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El Presidio Real de San Diego
By Deacon Alff
April 16, 2012
The first people who inhabited the area that became the San Diego Presidio were the Kumeyaay Indians. The San Diego Presidio is like the “Plymouth Rock” of the Pacific coast. It was the first European settlement on the West Coast of the United States. Europeans first explored the area in 1542 and came again in 1602. It was built in May, 1769 by Commandant Pedro Fages. It was the first of ALL the presidios AND the missions.
In less than 30 days, it was attacked by Indians. 4 Spanish people were injured and a boy died. After that, they built a log fence around the presidio. It was finished in March, 1770. They made two bronze cannons, one facing the San Diego Bay and one facing the Indian village. The cannons were not so much for destruction, but more for intimidating attackers with noise. One of the cannons is now in the Serra Museum. In 1773 through 1774, they replaced the wooden fence with an adobe wall.
The head of the presidio is called the commandant. The rest of the people were soldiers. The soldiers had to guard the presidio, care for the animals, and to deliver messages. Everyone needs some free time, and the soldiers did, too. They would usually spend their free time caring for their families.
The commandant’s house was the main building. The soldiers lived around the edge. They had a chapel, cemetery, and storage rooms on the east side. The guard house was on the south side, near the main gate. Today, there is nothing left on the site.
I made the presidio using foam core for the base, clay for the buildings, little roof tile thingies for the roof, fake dirt for the ground, white and blue paint for the river, some shrubbery, trees, and some good old know how.
This project was made with blood, sweat, and tears. But we pulled through. So that’s the El Presidio Real de San Diego.
