The San Diego History Center in Balboa Park is where visitors can now experience a very special exhibition. The incredibly rich and diverse history of our city is recalled on the 250th anniversary of the United States of America.
America at 250: San Diego 1776 – 2026 features a wide range of historical artifacts, from San Diego’s earliest days to the present.
Even as a long-time resident, it’s still hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that San Diego was once part of Spain, half a world away. California’s first Spanish mission was established here in 1769, seven years before the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence.
For thousands of years, before the arrival of Europeans in the 18th century, the San Diego region was home to the native Kumeyaay people. It was a wild, mostly unmapped place distant from “civilization” and relatively unknown to the rest of the world. How times have changed!
Here are a few of the artifacts on display. My captions include some of the information presented for each object…
George Marston’s armario, dated from the 17th century. The antique wardrobe, from Burgos, Spain features a santos statue and is reminiscent of Spain’s religious life. George Marston, often called San Diego’s First Citizen, was a founder of Balboa Park.El Jupiter, a Spanish Presidio cannon. Cast in Manila in 1783. After the Mexican-American War, where it was reportedly used, it was placed in Old Town as a monument. The cannon would be accidently blown up by people celebrating a wedding.Chief Iodine’s jacket. A Native American born on a New York Iroquois Reservation, he explored much of the West with John C. Fremont and enlisted in the Mexican-American War as an army scout. He participated in the capture of San Diego.The Machado Quilt, circa 1850. One of the oldest known quilts in San Diego history. It was created by Doña Juana de Dios Machado Alipas Wrightington.Old Town survey map, 1854. Shows what is now Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. Many of the buildings on this survey are now gone.Washington hand printing press, circa 1880s. The San Diego Union used the Washington press, printing its first edition with it in 1868.Concord 12-passenger stagecoach. This stagecoach, numbered 158, began to be used for passenger travel in 1886 between San Diego City to Julian, El Cajon, Lakeside, and the Stonewall Mines.Guest register for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. The huge book was created in 1911.Model T touring car, circa 1921. This car was owned by prominent San Diegan philanthropist and athlete Florence Chambers Newkirk, who competed in the 1924 Paris Olympics.Mission Beach changing room, 1925. It was first built for the Mission Beach Plunge in Belmont Park.Civil Service helmet, circa 1940s. Used by an Air Raid Warden belonging to the Civil Defense Force during World War II.Model of tuna clipper Triunfo, circa 1940. Created by Joao G. Rebelo, a crew member.Model of San Diego Stadium, 1960s. This model was built by Gary Allen as an initial rendering for the public.Republican National Convention doll, 1996. A novelty doll with the interchangeable heads of Bill Clinton and Bob Dole. San Diego was host to the national convention.
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If you’ve wondered what it was like to sail into San Diego Bay on a Spanish galleon back in the 16th century, you have the opportunity to enjoy the amazing experience!
San Salvador, the seaworthy replica galleon built by the Maritime Museum of San Diego, sails out of downtown San Diego a couple time a month, taking visitors on a memorable adventure on the water!
San Salvador, a full size replica of the Spanish galleon flagship used by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo to explore the California coast in 1542, was built by the museum back around 2015 on the shore of Spanish Landing. You can see photos of its construction here.
Today, passengers board the ship at the museum and typically enjoy a four hour sail off Point Loma. That’s what I did yesterday!
The trip was nearly a sell-out, so between passengers and about a dozen crew members, the galleon was quite lively. It really became lively out on the open ocean, when the round hulled galleon really rocked and rolled! (If you are susceptible to motion sickness, take a Dramamine in advance of your journey, and keep your eyes on the horizon.)
One cool aspect of the trip was everyone learned a lot about the history of Cabrillo’s exploration, Spanish conquistadors, and San Diego as it was many centuries ago.
During the sail, I recommend hanging out on either the raised foredeck or quarterdeck, where you have the best views and can watch the dynamic crew working the sails and yards.
After Captain David briefed the passengers on safety, we were on our way through San Diego Bay using San Salvador‘s two diesel engines. Because galleons are square rigged, you can’t sail into the wind. On the way back into the bay from the Pacific Ocean, we sailed with the wind and didn’t taken our sails down until back near the Embarcadero.
Okay, let’s see some photos!
