Historical Marker · No. 568
Hernando de Alarcón Expedition
Andrade, Imperial County · California
Erected by State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with the Quechan Tribal Council, the Imperial Irrigation District, Imperial Valley Pioneers, and Squibob Chapter of E Clampus Vitus, October 10, 1982, 1982
Two hundred and forty years before the missions, boats came up this river. Hernando de Alarcón was sent to resupply Coronado's march toward Cibola, never found him, and rowed up the Colorado instead before turning back. River people met his boats and traded with his crews. The plaque says the Spaniards were the first non-Indians to sight Alta California, which is a careful way of saying that everyone who mattered was already here, farming this floodplain.
What the plaque says
Hernando de Alarcon Expedition, 1540 Alarcon's mission was to provide supplies for Francisco Coronado's expedition in search of the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola. The Spaniards led by Hernando de Alarcon ascended the Colorado River by boat from the Gulf of California past this point, thereby becoming the first non-Indians to sight Alta California on September 5, 1540. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 568 Plaque placed by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with the Quechan Tribal Council, the Imperial Irrigation District, Imperial Valley Pioneers, and Squibob Chapter, of E Clampus Vitus, October 10, 1982.
Where it stands
32.73737, -114.71677 · Directions