Entradas and Campaigns, Entrepreneurs and Surveys
EARLYENTRANTS INTO THE SAN UAN COUNTRY F o r over a hundred years the San Juan region was a vast blank spot on the maps of New Spain, for a good reason. The Spanish empire in the New World began the day Christopher Columbus set foot on San Salvador; it spread to the mainland of Central America and then mushroomed over the continent. For approximately 300 years the Spanish ruled a vast collection of lands that ranged from the tip of South America through Central America and far into North America. Spanish claims of ownership went as far north as Oregon, with settlements from Florida to California; in addition, numerous islands in the Pacific fueled its Far Eastern trade. The northern province of New Mexico, with its capital in Santa Fe, sat at the end of the 1500-mile Camino Real, the road that stretched from Mexico City, the administrative center for these borderlands. Santa Fe, founded in 1610, was the control center of both Spanish and Native American activities in New Mexico. This city also served as a jumping-off point for exploration beyond the eastern pueblos along the Rio Grande and the western pueblos of Zuni, Acoma, and Hopi. The actual control this government exerted was