We are ready to pull away from the Maritime Museum’s barge…
Here we go! I started out by standing near a foredeck ladder looking back at the shrinking San Diego skyline.
I climbed up onto the foredeck…
Crew members getting to work…
I shifted my position to the quarterdeck. You can see the whole ship from here and observe the captain, who was standing near me.
That guy in the open window is the helmsman. From a sheltered spot he can observe the sails and way forward, while manually steering San Salvador under orders from the captain. He uses a vertical lever whipstaff to move the tiller, which turns the rudder.
A sail is being readied from the foredeck.
There’s Spike Africa! The schooner participated in last weekend’s Schooner Cup race, which I enjoyed from aboard Bill of Rights. See those photos here!
Heading out to sea down the channel, with North Island on our port side. A sailboat was watching us! Captain David is still using the diesel engines.
Almost out into the Pacific Ocean. That’s the New Point Loma Lighthouse down by the water.
Shortly before, we saluted Cabrillo National Monument by firing one of the galleon’s swivel guns. Fingers in ears can’t hold the camera!
It turned out to be a perfect, partly cloudy day.
We’re starting to roll! Hanging on!
Many hands raising the galleon’s sails…
Now I’m looking rearward from the quarterdeck.
Some folks headed down to the lower main deck where the rolling is less severe.
Lots of exciting action closeby!
A sailboat ahead requires a steering maneuver.
A NOAA research ship was also heading down the channel away from San Diego.
If you want, you can train to become a volunteer crew member on the Maritime Museum of San Diego’s amazing tall ships!
We’re being slowly propelled forward by wind power! Galleons aren’t terribly fast. We managed 3 knots. (That’s about 3 1/2 miles per hour–the speed at which I walk!) Imagine being an explorer in the 16th century rolling about on the open ocean moving at this quite modest speed!
There are various places where passengers can safely sit during the voyage.
After we tacked and began sailing back toward Point Loma, I headed to the galleon’s beak.
I turned around…
We are under sail almost all the way back to the museum. Once we enter San Diego Bay, it’s much smoother sailing! This is the life.
Now I headed once more to the foredeck…
Looking down at the beak as yards are squared to capture the wind from our rear.
There’s Spike Africa again, off of Harbor Island!
We all raise a lusty cheer for Spike Africa. Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray!
After a few moments, they return the cheer!
If you’d like to enjoy a similar adventure, check out San Salvador‘s webpage by clicking here!
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Another year is passing by. In a couple of weeks, Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos) will be observed. Loved ones who’ve passed on from this life will be remembered.
The gravesites at El Campo Santo in Old Town are decorated already. Every early resident of San Diego buried here is remembered with flowers, papel picado, Day of the Dead skulls… Every person here was loved by someone.
This small cemetery is the final resting place of so many different people: the Kumeyaay, Spanish, Mexican, American. Newborn babies, the elderly. The rich, the poor. Public figures, unknown people. The lucky, the unlucky. Victims of old age, disease, accident, violence, injustice.
Mortals all.
Every one was loved by someone.
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The annual Cervantes Festival was held today in San Diego!
Families, students and lovers of literature came together at the International Cottages in Balboa Park to enjoy food, culture, art, and most importantly, the public reading of author Miguel de Cervantes’ world classic Don Quijote de La Mancha!
When I arrived around noon, foreign language students from El Capitan High School were reading excerpts from the novel in Mandarin Chinese! I noted that students from San Diego High School were also participating in the event, which lasted from 11 am to 4 pm.
The unique cultural festival, which I was told is in its eleventh year, was organized by the San Diego/Alcalá Sister Cities Society and Balboa Park’s own House of Spain. (Yes, food representing Cervantes’ native Spain included delicious paella.)
I took some photographs as I wandered about…
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
A statue depicting San Diego de Alcalá stands in a beautiful garden near the center of the Catholic University of San Diego.
San Diego de Alcalá (also known as Saint Didacus and Diego de San Nicolás) is the patron saint of USD, not to mention the Franciscan missionary and saint after which San Diego was named.
In 1542 explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo named our city’s bay San Miguel.
Sixty years later, when Spanish explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno sailed into our bay on November 10, 1602, he named it San Diego, which was also the name of his flagship. He put San Diego on his map. That name stuck.
I took photographs of the San Diego de Alcalá statue several months ago, when I visited USD’s Arts and Culture Festival. (Yes, I’m finally posting these photos!)
