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Although the coastline of California had been explored by sea for over 100 years by Spaniard captains such as Cabrillo and Vizcaino, it wasn’t explored by land until 1769. Led by Father Junipero Serra and Commander Don Gaspar de Portolá, a small group of men traveled north from Baja (lower) California and founded Mission San Diego, the first of 21 missions. Funded by Spain, the missions flourished until the Mexican Revolution. Beginning in 1833, the missions were secularized.
In 1776 Don Juan de Anza led the first group of immigrant families from Mexico into Alta (Upper) California. The settlers lived in small pueblos and shared common lands for crops and cattle. The Franciscan padres held ownership of all the land in trust. After the Mexican Revolution, the missions were secularized and the land was divided into large ranchos. By 1840 the power, the wealth and the handling of all commerce in California had shifted from the missions to the ranchos.
The photo above is of the Jose Carmen Del Lugo family. A typical rancho family, they owned the 37,700-acre Rancho San Bernardino, which covered the whole valley. They sold it to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on October 1, 1851. Their rancho later became, and remains, the largest county in the United States.
Adventurous men, such as Jedediah Smith, Kit Carson and John C. Fremont trekked over the Sierra Nevadas and discovered a beautiful, bounteous land. Fremont’s published accounts lured many pioneers west. Some Yankees and Europeans came by sea and had a thriving hide and tallow trade with the missions and later the ranchos. Some, such as Robert Livermore, became Mexican citizens and married native senoritas. John A. Sutter became a citizen in 1840 and began building an empire.
On July 31, 1846 the ship Brooklyn sailed slowly into the San Francisco Bay. On board were pioneer families from the east, the first organized group ever to immigrate to California by sea. They were surprised to learn that Yerba Buena was no longer under Mexican rule.
They were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also called “Mormons” or “Saints”). With a ship full of supplies and blessed with a wide variety of skills, talents and knowledge, they began building homes, planting crops and establishing commerce.
Within one year these pioneers turned the village of Yerba Buena into a bustling city and renamed it San Francisco.
Their leader, Samuel Brannan, sent a group inland to establish a community called New Hope. They grew some of the first wheat in the San Joaquin Valley.
Because of pioneer immigration, California’s economy changed from rancho to farming. Resourceful pioneer farmers set the stage for national and international recognition of agricultural excellence and cutting edge technology.