Cabrillo National Monument, Point Loma, San Diego, California

On September 28, 1542, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo and his crew sailed into the San Diego harbor and became the first Europeans to set foot on what would later become the west coast of the United States. The exact landing is not known, but many believe that Cabrillo came ashore on Ballast Point, which is a small finger of land below the monument.

Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo led the first European expedition that explored what is now the west coast of the United States. Cabrillo departed from the port of Navidad, Mexico on June 27, 1542. Three months later he arrived at "a very good enclosed port," which is known today as San Diego Bay. Historians believe he anchored his flagship, the San Salvador, on Point Loma's east shore near the land that becomes Cabrillo National Monument. Cabrillo later died during the expedition, but his crew continued on, possibly as far north as Oregon, before thrashing winter storms forced them back to Mexico.

Cabrillo National Monument, established in 1913, remembers Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo's voyage of exploration. It was the first contact between the coastal California Indigenous tribes, like the Kumeyaay, and men from Europe. Though the San Salvador stayed only six days in San Diego harbor, this journey and future Spanish journeys to the area would shape southern California’s complex history.

This cross-section is of a galleon, one of the types of ships most frequently used by the Spanish in the 16th Century. Initially designed for warfare, these ships were narrower and more maneuverable than earlier designs. Cabrillo built his flagship -- San Salvador -- along the lines of these ships.

Cabrillo built his ship sometime between 1536 and 1540. This full-rigged galleon measured at least 80 feet long and 22 feet across across the beam. When full, it carried about 100 crewmen, which included four officers, 30 seamen, three apprentices, 25 soldiers, a priest and perhaps a lay brother or two, servants, slaves and maybe a few merchants and their goods.

Born in Spain, Cabrillo was a conquistador in his youth. The term “conquistador” is the name applied to the mostly Spanish soldiers who explored, conquered, and settled in the New World. We know little of Cabrillo's early years until 1519, when his name appears in the ranks of those who served in the army of famous conquistador Hernan Cortes. In the terrible battles between the Aztecs and the Spanish, Cabrillo fought as a captain of crossbowmen.

Metal weapons and effective tactics made the conquistadors formidable opponents. The Aztecs, however, were also very brave and they greatly outnumbered the Spanish. Ultimately, smallpox tipped the scales in favor of the Spanish. . The disease, previously unknown in the New World, swept through Aztec defenders and killed perhaps a quarter of their population. Everywhere the Spanish went, advanced disease went before them making it possible for a relatively few Europeans to conquer the New World. After the defeat of the Aztecs, Cabrillo joined other Spanish military expeditions in what is today southern Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Eventually Cabrillo settled in Guatemala.

Why did Cabrillo explore California? The Governor of Guatemala, Pedro de Alvarado, selected Cabrillo to build and provision ships to explore the Pacific because of his skills as a leader and businessman. Alvarado planned to use the ships to establish a trading route between Central America and the Spice Islands (modern day Indonesia) . When Alvarado died during an Indian uprising, his business partner, the Viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de Mendoza, prompted Cabrillo to lead one of two expeditions to explore the Pacific. Cabrillo accepted and soon set out to explore the coast north and west of New Spain (Mexico). Meanwhile, the other expedition, led by Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, sailed directly across the Pacific to the Philippines. While this expedition did reach its Philippine destination, Villalobos was killed in a mutiny, and the hungry, disheartened crew eventually surrendered to a Portuguese garrison in the Spice Islands.

The Cabrillo expedition sailed out of the port of Navidad, near modern day Manzanillo, on June 27, 1542 with three ships. Accompanying Cabrillo were a crew of sailors, soldiers, enslaved people, merchants, a priest, livestock, and provisions for two years. The expedition was also seeking the seven fabulously wealthy cities known as Cibola that some believed were near the Pacific coast beyond New Spain, and the possibility of a route connection from the North Pacific to the North Atlantic - the Straits of Anian.

Lenses of Point Loma

This 3rd Order, flashing (rotating) lens served in the "new" Point Loma Lighthouse from 1891 to 1997. The original 3rd Order fixed (non-rotating) lens from the Old Point Loma Lighthouse was shipped to the U.S. Lighthouse Establishment's New York Depot. The Henry-Lepaute lens in the tower today is similar to the 3rd Order lens that was in use from 1855 until 1891. 

From 1890 until 1960, the Ballast Point Lighthouse safely guided ships in and out of San Diego Harbor. In the 1920s, a green glass "chimney" in the lamp distinguished the lighthouse from nearby city lights. Ballast Point was the last West Coast lighthouse to have a fixed light.