The Zanja

The plaque says Franciscan fathers engineered it and Indians dug it, which is true and is also the entire arrangement compressed into two verbs. The ditch was cut from Mill Creek in 1819 and 1820 by Native labour under the mission system. It watered the asistencia, then the rancho, then pioneer orchards, and finally the town's own supply. It is on the National Register and still carries water through Redlands, which makes it about the oldest working thing in the county.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Original McDonald's Site — 8.5 mi
  The corner where two brothers invented fast food, now an unofficial museum the corporation has never blessed.
• Wigwam Motel — 11 mi
  Nineteen concrete teepees on Foothill Boulevard, the last of Frank Redford's Wigwam Villages and still renting rooms.
• Cajon Pass — 24 mi
  The gap the San Andreas tore between two mountain ranges, and the doorway every westbound traveler has used for two centuries.

More markers nearby

• A.K. Smiley Public Library — 1.0 mi
• Kimberly Crest — 1.6 mi
• San Bernardino Asistencia — 2.9 mi
• Guachama Rancheria — 4.0 mi