Episode 120: San Bernardino Mormons

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:21)
By the late 1840s, a lot was happening around the world of Mormonism. But one of the most turbulent stories of Mormon domination was taking place in 1851, when the Mormons founded San Bernardino.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:32)
Nope, I'm gonna stop you right there. Mormons did not, in fact, found San Bernardino.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:39)
Wait, wait, I don't understand. There's monuments, I've heard the testimonies. I've read Andrew Jensen's histories.
Pretty sure Mormons are responsible for establishing California.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:49)
No, Mormons did what they do best. They showed up, occupied, invaded, moved in, whatever you wanna call it, to a place that was already inhabited by people. They did not again, in fact, found San Bernardino.
They just hung out there for a while and farmed.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:06)
You have to at least give the Mormons credit for good irrigation ditches.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:10)
Fine, they do make a fine ditch. I absolutely cannot argue with that.
But as we'll talk about today, we are going to challenge the idea that Mormons just rolled in and founded California. Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:31)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:33)
Bringing you the story of Mormonism from the shadow of the everlasting hills, straight out of Zion. This isn't your grandpa's Mormon history.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:00)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:05)
Gird your loins, lock your hearts, and pay your tithing, because we're bringing you the story of Mormonism in all its paradisiacal glory.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:13)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:37)
So I don't want to get into it too much because this is a podcast for another time, but Spanish invasion had been going on for several hundred years in the Americas before Mormon arrival in California. And so I'm gonna give you the most basic surface level reductive history here. And there's some really great books on the subject. My favorite is from the Native perspective from Ned Blackhawk, and it's called Violence Over the Land, which really sets up a basic understanding of how indigenous America was operating by the 1850s.
And Amanda Komodo recommended it to me. And every time she recommends a book, it's great. But yes, the Spanish had been trying hard to colonize the Americas for centuries.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:16)
So basically what you need to know is that for hundreds of years, Spanish Catholic missionaries and priests had been moving further north from South and Central America to North America. They set up missions with the main intent of converting the indigenous tribes living there with the hope to use them and their land to mine gold, silver and other materials to send back to Spain.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:36)
As early as the 1500s, Spain realized that the California coast had great potential for pearl trade of all things, and it did open up for more gold mines. And again, I'm skipping hundreds of years of important history here, but there was a Spanish mission set up in the area that is now known as San Bernardino. Actually, there were several missions in the area, but by the end of the 1840s, the land was being parceled out and sold to wealthy Spanish cattle barons. The Mexican war against America was going on, and the majority of Californians considered themselves very proud Spanish Californians.
Very few Americans lived among them, though they dealt with the presence of several American exploratory parties, and some Americans would ramble in from time to time, but really they were proud Spanish and they didn't like Americans.

**Bryan Buchanan** (4:23)
But the US is no dummy. They'd had their eyes on California and they were determined to conquer it. On July 7th, 1846, the famous Battle of Monterey occurred where the US. Navy sailed into Monterey Bay, which was the capital of Alta, California at that time and the largest shipping port.
And the Americans planted their flag there.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (4:41)
And this is an interesting time because we know Mormons are coming across the plains, but this is when Spanish missions were becoming secularized. Like the Mormons, Spain believed that converting natives was their Christian duty. And if they ended up with lots of gold and natural resources in return, well, that was just God's blessing. But by the time Mormons were set to arriving here, and arriving in California, Catholic conversions were failing.
Spanish missions were losing power and becoming secularized. And part of this has to do with the Mexican resistance to Spain, and the Catholic Church could no longer control the missions there.
So they start selling off all this property to, you know, entrepreneurs and cattle barons. But it doesn't mean that those living in California were pumped to be American either. In fact, like I said earlier, in the 1840s, being American was not a popular idea in California. The residents there were Spanish, and they were really proud of that, and they really resented American encroachment. And this is probably why Mormons did so well there at first, because they were kind of considered refugees of the American government, except those battalion members who were wearing actual US military uniforms.