Pageant in the Wilderness

Father Escalante, who was born in Treceno, Cantabria, Spain around 1750, became a Franciscan in the Convento Grande in Mexico City at the age of 17. In 1774, he came to present-day New Mexico in the Mexican province. He was first stationed at Laguna pueblo and then in January 1775 assigned as a minister to the Zuni. In June 1776, he was summoned by Fray Francisco Atanasio Dominguez, who had arrived in Santa Fe on March 22, 1776, for the expedition to California and remained in New Mexico for two