El Camino Real (California)

On the way to Monterey we drove on the El Camino Real. What brought my attention to the fact we were on a historical road was I noticed every mile or two there was a bell, so eventually I had to research what it all meant.

El Camino Real (Spanish for the Royal Road, also known as The King's Highway) and sometimes associated with Calle Real usually refers to the 600-mile California Mission Trail, connecting the former Alta California's 21 missions (along with a number of support sites), 4 presidios and several pueblos stretching from Mission San Diego de Alcaia in San Diego in the South to Mission San Francisco Solano in Sonoma in the north.

In fact any road under the direct juristriction of the Spanish Crown and its viceroys was a "camino real." Examples of such roads ran between principal settlements throughout Spain and its colonies such as New Spain. Most caminos reales had names apart from the appended "camino real". Once Mexico won its independence from Spain, no road in Mexico, including California, was a camino real. The name was rarely used after that and was only revived in the American period in connection with the boosterism associated with the Mission Revival movement of the early 20th century.

The route originalted in Baja California Sur, Mexico, at the site of Mision San Bruno in San Bruno (The first mission established in LAs Californias), though it was only maintained as far south as Loreto.

Between 1683 and 1834, Spanish missionaries established a series of religious outposts throughout the Mexican states of Baja California and Baja California Sur. To facilitate overland travel, mission settlements were approximately 30 miles apart, so that they were separated by one long day's ride on horseback along the 600-mile long El Camino Real (Spanish for "The Royal Highway," though often referred to in the later embellished English translation, "The King's Highway"), and also known as the California Mission Trail (The actual Spanish expression for "King's Highway" is "carretera del rey".) Heavy freight movement was practical only via water. Traqdition has it that the padres sprinkled mustard seeds along the trail in order to mark it with bright yellow flowers.

In 1912, the State of California began paving a section of the historic route in San Mateo County. Construction of a two-lane concrete highway began in front of the historic Uncle Tom's Cabin, an inn in San Bruno that was built in 1849 and demolished exactly 100 years later. There was little traffic initially and children used the pavement for roller skating until traffic increased. By the late 1920's, the State of California began the first of numerous widening projects of what later became part of U. S. Route 101. Today the route through San Mateo and Santa Clara counties is designated as State Route 82.

An unpaved portion of the original Spanish road has been preserved just east of Mission San Juan Bautista in San Juan Batista, California.

In geek circles, the road was termed "El Camino Double Precision" when sopmeone noted it was a very long street (double precision being a format to store very large real numbers in computer memory), and then "El Camino Bignum" when it was pointed out that is was hundreds of miles long.

Today, several modern highways cover parts of the historic route, though large sections are on city streets (for instance, most of the stretch between San Jose and San Francisco). Its full modern route, as defined by the California State Legislature is as follows:

• Interstate 5, U.S.-Mexico border to Anaheim
• Anaheim Boulevard, Harbor Boulevard, State Route 72 and Whittier Boulevard, Anaheim to Los Angeles
• U.S. ROute 101, Los Angeles to San Jose
• State Route 82, San Jose to San Francisco
• Interstate 280, San Francisco
• U.S. Route 101, San Francisco to Novato
• State Route 37, Novato to Sears Point
• State Route 121, Sears Point to Sonoma
• State Route 12, Sonoma

East Bay Route

• State Route 87, Pass through Santa Clara County and Alameda County
• State Rout 92
• State Route 238
• State Route 185, Hayward to Oakland
• State Route 123, Oakland to San Pablo (continued to Martinez)

Some older local roads that parallel these routes also have the name. Many streets throughout California today bear the name of this famous road, often with little factual relation to the original; but Mission Street in San Francisco and its counterpart in Santa Cruz do correspond to the historical route. A surviving, unpaved stretch of the road has been preserved next to the old Spanish mission in San Juan Bautista; this road actually follows part of the San Andreas Fault.

