El Camino Real was the original 700 mile dirt road connecting the 21 California missions from San Diego to Sonoma, with each mission a day's journey apart by horseback. In 1892, Anne Pitcher began a campaign to preserve El Camino Real and mark its historic route. By 1902, Native Daughters of the Golden West joined the California Federation of Women's Club to carry out the proposal, and in 1906 the first bell was placed. In 1915, an old cement section of roadway was built in front of the Caledonia, and it remains one of the few strips of the original El Camino Real in California.