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ThePresidio of Monterey (POM), located inMonterey, California, is an activeUS Army installation with historic ties to the Spanish colonial era. It is the home of theDefense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLI-FLC). It is the lastpresidio in California to have an active military installation.
The Spanish explorerSebastián Vizcaíno visited, named and chartedMonterey Bay (especially the southern end) in 1602. In his official report, Vizcaíno recommended the natural harbor he found as an appropriate site for a seaport, military fortification and colonization. It would be over 150 years, until news ofPacific Coast moves by Spain's European rivals brought the remote area back to the attention of the leaders ofNew Spain.
In 1768,José de Gálvez, special deputy (visitador) of KingCarlos III in New Spain (Mexico), received this order: "Occupy and fortify San Diego and Monterey for God and the King of Spain." Gálvez organized a series of land and sea expeditions from the port of San Blas, today in the state of Nayarit, México, to establish a military post and Catholic mission in Monterey. Spain's rulers had long feared that other European powers would encroach from the north on American territories Spain claimed along the Pacific coast. Gálvez himself spread rumors of schemes by the British and Dutch rulers to add California to their own empires. Then, when a report arrived from the Spanish ambassador in Russia thatCatherine the Great planned to establish settlements down the California coast towards Monterey, Gálvez—already planning a northward expansion of New Spain's dominion—trumpeted the threat fromRussia.[1] KingCarlos gave Gálvez the go-ahead. Spain moved to occupy regions along the Pacific coast of North America that its sailors and soldiers had only seen and claimed from previous maritime explorations.
From March through June 1769,Gaspar de Portolá, appointed "governor of the Californias" (Baja and Alta California), led an overland party—joined byFranciscan friarJunípero Serra—fromLoreto toSan Diego. Then in July, Portolá mustered a new party—including lieutenantPedro Fages, cartographerMiguel Costansó, and friarsJuan Crespí and Francisco Gómez—to trek north from San Diego to rediscover the port of Monterey by land. They reachedMonterey Bay on 1 October, but failed to recognize it as the port described byVizcaíno 167 years earlier[2]—and continued north, eventually reachingSan Francisco Bay. On their return trek to San Diego, they planted two large crosses on the coast of Monterey, whose geographical identity they could not yet confirm. (seeTimeline of the Portolá expedition).
In April 1770,Portolá gathered a new and smaller party for another overland journey from San Diego to Monterey. This party includedPedro Fages with twelveCatalan volunteers, seven leather-jacket soldiers, twomuleteers, five Christian Indians from Baja California, and friarJuan Crespí.[3] They arrived at Monterey Bay on 24 May. That afternoon, Portolá and Crespí revisited the large wooden cross their party had planted five months earlier on a hill just south of Point Pinos near the northern tip of theMonterey peninsula. "This is the port of Monterey without the slightest doubt," wrote Crespí in his diary.[4]
Miguel Costansó selected the site of the presidio and drew the first plans and maps.Pedro Fages, left in command of the Monterey soldiers afterPortolá sailed back to Mexico, imposed strict discipline on his soldiers to construct the presidio. He set the work they had to do in a certain time, harshly punishing soldiers caught resting or rolling a cigarette. Heavy rains punctuated the spring and winter of 1770–1771, but Fages permitted no let-up in the work. His soldiers had to trudge through mud to the forest to chop wood, then drag their mules out of the mud and head home. They had no chance to wash or mend their clothes during the six-day work week; Fages told them to do that on Sundays. This work regime lasted a year and a half, until complaints by the soldiers persuaded padre presidentJunípero Serra to intervene: Serra told Fages that, as a Christian, he had to observe thesabbath and let men rest on Sundays. In late June 1771, Fages wrote to viceroyCarlos de Croix in Mexico to inform him that the Monterey presidio had been built, sending along a simplified map.[5]
While Fages establishedEl Presidio Real de San Carlos de Monterrey (theRoyal Presidio of Saint Charles of Monterey),Junípero Serra foundedMission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, with the original location occupying the present day (remaining) chapelCathedral of San Carlos Borromeo.
