The Journal of San Diego History
SAN DIEGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY
Winter 1977, Volume 23, Number 1
James E. Moss, Editor
Thomas L. Scharf, Assistant Editor
Original Articles
- El Camino Real in Baja California: Loreto to San Diego
- By Harry Crosby. Maps by Daira Paulson
- Chicano History: an Oral History Approach
- By Mario T. García
- The True Origins of Spanish Colonial Officials and Missionaries
- By Lucy Killea
- The Blochman Saga in San Diego
- By Trudie Casper
- The Beginning of Secular Colonization in Baja California
- By David Piñera Ramírez. Translated by Anita Alvarez de Williams
Book Reviews
- Desert Documentary: The Spanish Years
- By Kieran McCarty
- “December’s Child” A Book of Chumash Oral Narratives
- Edited, with an Analysis, by Thomas C. Blackburn.
- Yesterday’s San Diego
- By Neil Morgan and Tom Blair.
- Desert Country
- By Steve Crouch
- Rules and Precepts of the Jesuit Missions of Northwestern New Spain
- By Charles W. Polzer
- William Mulholland: A Forgotten Forefather
- By Robert William Matson
- John Muir’s America
- Text by T. H. Watkins, photographs by Dewitt Jones
- John Muir’s Wild America
- Text by Tom Melham, photographs by Farrell Grehan
- Royal Officer in Baja California 1768-1770: Joaquin Velazquez de Leon
- By Iris Wilson Engstrand
- Book Notes
San Diego History
On the Cover
EL CAMINO REAL NEAR SANTA MARIA
Retracing and mapping the fragmentary remains of El Camino Real in Baja California over sometimes arduous terrain is an endeavor best accomplished on mule back. Also known as the Royal Road or the King’s Highway, El Camino Real was begun not long after the arrival of Jesuit missionaries to Baja California in 1697. The road served not only to link a chain of Lower California missions but later as a principal line for communication and commerce between developing towns and outposts of Spanish government.
The cover photograph was taken looking southeast towards the town of Santa Marta and is representative of the scenery where El Camino Real crosses the mountains in the mid peninsula region. The eastern foothills of the Sierra de San Francisco are visible in the background.
In this issue of the Journal, writer and photographer Harry Crosby presents the reasons for development of El Camino Real as well as methods employed in its construction. In addition, a series of twelve new maps, based on Crosby’s recent expeditions, plots the road from Loreto in the southern portion of Baja California to San Diego.
Photograph by Harry Crosby
