Tucked away in the shadow of the rugged Bradshaw Mountains, not far from Lake Pleasant, Castle Hot Springs once boasted a dazzling guest list — from Rockefellers to Carnegies to a Kennedy. Yet for 40 years, the resort sat empty, frequented only by a caretaker and countless owners whose grand plans for the site fizzled.
Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail
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In October 1775, as a nascent United States was breaking away from Great Britain on America’s East Coast, Juan Bautista de Anza and a party of some 240 Spanish colonists began a 1,200-mile journey through present-day Mexico, Arizona and California to establish what would become San Francisco. It would be Spain’s first civilian presence in Alta California and its first land route to that territory. To get there, the Anza Party would ford rivers and cross deserts, often relying on the aid of the American Indian tribes through whose lands they would pass.