In January 1776, San Gabriel Mission hosted trailblazer Colonel Juan Bautista De Anza and more than 200 colonists and soldiers traveling from Sonora, Mexico, to become the first residents of San Francisco. This journey was the first overland immigration into Upper Alta California. Father Font, the diarist, praised San Gabriel, recalling good sheep meat, chicken, and the mission’s fat cows that gave rich milk from which cheese and butter were made. As Father Paterna said, it was like the Promised Land.
