THE HISTORY OF SAN FELIPE, BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO

CHAPTER XII: CONCLUSION

San Felipe Bay offers three site characteristics: potable water, boat protection, and proximity to fishing grounds. These characteristics were important to different people who, at one time or another, chose San Felipe as a place of temporary or permanent settlement. The Kiliwa Indians periodically utilized San Felipe Bay because the site offered fishing near shore as well as drinking water to support migratory residence. Early Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries determined water supply and ship protection as two important site characteristics of San Felipe Bay. In search of water for future mission establishment, the clerics explored northern Baja California. Agriculture, so important to missionary activity, was restricted by the arid climate and limited water supply of San Felipe, thus excluding it as a mission site. However, San Felipe's site characteristic of boat protection was utilized by the missionaries. The bay was used as a supply port for northern interior missions of the peninsula. The bay offered protection to anchored vessels, and available water supplied the ships and pack trains that hauled goods to the interior. For the first time, white men realized the utility of San Felipe Bay.

As discovered from writers during the period, drinking water and ship protection attracted people who periodically resided at San Felipe between 1850 and 1900. Colorado steamers and coastal vessels would occasionally stop at San Felipe Bay, for the bay is the northernmost protective inlet along Baja California's east coast.

Fishermen came to San Felipe Bay and found not only boat protection but also potable war and proximity to fishing grounds. The fishermen needed all three site characteristics in order to have a successful settlement. If any one of the characteristics had been absent, settlement would have been very difficult and possibly soon abandoned.

Fortunately, the village is near enough to the United States to allow profitable transportation of totuava and shrimp to large markets across the border. This proximity factor, accompanied by the construction of a paved highway, also opened a large tourist industry to San Felipe. The pleasant climate of northern Baja California in winter, accompanied by the excellent boating conditions and good sportfishing of San Felipe Bay, are added site characteristics of the village attracting vacationers and travelers. Thus, the village's growth has enhanced new site characteristics and new utility has evolved for San Felipe Bay.

One of the important facets to the study of geography is the investigation of man's settlements. In order to understand settlement development, it is necessary to know the evolutionary history. This study has attempted to trace the settlement of San Felipe from its early beginnings to present day for the purpose of comprehending the resultant form and function of the village. San Felipe reflects the history of man's utility of the site. Today, the village is a composite of numerous houses, large fishing vessels, motels, trailer parks, cafes, and various retail shops superimposed upon the land that once supported tents and crude adobe dwellings of early fishermen of San Felipe Bay.

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

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