History of San Felipe: Colonization of the North Logo
History of San Felipe: Colonization of the North

 
 

THE HISTORY OF SAN FELIPE, BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO

CHAPTER VII: COLONIZATION OF THE NORTHERN PART OF THE PENINSULA

From approximately 1750 to 1850 San Felipe participated in some of Lower California's historical activities, but there are few written words substantiating its activities. In the late 1800's many North Americans came south to Baja California to investigate and report about the primitive peninsula. On their return came word of historical happenings in Lower California and pertinent details regarding San Felipe.

I. THE PORT OF SAN PHELIPE DE JESUS

In conjunction with the establishment of northern interior missions of the peninsula, there came a need for supplies. Protected areas on the peninsula's east coast to be used as ports were needed. Western access was difficult for those missions located in the northern peninsula's mountainous midsection. Therefore, supplies came from the east. Bays and inlets along the peninsula's east coast were favored. These coastal areas offered boat protection and were near the mainland port of San Blas.

From 1760 to 1800 San Felipe was selected as a peninsular port for supplying many of the missions of the northern interior of Lower California. It is said to have supplied the missions of San Pedro Martir, Santo Domingo, Santo Tomas, and Santa Caterina. Canyons of the Sierra San Felipe and Sierra Juarez near San Felipe open the interior and western sides of the peninsula to access. An early traveler writes:

From Rancho Santa Rosa runs a road forty-nine miles northeast to the bay of San Felipe de Jesus, on the gulf. Another easy wagon road to the same bay comes down through the San Matias Canon. [Flourence Shipek de. Lower California Frontier, Articles from the San Diego Union, 1870 (Los Angeles: Dawson's Book Shop, 1965), p. 28.]

Other interesting accounts discuss San Felipe as the port for supplying Mission Santo Domingo situated on the Pacific Coast. In April of 1870, Mr. J. Ross Browne, exploring the area describes San Felipe Bay:

...as a fine little harbor, used for communication overland to the bay of San Quentin on the ocean coast in the country around the peninsular head of the gulf. It was formerly, with that of Los Angeles [Bay of Los Angeles] used by the Jesuits and the Dominicans for conveying stores and effects, in the founding of the mission on the coast above Santa Gertrudes, [Mission Santo Domingo] between 1760 and 1800... [Ibid., p. 38.]

A series of trails followed the lowlands and canyons connecting the ranchos and missions to San Felipe Bay. Another traveler's account states:

From San Felipe, by Santa Rosa rancho, a road leads over the rugged crest of San Pedro Martir, down to Valladaris, thence to the Mission of San Domingo and Ramon Rancho near the ocean, a distance of 110 miles. [Ibid., p. 39.]

Accordingly, San Felipe served not only those nearby missions, but also those located on the peninsula's far western flank.

A statement that is questionable is that of Jacob Leese, written about Mission Santa Maria:

In north latitude 29.5°, was founded Mission Santa Maria in 1767 by Father Victoriano Avuls. It is about thirty miles from the gulf and sixty miles from San Borja. It has a stream of good water, and a harbor on the gulf side, known as San Phelipe de Jesus. [Jacob P. Leese, Historical Outline of Lower California (New York: E.S. Edge and Co., 1865), p. 10.]

Santa Maria Mission was located thirty miles from the Bay of San Luiz Gonzaga, which is a fine little harbor. It is difficult to believe that San Felipe, over one hundred miles north of the mission, supplied Santa Maria with mainland goods.

Enough reliable information exists to substantiate the fact that San Felipe served as an important port for the missions and ranchos, not only in the vicinity but also on the ocean flank of the peninsula. The accurate surveys of the early explorer padres had an important bearing on the use of San Felipe Bay as a port one hundred years later.

II. PARADISE LOST

As the adobe walls of the missions of northern Baja California deteriorated, so did the usefulness of San Felipe. But the mid 1800's rushed in a new period of exploration and reporting. The United States was experiencing a westward movement of its pioneers as a result of western mineral discoveries and continental railroad expansion. In the United States it was a time of quick profits for the gambling speculator. The fever of quick profits followed no international boundaries; Mexicans and Americans invested in huge land colonization schemes, and many unknowing individuals gambled and lost in Baja California.

Regarding the land colonization schemes, the 1870 chronicles of J. Ross Browne reads:

Above the Bay of Los Angeles, some one hundred sixty miles, is the bay and port of San Felipe de Jesus, which has been established since 1858, principally by the exertions of Mr. Millatovich, who has here another grant of land. [Shipek, op. cit., p. 38.]

Mr. Browne is referring to land illegally sold to Mr. Millatovich by Colonel Jose Maria Castro, the ephemeral commander of Lower California in 1856. These land sales were readily declared null and void by President Juarez in 1863. [Pablo L. Martinez, A History of Lower California, Trans. Ethel Duffy Turner (Mexico City 1960), p. 390.]

It is not known what occurred at San Felipe during the four years of Millatovich ownership, but Browne does give us some clue:

San Felipe is a fine little harbor, and has been used by American vessels bound for the Colorado, and for communication overland to the bay of San Quentin on the ocean coast...There is now [1857] said to be a small settlement here. [Shipek, op. cit., p. 38.]

This is the first mention of a small settlement at San Felipe. Unfortunately, his statement does not divulge the nature of the settlement or settlers. Possibly the residents at San Felipe had some commercial intercourse with the Colorado River steamer traffic that was in operation at this time.

Lesse Concession. The late 1800's saw San Felipe involved in two colonization schemes. The first of these was the so-called "Lesse Concession" granted by President Benito Juarez in 1864. A southern portion of San Felipe Bay was included in the grant which extended from latitude 31° North to 24° 20' North. The Mexican government agreed to the colonization plan on the basis of specific stipulations. The major condition states: "At the end of five years, counting from the day that this project of colonization is approved, the promoters are to bring into the territory at least two hundred families as colonizers." [Martinez, op. cit., p. 390.]

The company formed by Lesse was unable to fulfill the stipulations of the contract. Rights were transferred to a group of capitalists in New York whose members organized the Lower California Company. Just as with previous companies, the Lower California Company practiced fraud on a grand scale by publicizing in the United States that Baja California was a lost paradise. Families believed the lands they were to settle were well equipped with water, groves of trees, and were without bush. Colonists came, but soon afterwards began to return to the United States.

At the beginning of April, 1871, the Mexican government sent an inspector to the lands of colonization. Taking a census he found only twenty-one North American families and fifty-four Mexican males plus a number of workers. Because of this fact, the Lower California Company was notified that the contract was to be rescinded through failure to fulfill the population clause of the contract.

Final speculation. In 1884 The International Company of Mexico began a similar colonization scheme. It acquired that portion of the peninsula lying between parallels 28° and 32° 42' North. However, this company met with the same end as its predecessor.

The period of colonization schemes found little activity on the east coast of Baja California. Both colonization companies concentrated their activities on the western flank of the peninsula, which was less hostile and also had been the area of mineral discoveries. Excepting Browne's passing comment, there is no mention of settlement in the late 1800's at San Felipe.

The speculators fled Baja California and for a time colonization terminated. They left behind a few migrant families gleaning what they could from the land. Possibly San Felipe offered temporary sanctuary for a few fishing families scarcely living at the subsistence level.

TABLE OF CONTENTS: HISTORY OF SAN FELIPE SITE EVOLUTION, BY THOMAS ANTHONY TERICH

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