Anza-Borrego North: Historic Sites and Trails

Photo of the old root cellar built by early Borrego settler Doc Beaty
Root Cellar at the former home of Doc Beaty, now the Whitaker Horse Camp

California was a seldom-visited Spanish province for two hundred years, and then briefly a Mexican state before it was admitted to the Union on September 9, 1850.

In the 1770s, Juan Bautista de Anza made two journeys through northern Anza Borrego that would lead to the colonization of San Francisco. Some 50 years later, a new route up the San Felipe Valley to Warner's replaced the Anza trail.

In the late 1800s, cattlemen found reason to explore the desert as a place to graze their animals. Fred Clark bought the La Puerta property. His brother Frank bought a property six miles east. Together they built the first well at Clark Dry Lake.

One of the first to take up farming in Anza-Borrego was Doc Beaty who arrived in 1913. He had success at a site now occupied by the Vern Whitaker Horse Camp. Among his accomplishments was building the Truckhaven Trail from Borrego Springs to the Truckhaven Cafe in Salton City.

Photo: Betsy Knaak.