Spanish Heritage in the United States: California. The first European to explore the California coast was Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo. Landing on September 28, 1542, on the shores of San Diego Bay, he claimed California for Spain. He also landed on San Miguel, one of the Channel Islands, and continued as far as Pt. Reyes. After his death the crew continued exploring as far north as Oregon. In 1602, 60 years after Cabrillo, the Spaniard Sebastián Vizcaíno explored California’s coastline from San Diego to Monterey Bay. He named San Diego Bay and held the first Christian church service recorded in California on the shores of San Diego Bay. He also provided detailed charts of the coastal waters of Monterrey, which were used for nearly 200 years. Spanish missionaries had been establishing missions in present-day Baja California since 1697. The first permanent European settlement in present-day California (“Alta California”) was the Mission San Diego de Alcala, established in 1769 by Father Junipero Serra. Eventually 21 missions were established along the California coast, linked by the mission trail El Camino Real. The Spanish treated Baja California and Alta California as a single administrative unit, part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, with Monterey as its capital. The missions of California were Spanish settlements, initiated by Spanish King Charles III and built between 1769 and 1823. The Spanish had already claimed this land over 200 years earlier, but didn’t start settling …