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40-782: The mountain forms a major direction change of the north-south Colorado River as it changes directions to southeast, then southwest around the eastern perimeter of the Whipple Mountains. The highest point of the mountains, and the Whipple Mountains Wilderness is Whipple Mountain at 4,131 feet (1,259 m). The western portion of the mountain range has pale green formations, differing from the eastern, steeply carved and striking brick-red volcanics. Landforms are diverse and range from valley floors and washes to steep-walled canyons, domed peaks, natural bridges, and eroded spires. The mountains were named after Amiel Weeks Whipple ,

80-569: A punitive expedition against the Comanche group of Native Americans, who had been repeatedly raiding Taos during 1779. With his Ute and Apache Native American allies, and around 800 Spanish soldiers, Anza went north through the San Luis Valley , entering the Great Plains at what is now Manitou Springs, Colorado . Circling "El Capitan" (current day Pikes Peak), he surprised a small force of

120-520: A campaign against the Comanche on the eastern plains and by 1784 they were suing for peace. The last of the Comanche chiefs eventually acceded and a formal treaty was concluded on 28 February 1786 at Pecos Pueblo . This paved the way for traders and the development of the Comanchero trade. Juan Bautista de Anza remained as governor of Nuevo Mexico (New Mexico) until 1787 when he returned to Sonora . He

160-460: A large wash , (Whipple Wash), which bisects the entire range. These linear ridges mark the tops of tilted crustal blocks lying in the hanging wall of an extensive detachment fault , and the range as a whole comprises one of the best exposed and most studied metamorphic core complexes in the world. In the western half of the range, the hanging wall has been eroded away completely, leaving antiformally upwarped lower-crustal mylonites exposed at

200-624: A lieutenant in the US Army who surveyed the region in the 1840s, and later died in Chancellorsville in the Civil War. The range stretches approximately 25 miles (40 km) in an east-west direction, and reaches an elevation of 2,695 feet (821 m) at Savahia Peak at the western end. The Whipple Mountains are home to many mines including the Independence Mine and Bessie Mine. The range lies in

240-563: A popular hiking location. Juan Bautista de Anza Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto (July 6 or 7, 1736 – December 19, 1788) was an expeditionary leader, military officer, and politician primarily in California and New Mexico under the Spanish Empire . He is credited as one of the founding fathers of Spanish California and served as an official within New Spain as Governor of

280-568: A route from Santa Fe to Sonora, west of the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro . His various local military expeditions against tribes defending their homelands were often successful, but the Quechan (Yuma) Native American tribe which he had established peace with earlier rebelled, and he fell out of favor with the military commander of the Northern Frontier, the frontier-general. In 1783 Anza led

320-841: A southern route along the Rio Altar ( Sonora y Sinaloa , New Spain), then paralleled the present-day Mexico–California border, crossing the Colorado River at its confluence with the Gila River . This was in the domain of the Yuma tribe, with which he established good relations. Anza reached Mission San Gabriel Arcángel , near the California coast, on March 22, 1774, and Monterey, California , Alta California's future capital (Alta California split from Las Californias 1804, creating Baja and Alta), on April 19. He returned to Tubac by late May 1774. This expedition

360-454: Is 8 miles (13 km) due east. The western portion of the mountain range has pale green formations, differing from the eastern, steeply carved and striking brick-red volcanics. Landforms are diverse and range from valley floors and washes to steep-walled canyons, domed peaks, natural bridges, and eroded spires. The mountains mark a major direction change of the north-south Colorado, as it changes directions to southeast, then southwest around

400-619: Is a 76,122-acre (30,805 ha) wilderness administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Most of the Whipple Mountains are within the wilderness area. It is located in the northeastern Colorado Desert near the Colorado River . Lake Havasu and Lake Havasu City are 25 miles (40 km) to the North. Earp, California and Parker, Arizona are 20 miles (32 km) to the South. The Parker Dam