The bronze sculpture stands in Plaza de San Diego next to the Maher fountain. According to this, it was moved there in 2017 from the entrance of Copley Library.
I know nothing more about the statue. When was it created? By whom? If you know anything more about it, your comment would be very welcome!
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
I’m not a historian. If you are, perhaps you might leave a comment concerning a plaque that is mounted to a flagpole on San Diego’s Presidio Hill, near the ruins of the old Spanish Presidio.
The plaque states:
California Society of the Sons of the American Revolution Commemoration Plaque
IN RECOGNITION OF THE FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS MADE BY THE INHABITANTS OF THE SAN DIEGO PRESIDIO TO SPAIN IN ITS WAR AGAINST GREAT BRITAIN. THESE FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS ASSISTED THE AMERICAN COLONIES IN THE FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Proclaimed on November 4, 2005 by the California Society, Sons of the American Revolution
The Presidio of San Diego was established in 1769, seven years before the adoption of the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776. The American Revolution saw its ultimate success in 1783 when the British signed the Treaty of Paris.
Today four flagpoles stand on Presidio Hill. The four flags represent the United States, the Kumeyaay Nation, Spain and Mexico. They demonstrate that San Diego’s history is both diverse and complex.
How significant were these financial contributions made by inhabitants of the Presidio to Spain? In what form were the contributions? Were they obtained through the labor of indigenous Kumeyaay on the land taken by Spanish missions? San Diego in its very early years was sparsely populated and relatively poor. How, specifically, did these financial contributions help Spain in its war against Great Britain?
Clearly, I’m no historian! If you know more about this, please leave a comment!
UPDATE!
On July 6, 2024 I came across more information concerning this.
During the Independence Day celebration at the International Cottages in Balboa Park, the House of Spain had an elaborate display in front of their cottage, explaining how Spain helped the United States win the Revolutionary War against Great Britain.
An emphasis was placed on the Spanish General Bernardo de Galvez, who provided patriots with money, medicines, arms, and key wartime information. He was a hero at the Battles of Mobile and Pensacola.
One display explained how the Spanish living in distant San Diego contributed, too. “San Diego’s Spanish Patriots” were soldiers at the old Presidio, who provided funds from their own pockets to support America’s fight for independence.
I was told by a gentleman who sounded knowledgeable that in addition to soldiers and others associated with the newly established Spanish Missions, Native Americans up and down California within the Spanish sphere of influence were also “persuaded” to make monetary contributions, albeit in lesser amounts.
Apparently all of these contributions were provided at the request of Junípero Serra. Collected funds then made their way to the opposite coast of America, where they bolstered the efforts of Galvez.
If my understanding of this history isn’t correct, or you know more about the subject, please leave a comment!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Whenever I visit Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, I like to walk over to the Blacksmith Shop to see what might be new. Then I explore the old wagons, carriages, anvils, a tyre bender, and other remnants from the past that are gathered nearby in a sheltered area.
This afternoon the first thing I spotted was two coffins!
When I asked Todd in the Blacksmith Shop why coffins had strangely appeared, I learned they’re props to be used in the State Park during Día de los Muertos. (The one that appears newly painted had me worried!)
I then learned something new concerning the wooden carriage that will be constructed for El Capitan, the historic Spanish cannon that used to sit in the middle of Old Town’s plaza.
It has been a couple of years, but now the carriage project is definitely underway. A new carriage will be built with the help of the Maritime Museum of San Diego!
Todd held up a small cannon model made with a 3D printer. Once completed, El Capitan’s new carriage should appear somewhat similar. (The current carriage, built in the 1980s, has deteriorated quite a bit because it never was painted.)
To read more about Old Town’s 18th century Spanish cannon and this slowly developing project, check out thesetwo past blog posts!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Spain’s first outpost in Southern California, the 1769 Royal Presidio of San Diego, is long gone. Its ruins are buried on Presidio Hill just beneath the Junípero Serra Museum. Grassy mounds and bits of old brick can still be found as one walks about.
This historical site is a place where very diverse stories were lived. It’s a place were many were buried when life finally ended.
At the corner of the main visitor’s parking lot one can find an historical marker. On the rear of a nearby kiosk is a faded Burial Register.
