Monterey State Historic Park - Path of History - Part 3
Presidio of Monterey Historic Park

Vizcaino Landing Site, Portola Memorial, Junipero Serra Monument,
El Castillo Site, Alexo Nino's Grave, Presidio Museum,
Tamotk Village Site & Sloat Monument

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Thomas Cole House	Duarte's Store	Casa del Oro	First Brick House	Whaling Station

The Presidio of Monterey Historic Park has been the latest addition to the Path of History. The Presidio is home of the Defense Language Institute and since September 11th closed to the public. But the park is open all the way up to the Sloat Monument. It covers some of the earliest sights in Monterey history. For more information about the park, check the Partnership website, a joint project of the Defense Language Institute and the City of Monterey.

On December 15, 1602, 60 years after Juan Cabrillo discovered Monterey Bay, Sebastian Vizcaino anchored here. He went ashore the next day and landed on a sandy beach where a small stream emptied into the bay from a ravine. This is the place where Vizcaino planted the Spanish flag and claimed California for Spain. Although it is called "Vizcaino Landing Site," the monument is dedicated to Friar Junipero Serra, who landed at exactly the same spot 168 years after Vizcaino's visit.

Read about Vizcaino's voyage at the Monterey County Historical Society website.

Portola Memorial

Just left of the Vizcaino / Serra Monument is a plaque commemorating the founding of the Monterey Presidio on June 3, 1770 by Don Gaspar de Portola.

Read about the founding of Monterey at the Monterey County Historical Society website.

Junipero Serra Monument

On 16 December 1602, a day after Sebastian Vizcaino claimed the land for Spain, Carmelite friar Father Antonio de la Ascension celebrated the first Catholic Mass in Alta California on this hill.
168 years later, on 3 June 1770, Franciscan Friar Junipero Serra, second visitor to Monterey, sought out the same site for his first mass.

More about the monument at the Partnership website.
Read about the founding of Monterey at the Monterey County Historical Society website.

El Castillo Site In 1792, the Spaniards built El Castillo as an outpost of the Monterey Presidio at this hill, overlooking the harbor. Later the Castillo replaced the presidio as the main military post for the Spanish, Mexican and finally US American troops. In 1847, the Americans replaced the post with a larger one farther up the hill. More about the castillo at the Partnership website.

El Castillo in 1855 (c) Olof Dahlstrand

Hipolito Bouchard Memorial

In 1818, Hipolito Bouchard, sailing for the revolutionaries of the La Plata River region of Argentina ransacked the Monterey presidio and for a couple of days, Monterey was under Argentine control.
In 1997, the Argentine Navy, through the council for students interchange, dedicated this little monument next to the Junipero Serra Monument in memory of the 161st anniversary of the day in which captain Hipolito Bouchard hoisted the Argentine flag at San Carlos de Monterey and the bi-centenary of his birth.

Read more about this incident at Hipolito Bouchard and the Raid of 1818.

Alexo Nino's Grave Site

Prior to giving his first Mass in Alta California, Father Junipero Serra buried the only casualty of the voyage north from San Diego, boat caulker Alexo Nino, a black Freeman. Nino died on board the "San Antonio," anchored in Monterey Bay on June 2, 1770 and became the first the first non-Indian to be buried in California Nino was a native of Acapulco. That is all we know. We don't know where is ancestors came from and we don't know what he looked like. In all the guidebooks and at all the websites covering Monterey's sights, I couldn't find a single notion of Alexo Nino and his grave - sad prove that American history is still written as white men's history only until this day.

For a slightly different view on our history, check California at the Crossroads and Five Views.
These are the only two sites I could find with references to Alexo Nino. ( here and here.)

Now, turn away from the ocean and look up the hill. Move on to the other two sites in the park, the Presidio Museum and the Sloat Monument. Museum Hours: Monday 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Thursday thru Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Sunday 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. Admission is free.

Presidio of Monterey Museum

Constructed in 1908, the museum building was originally the post's magazine for the storage of ammunition. It became a museum in 1967 and re-opened as center piece of the Presidio of Monterey Historic Park in 2001.

More about the museum at the Partnership website and at the City of Monterey website.
Read more about the history of the Monterey Presidio at Military Musseum.

Sloat Monument

Dedicated in 1910, the monument commemorates the capture of Monterey on July 7th, 1846 by American forces under the command of Commodore John Drake Sloat. More about the munument at the Partnership website.

Site of Tamotk Village

Behind the museum is a small wooden-framed marker which reads in part, "Presidio Hill was the home of a large 'rancheria' or village settlement of the Rumsen Indians. The Spaniards called these people Costanoans, and found them to be friendly and gentle. They made their living here on the land by hunting, fishing and gathering a variety of wild nuts, seeds, berries and plants. This village may have been the one the Indians called 'Tamotk.'" Humaya Dancers of the Costanoan-Rumsen Carmel Tribe.

To continue your tour, get back to Pacific Street and to California's First Theatre.

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California's First Theatre	Perry House	Francis Doud House	O'Donnell Library

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