand.
“NPS had a lot of Spanish artifacts to clarify the culture that came with the Spanish,” Lane said. “MSRV added Indigenous reproductions from the First People’s exhibit ‘Cultures Merge’.”
Those include replicas of obsidian points, a pump drill and a Chumash boat that were in common use by the region’s first inhabitants at the time of the Anza expedition.
As a longtime MSRV curator, Lane has taken efforts not to just provide a temporary home for the displaced exhibit replicating the NPS exhibit, but to add to it from her and the museum’s other partners and resources, including loans from the state archives plaques with excerpts from original source material.
“The source for much of it is Anza’s military diary and Father Font’s missionary diary,” Lane said, calling the latter “some of the best in any expedition diaries in the west” and Font a “compulsive writer” who “wrote what he saw”.
As the party entered the eastern Livermore Valley 250 years ago, one of the things they documented and puzzled over most extensively was Lake Del Valle, unsure what kind of body of water to classify it as, as well as how to navigate the surrounding land after making the final overnight stop of their East Bay journey at what is now known as Campsite 102 on the historic trail route.
Overall, they were not impressed, according to Font’s diary entry on April 4, 1776.
“All the country which we have traversed today, with the exception of that which has water, and the stretch which we have traveled over the last hills, is barren of any pasturage or brush or trees, and apparently it continues in the same way toward the east,” Font wrote.
Ultimately, it was the water that prevented the party from making contact with the existing Ohlone civilization at the time, despite putting them on the map for the Spanish who would later take over the Tri-Valley region for use as grazing land by Mission San Jose when it was established the following year.
“We attempted to go to the nearest village, but it was not possible because of the mires and the water of various sloughs which we saw the Indians cross in their little rafts, of which we saw two made of this tule,” Font wrote. “We also saw that they made little mounds of earth as sites for their villages, to free them somewhat from the water.”
But what were leaders of the 240-person expedition who had been tasked by their government with documenting an overland route between what is now Sonora, Mexico and San Francisco doing in the East Bay?
A glance at the historic trail map makes it appear that they must have gotten lost or sidetracked. But according to Lane, what it amounted to was a side quest for Anza and Font, who left a majority of the party and livestock in Monterey and set off with the goal of exploring the Sierra Nevada mountain range by way of the East Bay.
The scouting party continued south following its brief stop on the outskirts of what is now Livermore, ultimately returning to Monterey to join the rest of the party and complete its mission of establishing the San Francisco Presidio and Mission Dolores later that year.
With the anniversaries of those prominent landmarks and the signing of the Declaration of Independence on the horizon later this year, East Bay historians such as Lane are showcasing a lesser-known and lesser thought about portion of the expedition and the historic trail – and of U.S. history.
The East Bay Anza 250 Symposium this weekend is aimed at offering a deep dive into this sometimes overlooked portion of Spanish colonial history and its legacy in the region, serving as “a collaborative gathering that explores the expedition’s impact on the East Bay, honors Indigenous legacies, and fosters dialogue about how this history informs our present”, according to a press release from the Contra Costa County Historical Society.
The symposium will feature an exhibit hall serving as a “dedicated space for a deeper, context-rich understanding of the historical and cultural significance of the Anza Trail”, as well as a series of speakers aimed at providing a “vibrant tapestry of voices to explore the multifaceted legacy of the Anza Expedition”.
“By pairing the scholarly insights of local historians and naturalists with the deeply personal narratives of expedition descendants, we aim to provide an inclusive history that honors the trail’s complex past,” according to Leigh Ann Davis, CEO of the historical society.
Panelists will include local historians, naturalists and descendants of the expedition.
“These sessions bring together diverse voices to explore the environmental, cultural, and personal history of the trail, offering a unique, in-depth, and engaging perspective on this historic journey,” Davis wrote.
The symposium is set for Saturday (April 11) from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Los Medanos College in Pittsburg. More information and registration is available at cocohistory.org.
Next week, MSRV is set to host longtime NPS historian and leader of the Anza 250 commemoration Christopher Bentley, who organizers said has been “instrumental” in expanding present-day understanding of the expedition and its impacts.
“Building upon the Spanish colonial history that many are familiar with, Mr. Bentley pulls in archaeology and ethnographic accounts of Indigenous experiences to highlight Native pathways and knowledge that made the journey possible,” MSRV organizers wrote.
“Additionally, focusing on the diverse backgrounds and heritage of the 30 families on the colonizing expedition sets the tone for how we understand California, how we continue to live out this history, and why the trail is relevant to us today. He works to ensure that the 250th anniversary is a bridge between the past and present, fostering deeper conversations about resilience and shared history.”
More information on the virtual event – set for Thursday (April 16) at 11:30 a.m. – and the ongoing exhibition in Danville are available at museumsrv.org.
