Land in what is now Florida became home to the first continuous Spanish settlement in the New World. Admiral Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés landed on the northeast coast of Florida in 1565. When his ships and soldiers arrived in the Timacuan village of Seloy, they were offered a portion of the village to set up quarters, thus founding North America’s longest continuously occupied European settlement. Aviles named the community St. Augustine, for the saint whose feast occurred on that very day.

In 1598, Don Juan de Oñate’s Spanish expedition created the first European road in the United States—El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (the Royal Road to the Interior Land). Later, the expedition built the first European settlement west of the Mississippi at San Gabriel, in present day New Mexico. El Camino Real eventually extended 600 miles and connected twenty-one missions and four presidios (forts). The expedition initiated 400 years of commerce and cultural exchange throughout the Southwest.

The Palace of Governors, the oldest public building in the United States, was built by Spanish settlers in 1610. The government in New Mexico was located at the site from 1610 until 1901. During those years, the flags of Spain, Mexico, the Confederacy, and the United States flew over this historic building, at different times. The building, which is in Sante Fe, is now a museum. Following the Spanish-American War, the territory was incorporated into the US, and earned statehood in 1912.

Located on what today is the Pápago Indian Reservation in Tucson, AZ, San Xavier del Bac Mission, which is also known as “White Dove of the Desert,” is a masterpiece of Spanish Colonial architecture. Jesuit Father Kino founded the mission in 1692 to serve the local Pápago tribe. In 1783, Franciscan monks began to renovate the mission. Today’s renovated building, which is part Moorish and part Byzantine, has a domed roof and is an adobe jumble of frescos, carved saints, and two lions.

The Alamo, an 18th c. Spanish mission, symbolizes the determination and resistance of Texans fighting for independence from Mexico during the Texas Revolution. Mexican General Santa Anna lost San Antonio in December 1835 during the Siege of Bexar. He was determined to retake the location and to inform Texans of their fate if they continued to resist Mexican rule. The building and its Texian Army defenders fell after a thirteen day siege. The building is now a National Historic Site and museum.

Over 180 Texans (regular army and volunteers) took refuge in the fortified grounds of the Alamo. Mexican forces had grown to over 2,000 troops when they stormed the Alamo fortress. William B. Travis, James Bowie, Davy Crockett, and over 180 other defenders died, but the heroic resistance roused fighting anger among Texans, who six weeks later defeated the Mexicans at San Jacinto, crying “Remember the Alamo!” The chapel-fort became a state preserve in 1883, and is now a major tourist attraction.

Spanish Franciscan priest Miguel Serra y Abram was born in Petra, Majorca, a farming village. In 1730, at the age of 16, Miguel entered the Franciscan order and took the name Junípero, the name of Saint Francis’s close, extroverted friend. He founded nine missions in California (including San Diego and San Francisco) and was responsible for the baptism of over 6,000 Native Americans. Pope John Paul II beatified him in 1988. Take a tour of the California Missions in our Guide, linked below.

In 1769, Gaspar de Portola, who was accompanied by Father Junipero Serra, led a Spanish expedition to settle California. At what is now San Diego, the first of 21 missions and presidios (forts) was built, beginning Spanish colonization of Alta California. A 6-cent stamp, depicting the belfry of the mission at Carmel, was issued to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the settlement of California on July 16, 1969.

San Francisco Bay was discovered in 1769 by Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portola. His scouts spotted the bay from Sweeney Ridge; now a National Historic Landmark. The stamp portrays the expedition party on the shores of the Bay. Issued on January 1, 1913, the stamp is part of the four stamp Panama-Pacific Exposition Issue, commemorating the upcoming 1915 World's Fair held in San Francisco. Planning for the event began in 1911, just five years after the great earthquake that destroyed the city.

Spain founded its first civil settlement in Alta California in 1777, at El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe (now San José). Before 1777, Spain built eight missions and presidios in Alta California, but failed to secure the territory from invasion. A solution to this problem was to establish a permanent civilian population to produce food and other goods for the missions and presidios. Apache Indian Manuel Gonzalez, an original settler, built what is now referred to as the ‘Peralta Adobe’ in 1797.