440-1120: Is located in Riverside, California at the corner of Magnolia Ave. and 14th Street, and another statue stands in Lake Merced park, San Francisco . A 10-foot-high (3 m) portrait of de Anza by Albert Herter in 1929 hangs in the History Room of the Los Angeles Central Library. The de Anza and De Anza spellings are also the namesake of streets, schools, and buildings in his honor including: De Anza Boulevards in San Mateo and Cupertino , De Anza Park in Sunnyvale , De Anza College in Cupertino, De Anza High School in Richmond , Juan Bautista De Anza elementary school in San Jacinto, Juan De Anza K-5 in

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480-769: Is located within the village of Borrego Springs, California , which is entirely surrounded by the park. A building named the Juan de Anza House in San Juan Bautista, California is a National Historic Landmark . However, it was constructed c. 1830 with its connection unclear. The Juan Bautista de Anza Community Park is in Calabasas, California , and De Anza Park and the De Anza Community and Teen Center are in Ontario , California. A 20-foot (6.1 m) statue of Anza, sculpted in 1939,

520-622: Is marked as the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail . Despite DeAnza's successes, Spanish ambitions to establish a permanent overland route from Sonora to Alta California were thwarted in 1781, when a revolt of the Yumas tribe closed the trail at the Yuma Crossing of the Colorado River. The route was not reopened until the late 1820s, and the only regular travel to Alta California during

560-446: Is possible only from the north-east by way of a power line access road. This road may require high-clearance or four-wheel-drive vehicles. No permit is required for individual access, but a permit is required by the BLM for commercial or organized group access. Popular activities include hiking, horseback riding, hunting, camping, rock hounding , photography, and backpacking . Whipple Wash is

600-544: The California Current , and a difficult land route from Baja California. Colonies were established at San Diego and Monterey , with a presidio and Franciscan mission at each location. A more direct land route and further colonization were desired, especially at present-day San Francisco , which Portolá saw but was not able to colonize. By the time of Juan Bautista de Anza's expedition, three more missions had been established, including Mission San Antonio de Padua in

640-707: The Colorado Desert , the northwestern section of the Sonoran Desert , and in the Lower Colorado River Valley region. The Turtle Mountains are to the west, the Mopah Range adjacent on the south, and the Chemehuevi Mountains upriver to the north. Whipple Peak is the highest point in the range at an elevation of 4,131 ft; it lies west of the range's center, and Whipple Wash flows northeast from

680-645: The Salinas Valley . In 1772, Anza proposed an expedition to Alta California to the Viceroy of New Spain. This was approved by the King of Spain and on January 8, 1774, with 3 padres, 20 soldiers, 11 servants, 35 mules, 65 cattle, and 140 horses, Anza set forth from Tubac Presidio , south of present-day Tucson, Arizona . Anza heard of a California Native American called Sebastian Tarabal who had fled from Mission San Gabriel to Sonora, and took him as guide. The expedition took

720-666: The San Gabriel Valley the trail is in the Puente Hills just north of Whittier, California . Also named for Anza is Anza-Borrego Desert State Park , located mostly in eastern San Diego County , California. The park contains a long and difficult stretch of the Anza trail, traveling west from the Imperial Valley to the coastal mountain passes northeast of San Diego . The de Anza Country Club and its 18-hole championship Golf course

760-644: The Sierra Nevada block and the Colorado Plateau during the early and middle Miocene . Upwards of 40 km of extension occurred in a region now 70 to 100 km across. The Whipples are part of the Maria fold and thrust belt . The Mojave people , Cahuilla people , Quechan , and other Native American cultural tribes and groups lived in and traveled through the Whipples for thousands of years. Francisco Garcés ,

800-439: The desert bighorn sheep , mule deer , wild burro , coyote , black-tailed jackrabbit , ground squirrels , kangaroo rats , quail , roadrunners , owls , several species of rattlesnakes and lizards, and the threatened desert tortoise . The Whipple Mountains provide superior nesting and foraging habitat for a number of raptors ; including prairie falcon , golden eagle , red-tailed hawk , and Cooper's hawk . To protect

