NUMBER 304
VALLECITO STAGE STATION
The name Vallecito, which means
"Little Valley," dates from Spanish times. The salt grass cienega
made the valley the goal of travelers to California from Sonora in
the early years of California, as it held the first good water in
any quantity to be found on the west side of the Colorado Desert.
During the Gold Rush period immigrants in large numbers stopped to
refresh themselves and their animals after what was called "The
journey of Death" across the
Imperial Valley. The road through this valley was the
great southern immigrant trail, the only wagon road into
Southern California. In the early 1850's
James R. Lassator built the house, of sod cut from the
cienega, to serve as a stopping place for parties passing through.
The roots can be seen in the walls. This structure is not an adobe.
Vallecito was an important stop for Army detachments leaving and
entering California, from the time
General Kearny's Army of the West stopped here on the road to
defeat at San Pasqual. The house became a station on the San
Antonio-San Diego Mail Route (The
"Jackass Mail") in 1857, and in 1858 it was made one of the
stops of the famous
Butterfield Overland Mail. It is one of the chief landmarks
remaining from the great stage line between Missouri and San
Francisco. The present building is a reconstruction. It is nineteen
miles south of Scissors Crossing which is twelve miles east of
Julian on Highway 79. Vallecito Days is a popular annual
event. See flyers:
Location: Vallecito
Stage Station County Park, on 37349 County Rd S2 (P.M. 34.7)
Shelter Valley, 3.7 mi NW of Agua Caliente Springs see also:
Vallecito
Cemetery
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NUMBER 472
BOX CANYON
 A
little over eight miles south of Highway 78 at Scissors Crossing,
the Vallecito road passes along the west side of
Box Canyon, a narrow defile about a mile long. Through the
bottom of the wash went the California-Sonora Trail of the Mexican
Era, the route of General Kearny and the Mormon Battalion, the Great
Southern Immigrant Trail of the Gold Rush and after, and the
Butterfield Overland Mail road. On their long march from Council
Bluffs to San Diego, the Mormon Battalion hacked out, with axes, a
way for their wagons through the chasm in the rocks, which, until
then, had been a foot too narrow. Box Canyon became, thereby, the
first wagon road into Southern California, and prairie schooners
with their shuddering white tops creaked through it like ships
through a canal. There were only inches to spare, even for
Butterfield's Concord stage coaches. Completion of more direct wagon
roads east from San Diego and Los Angeles caused the old trail to
the Colorado to be gradually deserted in the latter years of the
Nineteenth Century.
Location: On County Road S2 (P.M. 25.7), 8.6 mi S of State
Hwy 78, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park
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NUMBER 634 EL
VADO
 In
1774 Captain Juan Bautista de Anza opened the overland trail from Sonora to
California which bears his name. It was badly needed to keep Californian
settlements supplied, and in contact with Mexico, in case of a war with a
maritime power. On his second expedition over the route he brought the first
white women to California among the settlers in his party, who were sent out
to found San Francisco. On this journey Captain de Anza stopped from
December 20 to 22, 1775, at
El Vado, in the mouth of Coyote Canyon, 7.1 miles north of Christmas
Circle in Borrego Springs. El Vado means "The Ford."
Location: 6 mi NW of Borrego Springs on Borrego Springs Rd (dirt),
Anza -Borrego Desert State Park, ask at Visitor Center
see map
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NUMBER 635 LOS
PUERTECITOS
 Captain
Juan Bautista de Anza's second expedition marched through this little pass
December 19, 1775 on its way to strengthen Spanish colonization in
California. Many of the 240 members of the party were recruited from Mexico
to be the first residents of San Francisco. They had camped the preceding
night somewhere in the wide flats just east of this monument.
Location: On State Hwy 78 (P.M. 93.8), 1.6 mi E of Ocotillo Wells
see map
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NUMBER 639 PALM
SPRING
 Here
Mexican pioneers coming to California between 1862 and 1866 rested among the
palms; here, too, came mountain men, the Army of the West, the Mormon
Battalion, a boundary commission, '49ers, a railway survey team, the
Butterfield Overland Mail stages, and the California Legion. This was the
site of the Butterfield stage station built in 1858 by Warren F. Hall.
Location: On Vallecito Creek Rd, 1.6 mi E of County Rd S2 (P.M.
43.1), 6.3 mi SE of Agua Caliente Springs, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park
see a panorama
of Palm spring
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NUMBER 647
PUERTA / BUTTERFIELD OVERLAND MAIL ROUTE
 This
pass, Puerta, between the desert and the cooler valleys to the north, was
used by the Mormon Battalion, Kearny's Army of the West, the
Butterfield Overland Mail stages, and emigrants who eventually settled
the West. The eroded scar on the left was the route of the Butterfield
stages, 1858-1861. The road on the right served as a county road until
recent years.
Location: Blair
Valley, 0.5 mi E of County Rd S2 (P.M. 23.0), 5.8 mi S of State Hwy 78,
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park
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NUMBER 673 SAN
GREGORIO
 Somewhere
in this narrow valley, perhaps on this very spot, the Anza Expeditions of
1774 and 1775 made their camps. Water for the 240 people and over 800 head
of stock on the 1775 march was obtained from a series of wells, deeper than
the height of a man, dug into the sandy bottom of the wash.
Location: Borrego Sink, 3 mi SE of Palm Canyon Dr and Peg Leg Rd,
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park; ask at Visitor Center
see map
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NUMBER 750 PEG
LEG SMITH MONUMENT
 Thomas
L. Smith, better known as 'Peg Leg,' 1801-1866, was a mountain man,
prospector, and spinner of tall tales. Legends regarding his lost gold mine
have grown through the years, and countless people have searched the desert
for its fabulous wealth. The mine could be within a few miles of this
monument.
more info
Location: Henderson Canyon Rd, 1,000 ft N of Pegleg Rd,
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park
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NUMBER 785
SANTA CATARINA
 This
spring was named by Captain Juan Bautista de Anza when his overland
exploration party camped here on March 14, 1774, on the journey that opened
the Anza Trail from Sonora into Alta California. Anza's colonizing
expedition of 1775, consisting of 240 persons and over 800 head of
livestock, camped here the night of December 23.
Location: Santa Catarina Springs, 10 mi NW of Borrego Springs
(4-wheel drive dirt rd), Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, ask at Visitor
Center see map
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NUMBER 793
SAN FELIPE VALLEY AND STAGE STATION
 Here
the southern trail of explorers, trappers, soldiers, and emigrants crossed
ancient trade routes of Kamia, Cahuilla, Diegueno, and Luiseņo Indians. On
the flat southwest across the creek, Warren F. Hall built and operated the
San Felipe home station of the Butterfield Mail, which operated from 1858 to
1861. Later the station was used by Banning Stages and by the military
during the Civil War.
Location: On County Hwy S2 (P.M. 15.9), 0.9 mi NW of intersection of
State Hwy 78, near Anza-Borrego Desert State Park
see
Office of Historic Preservation &
USC Digital Archive
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