an encyclopedia of a world that didn't happen
The Porciúncula Retreat
In August 1781, the eleven founding families dispatched by Governor Felipe de Neve to establish a pueblo on the Río Porciúncula turned back after early autumn flooding destroyed their advance camp, and the settlement was never re-attempted on that site. The pueblo that would have anchored the future metropolis of the Southern California basin was consequently never founded, leaving the plain a contested, unincorporated commons administered piecemeal from Misión San Gabriel Arcángel for the next century.
Diverged 1781 · “The settlement party sent by De Neve turns back before reaching the Los Angeles River plain.”
Ways in
31 still closed
- Río Porciúncula
- San José de Guadalupe
- Monterey
- Sonora
- Sinaloa
- Misión San Gabriel Arcángel
- Misión San Buenaventura
- Presidio of Santa Bárbara
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Where this world left ours
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TodayThe Southern California basin today is a polycentric conurbation of some fourteen million people anchored on San Gabriel, Spadra, and the port complex at San Pedro Bay, with no single dominant downtown; the historic Llano del Porciúncula remains a patchwork of light industry, floodway easements, and the disputed Porciúncula Commons Historical Park. Regional identity is famously fractured, a fact regional boosters and critics alike attribute to the absence of any single founding city to serve as the basin's civic and symbolic center.
Written so far · 2
Events and periods1
- The Porciúncula Retreat
The failed 1781 attempt to found a puebla on the Río Porciúncula, abandoned after flooding, which left the Southern California basin without a founding city.
People1
- Felipe de Neve
Spanish military officer and pueblo founder who led the failed 1781 settlement expedition to the Río Porciúncula, after which the region remained unincorporated for over a century.
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