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Tracing the Trail of the Portolá Expedition in Orange County - San Juan Capistrano Visitor Series Part 3

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The Portolá Expedition passed through this exact spot 250 years ago on July 25th, 1769, about seven years before the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence. The expedition left from San Diego on July 14th with the goal of establishing settlements on the bay of Monterey. Except for a  few relatively minor incursions by outsiders into California's interior before 1769 , the  Portolá Expedition  was the first significant overland expedition through California's interior. Today you can visit the same spot and imagine a very different California, 250 years into the past. The Spanish conducted the first overland expedition through Alta California in 1769-1770. Led by Gaspar de Portolá along with more than sixty men, including officers, two padres, Catalonian volunteers, leather jacket soldiers, mule drivers, and a number of Indians from Baja California, the expedition marched northward from San Diego with the intention of establishing a presidio (fort) and mi