Monterey became one of a series ofpresidios, or "royal forts," built by Spain in what is now the western United States. In 1792, the El Castillo de Monterey was established to protect the port and persido of Monterey.[6] Other California-based installations were founded inSan Diego (El Presidio Real de San Diego) in 1769, in San Francisco (El Presidio Real de San Francisco ) in 1776, and inSanta Barbara (El Presidio Real de Santa Bárbara) in 1782.[7]
On 20 November 1818,ArgentineprivateerHipólito Bouchard, known thereafter as "California's only pirate", raided the El Castillo de Monterey defended byJosé Bandini. Its population took refuge in the Presidio'sRancho del Rey San Pedro (King's Farm), in the vicinity ofSalinas.[8][6] The fortunes of the Presidio at Monterey rose and fell with the times: it has been moved, abandoned and reactivated time and time again. The only surviving building from the original compound is theRoyal Presidio Chapel. At least three times, it has been submerged by the tide of history, only to appear years later with a new face, a new master, and a new mission – first under the Spanish, then the Mexicans, and ultimately the Americans.
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United States control of the area began in 1846 during theMexican–American War whenCommodore John D. Sloat, commander of the U.S. Navy'sPacific Squadron, landed unopposed a small force in Monterey and claimed the territory and the Presidio for the United States. He left a small garrison ofMarines who moved the fort up to its current location on the hill overlooking theharbor, combining in one location the previously separated functions of military headquarters and fortress. The Presidio was renamed Fort Mervine in honor of CaptainWilliam Mervine, who commanded one of the ships in Sloat's squadron.[9]
The original Presidio comprised a square ofadobe buildings located in the vicinity of what is now downtown Monterey. The fort's original mission, theRoyal Presidio Chapel, has remained in constant use since its founding in 1770 by Junípero Serra, who arrived with Portola's party. On a hill overlooking the Monterey harbor is an earthwork—the only lingering connection between the original and present sites of the Presidio. That earthwork was part of the Spanish-built artillery battery defending the harbor.[10]
The 1846 US occupation of Monterey put an end to any Mexican military presence at the Presidio. In 1865, in the closing months of theAmerican Civil War, the fort was returned to temporary life by the arrival of six officers and 156 enlisted men, but was abandoned again in 1866.[11]
In 1902, aninfantry regiment arrived at Monterey with the mission to construct a post to house an infantry regiment and a squadron of cavalry. Troops moved into the new wooden barracks, officially named Ord Barracks, in June 1903. It was named for former American Civil War general,Edward Ord. However, in order to perpetuate the name of the old Spanish military installation that Portolà had established 134 years earlier, theWar Department redesignated the post as the Presidio of Monterey. The barracks and training facilities for enlisted men, along with General Ord's name, were moved a short way up the coast toFort Ord in 1940.
A school of musketry was located at the Presidio from 1907 to 1913, and a school for cooks and bakers from 1914 to 1917. In 1917, the Army purchased an additional 15,809 acres (64 km2) across the bay as a maneuver area. This new acquisition eventually was designated as Camp Ord in 1939 and becameFort Ord in 1940.
Between 1919 and 1940, the Presidio housed principally cavalry and field artillery units. However, the outbreak ofWorld War II ended the days of horse cavalry, and those troops left Monterey. The Presidio, subsequently, served as reception center and temporary headquarters of the III Corps until it was deactivated in late 1944.
The Presidio of Monterey was reactivated, under considerable difficulty, in January 1945 to accommodate theCivil Affairs Staging Area (CASA).[12] The Civil Affairs Staging Area was a brigade sized Army / Navy formation created by ajoint chiefs of staff directive for military government theater planning, training and provision of military government personnel to liberated areas of theFar East. CASA provided comprehensive training and planning in civil affairs administration to officers coming from six schools of military government established at various universities throughout the country.
In 1946, theMilitary Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) was moved to the Presidio of Monterey and was renamed theArmy Language School (ALS). In June 1963, the Army Language School was renamed the Defense Language Institute (DLI). In 1976, the Defense Language Institute became the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLI-FLC), theDefense Department's primary center for foreign language instruction. The center constitutes the principal activity at the Presidio. The Presidio serves all branches of the Department of Defense as well as other select government agencies.
From 1946 onward, the Presidio itself was a sub-installation of the nearbyFort Ord. On 1 October 1994, this situation changed when Fort Ord closed and the Presidio of Monterey became a separate installation again, with the continued military areas of Fort Ord becoming known as the Presidio Annex.
US Army Signal Activity (USASA)Camp Roberts, California is a subinstallation of the Presidio of Monterey.[13]
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36°36′14″N121°54′42″W / 36.6040°N 121.9117°W /36.6040; -121.9117
