El Presidio de San Francisco: At the Edge of Empire

El Presidio de San Francisco, the northernmost presidio of New Spain, was founded in 1776 as a reaction to the Russian economic expansion onto the Pacific coast of North America. Demographics indicate that the pool of colonial recruits bound for San Francisco came from regions with a diverse cultural matrix, including Native Californians, after the presidio was established. Over time, the colonial population became increasingly homogenous in recognizing its own ethnic identity. Although the location of the presidio of San Francisco was generally known prior to 1993, its exact location and the extent to which it was preserved archaeologically was unknown. The 1993 discovery confirmed its predicted general location but also revealed that its situation and configuration was somewhat different than that predicted by historic documents. Structural examinations of the site reveal considerable information about the settlement's architectural development, which became increasingly institutionalized. Ongoing laboratory investigations of excavated deposits from the site indicate that dietary practices differed somewhat from other settlements in Alta California. The archaeological interpretation of this frontier presidio requires both global and local perspectives to reckon influences as diverse as European geopolitics and frontier pragmatics.