SAN DIEGO PRESIDIO SITE
SOLDIERS, SAILOR, INDIANS, AND FRANCISCAN MISSIONARIES FROM NEW SPAIN OCCUPIED THE LAND AT PRESIDIO HILL ON MAY 17, 1769 AS A MILITARY OUTPOST. TWO MONTHS LATER FR. JUNIPERO SERRA ESTABLISHED THE FIRST SAN DIEGO MISSION ON PRESIDIO HILL. OFFICIALLY PROCLAIMED A SPANISH PRESIDIO ON JANUARY 1, 1774, THE FORTRESS WAS LATER OCCUPIED BY A SUCCESSION OF MEXICAN FORCES. THE PRESIDIO WAS ABANDONED IN 1837 AFTER SAN DIEGO BECAME A PUEBLO.
CALIFORNIA REGISTERED HISTORICAL LAND MARK NO. 59
HERE, IN THIS PARK, LIE THE REMAINS OF THE ORIGINAL RESIDENTS OF THE PRESIDIO, BOTH NATIVE AND IMMIGRANTS, OF THIS ORIGINAL SETTLEMENT THAT LATER BECAME THE CITY OF SAN DIEGO. BELOW IS A LIST OF THE INDIVIDUALS WHO HELPED CREATE THE COMMUNITY, LIVED THEIR LIVES HERE, AND WERE BURIED IN THESE PRESIDIO GROUNDS. THESE PEOPLE CAME FROM AND REPRESENT PLACES ALL OVER THE WORLD. IMPORTANTLY, THEIR LIVES WERE DEDICATED TO HELP BUILD THIS COMMUNITY.
Source: The Catholic Church Burial Register
During past walks, I’ve photographed other historical plaques and signs on Presidio Hill. See many of them here and here.
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
The Cervantes Festival was held today in San Diego!
The House of Spain hosted the fun cultural event in Balboa Park, with visitors enjoying entertainment, authentic Spanish food, a kids art table and more. I’m told the festival kicked off in the morning with young people reading from Cervantes’ classic novel Don Quixote.
When I arrived, people were watching flamenco dance on the International Cottages lawn and devouring tasty Spanish paella, jamón serrano, Manchego cheese (made in the La Mancha region of Spain) and other gastronomic goodies.
I walked about for a bit, looking for sights related to the great Spanish novelist Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. I found small sculptures of the timeless character Don Quixote and his sidekick Sancho Panza in a display case inside the House of Spain cottage!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Visitors to Cabrillo National Monument might perceive an apparent contradiction.
There are three plaques along the walkway that approaches the statue of Cabrillo. They seem to recognize the explorer as being both Portuguese and Spanish!
In 1615, historian Antonio de Herrera listed Cabrillo’s name as Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo Portuguese, giving him a third last name or apellido. This led many people to believe Cabrillo was Portuguese. In 2015 a researcher discovered evidence that Cabrillo said he was a native of Spain…
…(the) historian stumbled across Cabrillo’s name in this legal document dated February 12, 1532. In it, Cabrillo identifies himself as “a native of Palma de Micer Gilio,” now Palma del Rio in Cordoba, Spain.
A Viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de Mendoza, selected Cabrillo to lead an exploration of the Pacific coast. Cabrillo sailed into San Diego harbor under the Spanish flag aboard the San Salvador.
San Diego held the first Cabrillo Festival in 1892. Members of the Portuguese community in San Diego have been supporting Cabrillo National Monument since the 1930s…
TO THE PORTUGUESE NAVIGATOR JOAO RODRIGUES CABRILHO – A TRIBUTE FROM THE PORTUGUESE NAVY – APRIL 1957A TRIBUTE FROM THE PORTUGUESE NAVY TO THE PORTUGUESE NAVIGATOR – JOAO RODRIGUES CABRILHO – ON THE OCCASION OF THE REDEDICATION OF THE STATUE IN HIS HONOUR – FEBRUARY 1988In homage to the Spanish expedition composed of the ships SAN SAVADOR, VICTORIA AND SAN MIGUEL that arrived at San Diego on 28th September 1542 under the command of JUAN RODRIGUEZ CABRILLO who took possession of these lands on behalf of His Catholic Majesty CHARLES I King of SPAIN opening the maritime route that led to the subsequent development of California – The Spanish Navy – September 28, 2003
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
