Ensenada History

Spanish Discovery and Administration

Ensenada's bay was discovered on September 17, 1542 by the Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo. He named it San Mateo, as it was just four days before St. Matthew's day. He and his men stayed for six days, and did not report any inhabitants.

Sixty years later, Sebastian Vizcaino rediscovered the bay on November 5, 1602, and renamed the area Ensenada de Todos Santos. He also did not mention any inhabitants in the area.

The next person who mentioned Ensenada was the Dominican Father Junipero Serra, who passed through the area on his way from San Fernando Vellicata to San Diego in the summer of 1769. Serra's notes mention the Kumiai tribe living in the area, subsisting on fishing and some cultivated grain crops. The Dominicans elected not to stay in Ensenada, opting instead for Santo Tomas in the southern Baja and San Miguel in the north.

Since the land was there for the taking, Alferez Jose Manuel Ruiz, a native of Loreto and Commandant of the Frontera Territory solicited the property of Ensenada in 1804 from the Governor, Jose Joaquin Arrillaga. Ruiz was granted 8,750 acres (3,500 hectares) in exchange for 2 pesos in 1806, and Ruiz used the property for grazing cattle and other animals.

Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo

Pioneer Days of Ensenada

Ruiz became governor of the territory in 1824, and left his son-in-law Francisco Xavier Gastelum in charge of the Ensenada property. The property was handed down in the family for 3 generations thereafter.

The Mexican American War took place in 1848, and Mexico ceded its territorial claims to California, Arizona and other states to the United States in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Thus, Baja California became the northernmost frontier of the Mexican Republic.

In 1850, the area was very sparsely populated, boasting only 18 ranching families from the village of Santo Tomas to the border. But the discovery of gold in 1870 in nearby San Rafael sparked a small gold rush. Over 1,300 people moved to San Rafael (later renamed Real del Castillo) to exploit the gold rush, and the town became the provincial capital.

The roads in the territory were rudimentary at best, and the miners preferred to do their commerce via ship rather than take the several day journey to the border on land. Thus did the port of Ensenada begin to gain prominence. Ensenada became the capital of the area in 1882 as the amount of gold being mined in Real del Castillo rapidly diminished.

Land Speculation

In 1883, the Mexican Congress passed the Law of Colonization, permitting foreigners to acquire, through concessions, huge extensions of territory with the purpose of colonizing and developing the area's resources. The International Company of Mexico was established in 1885 in Hartford, Connecticut, and the firm acquired a concession for 18 million acres of the northern Baja territory. The concession granted the company legal title to all of the land in their concession zone that was not already privately owned. The caveat was that the company had to attract 2,000 settlers to the area, and they were given 10 years to meet this goal.

Max Bernstein, the General Manager of the International Company, purchased the Pedro Gastelum estate in 1886, and began selling lots of prime real estate in the newly planned city of Ensenada. The town saw a spurt of growth; in March 1887 there were just 300 residents, but by November the population had increased to over 1,400 people.

The town had a fruit cannery, three flour mills, and the farmers in the area grew wheat, orchard fruits, pumpkins, vegetables, corn, barley, olives, grapes and honey. The International Company was able to attract a brewery, soap factory, a textile industry and another flour mill, but the firm was encountering financial difficulties.

The firm was sold in 1889 to the Mexican Land Colonization Company, based in London. The discovery of gold in 1888 in the nearby District of El Alamo, 60 miles south of Ensenada, was one of the reasons that the English saw great promise in Ensenada.

Ensenada Develops as a Port

The 1890s saw Ensenada become a proper town. Hussong's Cantina was established in 1892 by German immigrant Johann Hussong. The town had a telegraph, and electricity was available to homes from 5:00 pm to 1:00 pm. Gas was used for public lighting, and several schools were supported by the citizenry.

Mexican ships traveled from Ensenada to San Diego six times a month, and standard shipping routes developed between Ensenada and other Mexican ports.

In 1915, the regional capital was moved from Ensenada to Mexicali, and Ensenada went into a recession. The move was made because the government believed that no state capital should be at sea-range from any foreign power's armed forces. In 1917, President Venustiano Carranza cancelled the concession of the Mexican Land Colonization Company due to non-fulfillment of the contract.

In the late 1920s, the government made Baja California a Duty Free Zone, and in the 1930s, a paved road was established from Ensenada to Tijuana. The city's population grew as a result of migration from the interior, and during the 1930s, Ensenada began attracting tourists who loved the peacefulness and outdoor life of the place.

The city doubled in size during World War II, as Ensenada was made the base of the Second Military Zone of the Sixth Regiment of the Pacific. Fishing canneries, established in the 1920s and 1930s, flourished.

Today's Ensenada

In 1952, Baja California became a state after 130 years of its existence as a Territory. By 1960, the population of Ensenada had grown to 85,000 residents.

Today, Ensenada's population has surpassed 460,000 residents, and the city's economy has diversified into tourism, manufacturing, services, shipping and other fields.