Juan María Antonio de Rivera (also spelled Ribera) was an 18th-century Spanish explorer who explored southwestern

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

, including parts of the Southern

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...

. In 1765, at the request of Governor Tomás Vélez Cachupin of New Mexico, he led two expeditions from Santa Fe northward through present-day

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

and

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, partly in search of

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

but also to help thwart the expansion of European powers in the region. His expeditions passed through regions inhabited by the Ute and Southern Paiute tribes. Rivera camped with Paiutes along the Dolores River in July 1765 before returning to Santa Fe for supplies. His second trip set out in September 1765 with an explicit instruction from Governor Cachupin to find where the Natives cross the Colorado River. Although his diaries of the expedition do not state when the party returned to Santa Fe, he signed and certified his second diary 20 November 1765. His expedition crossed the Animas River near present-day Durango, Colorado (a tributary of the

Colorado River The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The river, the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), 5th longest in the United St ...

), which he may have named. The ore samples he brought back to Santa Fe were among the first recorded discoveries of gold in present-day Colorado, although they created no particular interest at the time.

References

Jacobs, G. C. 1992. "The Phantom Pathfinder" Utah Historical Quarterly 60(3): 201 - 223.

External links

Utah History to Go: The Rivera Expedition
People from pre-statehood Colorado People from pre-statehood Utah Year of death unknown Spanish explorers of North America Explorers of the colonial Southwest of the United States 18th-century Spanish explorers Year of birth unknown {{explorer-stub

See also

References

External links