June 9, 1775: Exploring the West Coast

We’ve spent all our time on the East Coast; let’s take a side quest to the West Coast to see what the Spanish are up to. We have two main players here: Bruno de Heceta, after whom at least two locations on the West Coast are named (and they’re pronounced differently, go figure), and Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra. They sailed together, each in charge of a ship, and made it almost to Canada before Heceta headed back to Mexico and Bodega y Quadra continued on up to Alaska. Their goal was to find Russians, and in that respect they failed, but they did manage to claim a lot of territory for Spain. The post June 9, 1775: Exploring the West Coast appeared first on 250 and Counting.