840-597: The Comanche near present-day Colorado Springs . Pursuing them south down Fountain Creek , he crossed the Arkansas River near present-day Pueblo, Colorado . He found the main body of the Comanche on Greenhorn Creek, returning from a raid in Nuevo México, and won a decisive victory. Chief Cuerno Verde , for whom Greenhorn Creek is named, and many other leaders of the Comanche were killed. In late 1779, Anza and his party found

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880-676: The State of California or private land owners. Access to these areas is not by the BLM, but the other owners and agencies. The majority of the Whipple Range lies within the Whipple Mountains Wilderness , administered by the Needles Field office of the United States Bureau of Land Management . The wilderness covers approximately 76,122 acres (30,805 ha) of the range. Whipple Mountains Wilderness The Whipple Mountains Wilderness

920-1038: The Wiseburn Elementary School District of Hawthorne , De Anza Middle School in Ontario , De Anza Middle School in Ventura , De Anza Elementary School in El Centro , and the De Anza School in Baldwin Park, the landmark De Anza Hotel in San Jose , and the historic De Anza Hotel in Calexico —all in California . Using just Anza in his honor are: Anza Vista Avenue within the Anza Vista neighborhood of San Francisco, Anza Street in that city's Richmond District , Lake Anza in Tilden Regional Park above Berkeley in

960-422: The captives among them as slaves; Anza kept the fifteen female captives and their newborns as his share. In Anza's diary on March 25, 1776, he states that he "arrived at the arroyo of San Joseph Cupertino (now Stevens Creek ), which is useful only for travelers. Here we halted for the night, having come eight leagues in seven and a half hours. From this place we have seen at our right the estuary which runs from

1000-591: The colonists having suffered greatly from the winter weather en route. The expedition continued on to Monterey with the colonists. Having fulfilled his mission from the Viceroy, he continued north with the priest Pedro Font and a party of twelve others, following an inland route to the San Francisco Bay established in 1770 by Pedro Fages . On the way, he led a raid on Apache settlements near Presidio San Ignacio de Tubac , capturing forty Apaches. The soldiers divided

1040-537: The daughter of Spanish mine owner Francisco Pérez Serrano. They had no children. His military duties mainly consisted of hostile forays against Native Americans , such as the Apache , during the course of which he explored much of what is now Arizona . The Spanish began colonizing Alta California with the Portolá expedition of 1769–1770. The two-pronged Portolá effort involved both a long sea voyage against prevailing winds and

1080-452: The detachment surface. A number of high-angle normal faults accommodating tilting and extension within the hanging wall are easily visible as well. The Whipple detachment fault is part of a larger complex of shallow, east dipping normal faults extending from the Whipples northward to the southern tip of Nevada , where a transition occurs to shallow, westward dipping normal faults. The entire region accommodated major crustal extension between

1120-662: The eastern perimeter of the range. The highest point of the mountains, and the Whipple Mountains Wilderness is Whipple Mountain at 4,131 feet (1,259 m). The two major habitats here are the Sonoran xeric bush scrub with creosote bush , and Sonoran thorn forest with Velvet mesquite . The dominant vegetation-type is commonly referred to creosote bush scrub , with palo verde , desert Ironwood , smoketree , and numerous species of cacti including cholla , saguaro , foxtail , and prickly pear . Wildlife species include

1160-507: The explorer, missionary, and regional "peacemaker" based at Mission San Xavier del Bac had initiated expeditions along the river and surrounding terrain through and past the Whipples in the early 1770s. In 1774 he joined the famous Juan Bautista de Anza Las Californias Expedition from "mainland New Spain to the "new to them" Alta California . They passed through the range en route to the Needles area and onwards inland, traveling in peace with