In 1892, Anna Pitcher (of Pasadena, California) initiated an effort to preserve the as-yet uncommemorated route of Alta California's Camino Real, an effort adopted by the California Federation of Women's Clubs in 1902. Modern El Camino Real was one of the first state highways in California. Given the lack of standardized road signs at the time, it was decided to place distinctive bells along the route, hung on supports in the form of an 11-foot high shepherd's crook, also described as "a San Francisco walking stick." The first of the 450 bells was unveiled on August 15, 1906 at the Plaza Church in the Pueblo near Olvera Street in Los Angeles.

The original organization which installed the bells fragmented, and the Automobile CLub of Southern California and associated groups cared for the bells from the mod-1920s through 1931. The state took over bell maintenance in 1933. Most of the bells eventually disappeared due to vandalism, theft or simple loss due to the relocation or rerouting of highways and roads. After a reduction in the number of bells to around 150, the State began replacing them, at first with concrete, and later with iron. A design first produced in 19t6 by Justin Kramer of Los Angeles was the standard until the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) began a restoration effort in 1996.

Keith Robinson, Principle Landscape Architect at Caltrans developed and El Camino Real restoration program which resulted in installation of 555 El Camino Real Bell Markers in 2005. The Bell MArker consists of a 460 mm diameter cast metal bell set atop a 75 mm diameter Schedule 40 pipe column that is attached to a concrete foundation unsin anchor rods. The original 1906 bell molds were used to fabricate the replacement bells. The replacement and original bells were produced by the California Bell Company, are dated 1769 to 1906, and include a designer's copyright notice.

MISSIONS ALONG EL CAMINO REAL

• Mission San Francisco Salano, in Sonoma
• Mission San Rafael Arcangel, in San Rafael
• Mission San Francisco de Asis (Mission Delores), in San Francisco
• Mission San Jose, in Freemont
• Mission Santa Clara de Aisis, in Santa Clara
• Mission Santa Cruz, in Santa Cruz
• Mission San Juan Bautista, in San Juan Bautista
• Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, South of Carmel
• Mission Nuestra Senora de la Soledad, south of Soledad
• Mission San Antonio de Padua, northwest of Jolon
• Mission San Miguel Arcangel in San Miguel
• Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolsa, in San Luis Obispo
• Mission La Purisima COnception, northeast of Lampoc
• Mission Santa Ines, in Salvong
• Mission Santa Barbara, in Santa Barbara
• MIssion San Buenaventure, in Ventura
• MIssion San Fernando Rey de Espana, in MIssion Hills (Los Angeles)
• Mission San Gabriel Arcangel, in San Gabriel
• Mission San Juan Capistrano, in San Juan Capistrano
• Mission San Juis Rey de Francis, in Oceanside
• Mission San Diego de Alcada, in San Diego

PRESIDIOES AND PUEBLOES ON EL CAMINO REAL

• El Presidio Real de San Diego--founded on July 16, 2769. Responsible for the defense of all installations located within the First Military District (the missions at San Diego, San Luis Rey, San Juan Capistrano, and San Gabriel)
• El Prisidio Rewal de Santa Barbara--founded on April 12, 1782. Responsible for the defense of all installatons within the Second Military District (the missions at San Francisco, San Buenaventura, Santa Barbara, Santa Ines, and La Purisima along with El Pueblo de Neustra Senora la Reina de los Angeles del Rio de Porciuneula [Los Angeles])
• El Prisidio Real de San Carlos de Monterey (El Castillo)--founded on June 3, 1770. Responsible for the defense of all installations within the Third Military District (the missions at San Luis Obispo, San Miguel, San Antonio, Soledad, San Carlos and San Juan Bautista, along with Villa Branceforle [Santa Cruz].)
• El Prisidio Real de San Francisco--founded on December 17, 1776. Responsible for the defense of all installations within the Fourth Military District (the missions at Santa Cruz, San JOse, Santa Clara, San Francisco, San Rafael and Solano, along with El Pueblo de san Jose de Guadalupe [San Jose])