Brief by Central Staff
Local History – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
The first person to write about Central Colorado — more specifically, the area of Saguache, Poncha Pass, and Poncha Springs — was Juan Bautista de Anza, the governor and military commander of the Spanish province of New Mexico.
In 1779, he led a military expedition north from Santa Fé, and his campaign journal became the first written account of this part of the world. On Aug. 27, 1779, he crossed Poncha Pass, and camped that night at the present site of the town of Poncha Springs.
His visit will be commemorated this year on Friday, Aug. 23, with a 7 p.m. potluck in Poncha’s Chipeta Park, followed by a presentation at 8 p.m. in the town hall by Dr. Wilfred Martinez of Pueblo, who recently published the book Decisive Battle: Anza and Cuerno Verde.
But Anza’s visit here was just part of his career; his major accomplishment may have been the founding of San Francisco, Calif., in 1776. There are scholars in several countries who study him and his career, and every year they hold an Anza World Conference in Mexico or the United States.
The 2002 conference was in May in Arizpe, Sonora, Mexico, where Anza retired and died; the 2001 conference was in Pueblo, and it was reported by Salida’s Earle Kittleman in our October, 2001 edition (www.cozine/archive/cc2001/00920351.htm).
Next year, they plan to meet in Arizona, but our turn could be coming in 2004 — there are tentative plans to hold it in Poncha Springs and Salida on Aug. 27-29 of that year, 225 years to the day after he came through.
The operative word here at the moment is tentative, though; we’ll keep you posted as we learn more.