One of the first Europeans to see the eastern parts of the Santa Clarita Valley arrived on this day in 1772, providing many of the regional names we still use to this day, including Agua Dulce.

Though the Spanish who named Agua Dulce had “discovered” the Santa Clarita Valley – and its thriving villages of native peoples – during a previous expedition in 1769, many of the areas surrounding the greater valley were still unknown to European explorers three years later.

In 1772, Don (Captain) Pedro Fages, a Spanish soldier and later first lieutenant governor of the province of the Californias, set out to explore a new land route from San Diego to Monterey.

In pursuit of a group of deserters who had fled into the California wilderness,  Fages and his group set out “fifty leagues toward the east” from San Diego into the desert, according to a report he wrote the next year.

“Lack of water forced us into the sierra, but when were parallel with the mission of San Gabriel we went about fifteen leagues to strike the plain again and went along the plain toward the north, keeping close to the sierra, on account of water, traveling for about twenty-five leagues, until we reached the pass of Buena Vista. Most of these twenty-five leagues we were passing through groves of palms, the land both to the east and the south having more palm groves. But the country appeared to be very short of water. We saw many smokes all along the plain.” – Don Pedro Fages, Nov. 27, 1773 (translated)

Historians have estimated that Fages’ route likely went up the San Diego River, made his way into the San Bernadino Valley, then turned northwest and crossed through the Cajon Pass, leading his men as the first Europeans to enter the Mojave Desert. The “palms” Fages spoke of were most likely Joshua trees and the “smokes” Native American campfires, according to contemporary researchers.

Skirting the edge of the Antelope Valley, eventually reaching the Tejon Pass. Fages called the pass “Paseo de Buena Vista,” or the “Cañada de las Uvas,” for the many grapevines he observed in the area. The Grapevine to the north of Santa Clarita bears its modern-day name thanks to these same plants.

The Grapevine was not the only area around the Santa Clarita Valley that ties its name to Fages. During his travels, His men would make camps in modern-day Castaic, Lake Elizabeth, Lebec and Tejon. In his diaries, Fages took note of the “sweet waters” along the Santa Clara River, the namesake of Agua Dulce.

To read yesterday’s Today in SCV History, click here.