GABRIEL MORAGA, VALLEY’S MOST NOTABLE EXPLORER

Of the relatively few Spanish soldiers assigned to explore the interior, Gabriel Moraga is significant to the valley for his discoveries and the names he gave them, most of all for CAMINOS, the San Joaquin Valley itself.

Moraga was born in 1776 at a presidio in Nueva España, now in southern Arizona. His father José Joaquin was a key member of both expeditions of Juan Bautista de Anza to explore and consolidate the north-western limits of  Spain’s colonial claims in Alta California in 1774 and 1776. The first expedition established a new overland route from the south to Mission San Gabriel. The second expedition went as far north as San Francisco Bay and led a group of about 200 colonists, including the Moraga family. Joaquin became commander of the garrison at San Francisco Presidio and in 1776 he and others crossed from Monterrey to explore the northern valley areas of Fresno and Stockton three times that year, giving names to the rivers they found: Río de Pescadero, Río San Francisco Javier, Río San Miguel, Rio de la Pasión.

Son Gabriel Alfarez Moraga’s reputation as one of the finest soldiers in California was earned from his military career beginning in Monterey at age 16. As a corporal he was appointed the military administrator of the Pueblo of San Jose and then Villa de Branciforte in the late 1700s. His expeditions and discoveries in the central valley elevated his reputation.

In Gabriel Moraga’s first official Spanish expeditions to explore the valley 1806–1808, many of the names which Moraga gave to places in the region, especially rivers, have survived, often in shortened or anglicized form: Río del Sacramento, Río de San Francisco, Río de San Joaquín, Río de Nuestra Señora de la Merced, Río de los Santos Reyes, Río de las Mariposas (Chowchilla). Eventually they became names of counties, schools and parks. It was the Catholic custom to name persons and places for saints, often on the day of birth or discovery.

Moraga died in 1823 and is buried in Mission Santa Barbara.

A mural honoring Moraga’s expedition was commissioned in the 1930s for the Merced Post Office.