Brief by Central Staff
History – January 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
There won’t be an Anza Day here in 2004, but that doesn’t mean that the 1779 campaign by Juan Bautista de Anza will not be commemorated. Indeed, Poncha Springs and Salida will host the ninth annual Anza World Conference in late August.
The conference is a gathering of scholars and history buffs who are interested in Anza’s career. A Spanish officer, Anza is probably best known on the West Coast. In 1776, he led colonists north from Sonora, Mexico, to northern California, where they founded San Francisco.
There’s an Anza Street in San Francisco. The U.S. part of the route, from Nogales, Arizona, to San Francisco, is designated the Juan Bautista de Anza Historic Trail. Along the way, in Cupertino, California, is De Anza College.
After establishing the Presidio of San Francisco on the West Coast, Anza was transferred to Santa Fé as governor of New Mexico. In 1779 he led a military campaign against the Jupe Comanche, who had been raiding pueblos in the Taos area. He led an army of 800 men north on a circuitous course so as to surprise the Comanche when they came out of the mountains after their raid.
His journal forms the first written account of the Saguache area, Poncha Pass, and the upper Arkansas valley. On Friday, Aug. 27, 1779, he camped at the site of the present town of Poncha Springs.
And 225 years to the day later — Friday, Aug. 27, 2004 — the plan is to have Anza’s modern impersonator, Don Garate, speak and perform at the same place where Anza camped: Chipeta Park in Poncha Springs.
Garate, a historical ranger for the National Park Service, spoke at the 1997 Anza Day celebration in Poncha, and since then people have been asking when he’ll be back.
Garate’s presentation will be free and open to the public. Other portions of the Anza World Conference will likely require a registration fee. Those details haven’t all been worked out yet, but the conference is scheduled for Aug. 27-29, with most presentations happening at the Steam Plant.
About 150 people are expected. Many will fly into Albuquerque, then ride vans which will follow Anza’s route from Santa Fé to Poncha during the same time of year as the 1779 expedition.
