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.

What the plaque says

Spanish Missionaries introduced the principle of irrigation in the San Bernardino Valley, thus opening the way to settlement. Franciscan fathers engineered, and Native Americans dug, this first ditch, or "zanja," in 1819. It supported the San Bernardino Estancia, the Rancho San Bernardino, then pioneer ranches and orchards and finally Redlands' domestic water supply. The Zanja was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

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.
• Keller Peak Fire Lookout — 12 mi
  For ninety-eight years it watched this forest for smoke. In September 2024 a fire took it, and the steel frame is what is left.
• SkyPark at Santa's Village — 12 mi
  The Christmas park that opened six weeks before Disneyland, and franchised itself on advice from the McDonald brothers.

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