Friends of Griffith Park, in partnership with the National Park Service and the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, will celebrate the 240^th anniversary of the historic 1,200 mile Anza Expedition, which arrived in Los Angeles in 1776, with the first ever re-enactment ride in Griffith Park involving more than a dozen horses and scores of volunteer re-enactors in period costume on Saturday, May 14^th, 2016 from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. at Griffith Park's Crystal Springs Picnic Area, 4730 Crystal Springs Dr., L.A., 90027. At this FREE event for all ages, re-enactors and the public will be able to view and participate in a colorful heritage festival, historical cooking and cultural demonstrations, music, dance, the arrival of Captain Juan Bautista de Anza on horseback and other activities.

 

Refreshments will be available for purchase and participants are encouraged to bring picnic baskets.

 

Griffith Park contains a premier segment of the 1,200-mile Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail. The 4-mile recreation trail in Griffith Park is one of the best places in the Los Angels area to reflect on the legacy and impact of the historic Anza Expedition.

 

The arrival of the families of the Anza Expedition in 1775-76 changed California forever. In the fall of 1775, a company of soldiers, their wives and children left present-day Arizona under the command of Captain Juan Bautista de Anza. With more than 240 people and 1,000 head of livestock, their goal was to establish the Spanish empire's northernmost settlement at San Francisco Bay. The crown's motivation was to strengthen the colony and hold off English and Russian expansion. The motivation of the expedition members, however, was more familiar; the hope for a better life. Anza had recruited the families from the present-day states of Sinaloa and Sonora, Mexico. The people represented many castes of the Spanish frontier-a mix of Native American, European, and African heritage. More than half of the expedition members were children. Since there were no roads, pack mules and donkeys carried the band's six tons of food, tents, and implements. Altogether, the expedition made up a column that was a mile long and a quarter-mile wide. The travelers faced blistering drought in the California desert and were pinned down for days in the Santa Rosa Mountains shivering through sleet and snow.

 

In February 1776, the expedition reached el rio de Los Angeles, camping near the site of today's Griffith Park. Continuing north, Anza's party would establish San Francisco and San Jose and lay the foundation of modern California.

 

In 1990, Congress created the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail to honor the legacy of the 1775-1776 Anza Expedition. The National Park Service administers the trail which includes the 1,200 mile expedition corridor from Nogales, Arizona to the San Francisco Bay area. Since 2011, Friends of Griffith Park has been involved in an initiative to identify and enhance Griffith Park's portion of the trail, serving as Project Cooperator for a primary planning team that includes the National Park Service Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Program and the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks. Major project goals include adding interpretive signage, mitigating freeway noise, improving maintenance, promoting connectivity to the Los Angeles River, and increasing native vegetation to provide shade for trail users as well as habitat for the species that use the trail as a corridor from the Park's uplands to its river.