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My name is Father Garces.

I was one of the first white men to walk through the Mojave Desert in 1776.

With my Mojave Indian guides I walked from the Colorado River to the San Gabriel Mission. I wrote about my trip in a journal. I met the Vanyume and Chemeheuvi Indians along the way.

The same year I made my trip, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson were writing our Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia.

Copy of Father Garces' Journal written in Spanish

Courtesy of Clifford Walker

Mojave River Valley Museum Association