1200-461: The fragile and rare habitats of the Whipples, wheeled and motorized vehicles are excluded from the entire wilderness area. Hiking and horseback riding are the primary means of accessing the interior of the range. The most frequently used route for these activities lies in Whipple Wash ( see photo ) which bisects the range from southwest to northeast. Motorized access to the boundary of the wilderness

1240-599: The frontier of Nueva Navarra. He was the son of Juan Bautista de Anza I . It is traditionally thought that he may have been educated at the College of San Ildefonso in Mexico City , and later at the military academy there. In 1752 he enlisted in the army at the Presidio of Fronteras. He advanced rapidly and had become a captain by 1760. He married in 1761. His wife was Ana María Pérez Serrano (b. January 1744/45, d. date unknown),

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1280-535: The intervening years was by sea. On his return from this successful expedition in 1777 he journeyed to Mexico City with the chief of the lower Colorado River area Quechan (Yuma) Native American tribe who requested the establishment of a mission. On August 24, 1777, the Viceroy of New Spain appointed Anza as the Governor of the Province of Nuevo México , the present-day U.S. state of New Mexico . Governor Anza led

1320-518: The local indigenous people west of the river. In the early 1900s Wyatt Earp spent his last winters here. He worked small gold and copper mining claims, starting around 1906. The nearby townsite of Earp, California on and near those claims was named for him, although his residence actually stands in the town of Vidal, California . Currently, portions of the range within and without the Whipple Mountains Wilderness Area are owned by

1360-604: The peak. The following United States Geological Survey (USGS) 7.5' Quadrangle maps provide coverage of the Whipple Mountains: Data from the Western Regional Climate Center reveals this to be a region of extreme aridity (<150 mm/yr), very high summer temperatures (+40 °C) and mild winter temperatures. The present-day landform of the Whipple Mountains is a series of sub-parallel ridges trending northwest to southeast, cut at right angles by

1400-570: The port of San Francisco." Pressing on, Anza located the sites for the Presidio of San Francisco and Mission San Francisco de Asis in present-day San Francisco, California on March 28, 1776. He did not establish the settlement; it was established later by José Joaquín Moraga . While returning to Monterey, he located the original sites for Mission Santa Clara de Asis and the town of San José de Guadalupe (present-day San Jose, California ), but again did not establish either settlement. Today this route

1440-611: The province of New Mexico . Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto was born in Fronteras , New Navarre , New Spain (today Sonora , Mexico ) in 1736 (near Arizpe ), most probably at Cuquiarachi, Sonora, but possibly at the Presidio of Fronteras. His family was a part of the military leadership in Nueva España , as his father and maternal grandfather, Captain Antonio Bezerra Nieto, had both served Spain, their families living on

1480-416: The surface. To the east, unaltered tertiary volcanic and sedimentary rocks along with non-mylonitic crystalline Pre-Cambrian rock in the hanging wall form the land surface, but the larger washes provide access to the detachment surface and the rocks surrounding it. Excellent examples of hydrothermal alteration , fluidized cataclasite injection, and other mid- and upper-crustal fault processes abound along

1520-586: Was appointed commander of the Presidio of Tucson in 1788 but died before he could depart and take office. He was 52 years old. Anza was survived by his wife. Juan Bautista de Anza died in Arizpe, in what is now the State of Sonora, Mexico, and was buried in the Church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de Arizpe . In 1963, with the participation of delegations from the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco , he

1560-529: Was closely watched by Viceroy and King, and on October 2, 1774, Anza was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel , and ordered to lead a group of colonists to Alta California. The Spanish were desirous of reinforcing their presence in Alta California as a buffer against Russian colonization of the Americas advancing from the north, and possibly establish a harbor that would give shelter to Spanish ships. The expedition got under way on October 23, 1775, and arrived at Mission San Gabriel Arcángel in January 1776,

1600-421: Was disinterred and reburied in a new marble memorial mausoleum at the same Church. The primary legacy is the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail in California and Arizona, administered by the US National Park Service , for hiking and driving the route of his expedition exploring Las Californias In the San Fernando Valley the trail crosses the Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve , and in

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