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Dr. Russell K. Skowronek, anthropologist and professor at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California, realized the need for additional research in the daily life of people during the time of the Anza Expedition. Turning to his upper level classes, he asked students to discover what it was like along the Spanish frontier in 1776. Using both primary and secondary sources, they assembled reports that give the reader a much richer idea of what life was like.

Exploring subjects such as hygiene, education, food, health, vice and death, these students completed these projects in the Spring of 2004, with the understanding that the National Park Service would share them with readers and visitors interested in the history of the Anza Trail. The National Park Service has these research papers in its web site, in the public domain, and has published their existence in its own publications, such as the "Noticias de Anza" and others. They should be extremely useful to researchers and persons interested in California history.

There are 8 papers in total, their titles as follows:

Death in the Age of Anza: Spanish and Ohlone Rituals and Beliefs by Yessica Islas and Jelena Radovic.

Education in Alta California by Abigail Fox and Vanessa Koons.
Food and Cooking by Mike Skaug and Nicole Marshall.
Games and Pastimes by Marisa Tsukiji and Kelly Richards.
Health and Medicine in 18th Century Alta California by Kenneth Jocewicz and Carmen Rosas

The Military Frontier of California by Richard E. Carlson and Jimmy Templeton.
Vice and Virtue - Indulgences and Social Mores Amongst the Inhabitants of Spanish Alta California by Shuryn Riggins and Dinelle Lucchesi.
Women's Experiences along the Juan Bautista de Anza Trail by Erin White and Courney Thiesen.

These are all extremely scholarly papers, each from 25 to 35 pages in length, including multiple references, acknowledgements and footnotes. They are undoubtedly well researched and provide an invaluable source of detailed information on the period.
It is difficult to find persons willing to do long and extensive, at times boring, research and the fact that these students used their time to produce this important body of work should be appreciated. Because of the length of these research papers, I will be condensing each one into a shorter, digest-type version which will appear, one at a time, in future issues of our Newsletter. The originals are all now in our History Center Archives, available to be read in their entirety. As they appear, if you are interested in the subject matter, do come to the History Center and consult the full version, with its research sources and background material. I hope you find them as interesting and complete as I did.