GONZAGA BAY AREA MAPS 1746 to 2008

Here is a sample of some of the maps of Baja over the years, zoomed in on the area around Bahia San Luis Gonzaga (Punta Willard at north end) and Ensenada de San Francisquito (Punta Final at south end)...

EDIT: 1746 map added, go to bottom...


1757 by Miguel Venegas (from Miguel de Barco's 'Ethnology and Linguistics of Baja California', Dawson Series #44)




1772 by Jacob Baegert (out of Dawson Series #45)


1788


1823


1868


1888


1904


1905 Map of Mines and Roads in Lower California


1907 Map from Arthur North's 'Camp and Camino in Lower California'


1919


1930


1941


1962 Map from Howard Gulick in the 'Lower California Guidebook'


1970 Map from Cliff Cross in the 'Baja California Mexico Guide'


1975 from the 'Baja California Guidebook'


2003 Baja California Almanac's folding map from Landon Crumpton


2008 National Geographic Adventure Travel Map




[Edited on 8-9-2013 by David K]

Names get switched by map makers in Mexico City, as well!

I didn't show it, but the Mexican topo (which the Baja Almanac uses) switched the two bay names of Gonzaga. See the 1962 and 1970 maps for the correct names. The northern, smaller bay between Papa Fernandez' and Alfonsina's is Bahia San Luis Gonzaga. It was the more sheltered bay and port for the Spanish who off loaded supplies for the missions of Santa Maria and San Fernando there. Ruins of a warehouse are on the shore of the bay...



Yachties and boat maps like to call San Luis Gonzaga Bay "Willard Bay" (named after the point)...

The larger bay between Alfonsina's and Punta Final is Ensenada de San Francisquito. The connection is the water hole on the Camino Real called San Francisquito (sometimes San Francisco) near Las Arrastras... the arroyo flows from there to this bay (merges with Arroyo Santa Maria). The gold ore mill run by William Lacy overlooking Punta Final was called Molino de San Francisquito before Lacy died and it was renamed Molino de Lacy...



Ore was shipped out from Puerto de San Francisquito... today the vacation village called Punta Final.

Anyway, the topo map switched the two names... but pretty much everyone calls both bays "Gonzaga"...

Here's another, from the 1970 Auto Club guide to "Baja California del norte"

Here's the oldest map that names Bahia San Luis Gonzaga, made by the explorer who named it, in 1746 Padre Consag:

More on the warehouse ruins...

Dr. Eric Ritter has been the lead archaeologists at many digs in Baja California. I just learned that INAH has published his paper on the dig at Gonzaga Bay.

Here is the link with many interesting photos and drawings, charts.

https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/488b16_d6a1399d09974ddd9dd3b0...

It is our belief that this warehouse was used to store off-loaded supplies and people intended for the San Fernando de Velicatá and other missions to the north, shipped to Gonzaga Bay from Loreto in the 1770s and 1780s.

Here is a photo from the 1950s of the warehouse ruins by Howard Gulick, in whose book most of us learned what they were...

Quote: Originally posted by freediverbrian

All leads to the unanswered question who is Willard ? And is he related to the infamous Willardguy??

willard was papa's pet duck

Quote: Originally posted by David K

More on the warehouse ruins... Dr. Eric Ritter has been the lead archaeologists at many digs in Baja California. I just learned that INAH has published his paper on the dig at Gonzaga Bay. Here is the link with many interesting photos and drawings, charts. https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/488b16_d6a1399d09974ddd9dd3b0... It is our belief that this warehouse was used to store off-loaded supplies and people intended for the San Fernando de Velicatá and other missions to the north, shipped to Gonzaga Bay from Loreto in the 1770s and 1780s. Here is a photo from the 1950s of the warehouse ruins by Howard Gulick, in whose book most of us learned what they were...

Quote: Originally posted by TMW

Interesting that the 2008 Nat Geo map doesn't show the correct route across Chapala to Hwy 1.

Yep, pretty funny.

On satellite maps now (Flash Earth), the end of the pavement, 20 kms. south of Gonzaga is shown... but none of the construction beyond... so the latest images are from around 2014? On Google Earth now, the new image (2016) ends just below Arroyo Santa Maria and then it is a 2005 image.

Quote: Originally posted by Sr.vienes

I noticed a trail angling up the mountain kind of east ish from the margarita drinking area at Alfonsinas and I could see it was too small to have been made by machinery and too regular for animals. I asked Joaquin what he knew about it and he told me the story he was told the Padres would post the locals up there to light a signal fire 🔥 so the ship from the mainland wouldn't miss them. Fact or fiction, I would like to know.

I apologize for not responding sooner. I just noticed this going over old threads.

I think you are referring to the trail up the island mountain at the end of the sand spit out from Alfonsina's? A fire on the beach could be just as easily seen, if big enough. There were no padres living at the bay, only passing through from the ship at the warehouse and then riding west to Mission San Fernando or beyond. Each mission had only one padre during the Jesuit and Franciscan periods. The Dominicans had two padres per mission. An additional missionary was sometimes stationed at Loreto. So not a lot of padres available to do more than run their mission, hold services and oversee construction projects.

While I don't remember it as a kid in the 60's when we were there, I did climb up it in the 80's! That is how I got this photo... It was a skinny trail, but I was a bit thinner in 1986, too! That's my 4x4 Subaru down there on the sand spit.