Presidio Marker

Location

Taylor Street at the foot of Presidio Hill

Significance

The site of the first permanent European settlement on the Pacific Coast, El Presidio Reál de San Diego (Royal Presidio of San Diego) is a historical fort established on May 14, 1769 by Commandant Pedro Fages for Spain.

Status of the Marker

The marker is still standing (refurbished).

La Playa Trail's
Third Historical Marker

The third marker was dedicated on Friday morning February 16, 1945 by the San Diego Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The monument is located at the foot of Presidio Hill in close proximity to the palm trees planted by Father Serra in Franciscan Gardens. Mrs. LeRoy Wright, grandniece of Jedediah Smith, unveiled the marker. The affair was attended by approximately 100 people.

Jedediah Smith (1798-1831) is credited with blazing the first trail from the Rocky Mountains to Southern California. He's the first American to reach California overland by opening the South Pass, Wyoming route to the far west. In 1826 Jedediah led a contingent of mountain men from the Great Salt Lake down the Colorado River Basin and across the Mohave Desert to the Mission San Gabriel. He made close friends with the Franciscan padre Jose Bernardo Sanchez who later named the entire Sierra Nevada cordilleria "Mt. Joseph." Governor Jose Maria Encheandia ousted him from CAlifornia though he made later expeditions to Oregon. In 1831 Smith was killed by Comanches in the mountains of New Mexico.

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