Loreto

History

When Europeans arrived, the peninsula's native peoples, among them the Cochimí, Guaycura and Pericú, lived by gathering, hunting and fishing. In 1683 Father Eusebio Kino joined an expedition that set up a mission at San Bruno, near present-day Loreto, but drought ruined the crops and the site was abandoned.

On October 19, 1697 a small party led by the Jesuit Juan María de Salvatierra landed at a place the locals called Conchó, where there was a reliable spring. Days later they carried in an image of Our Lady of Loreto and founded the mission that became the first permanent Spanish settlement in the Californias and their capital. The first church was finished in 1703. After the Jesuits were expelled in 1768, Franciscans took over, and from Loreto Fray Junípero Serra and the Portolá expedition set out in 1769 to found the missions of Alta California. The Dominicans arrived in 1773, and in 1777 the capital moved to Monterey.

Loreto again served as capital of Baja California alone from 1804, but the seat of government left for good in the late 1820s, and the town slipped into a long quiet. Revival began when restoration of the mission started in 1948, followed by the Transpeninsular Highway in 1973, the international airport in 1974 and a tourism plan by Fonatur. Loreto became its own municipality in 1992.