Anza Route and Campsites in Southern Arizona

The Anza trail is well known. This is the historic trail established by Juan Bautista de Anza on his way to the San Francisco Bay area in 1775 and 1776, with some 240 colonists, including men women and children. Juan Bautista de Anza was captain of the Spanish presidio of Tubac, now in southern Arizona. And so, our search for evidence begins here and nearby and then follows the route north to the general area of Picacho Peak.

One of the reasons we know so much about this trail is that some of the participants left journals of this historic journey; even a map has been preserved. Nonetheless, to date, historians and history buffs have only been able to reconstruct the broad outlines of the route. Despite discussions of people and places encountered, and league distances provided, the actual route remains vague. This is because there are discrepancies between accounts and the number of leagues they were said to have traveled. There are differences in the length of leagues used. There are problems with the few longitude and latitude readings they provided. Even the map scale is such that only the excessively broad corridor can be discerned.

Even though some specific reference points have been proclaimed by historians and descendants, no evidence of the trail itself or the specific camping sites have been identified. The exceptions are those that were established at known locations, such as Tubac presidio. Some place names have survived such as Canoa, Las Lagunas, and so on, that allow us to peg the general confines of the route, but not specifically where they walked, rode, and slept. No on-the-ground archaeological evidence has been identified, so one suggestion is as good as any other until actual physical evidence can be connected to the journals and maps. My goal is to remedy this by taking into account what people think they know and by examining existing evidence, such as road segments at Tubac Presidio, and finding new archaeological, physical, and geographic evidence of the actual trail and campsites, whatever character that evidence may entail. This is the first of many planned videos on the Anza route and the archaeological evidence of the actual trail route and camp sites. This video covers what I have been able to discern so far based on limited work undertaken during the first few months of Covid.