Atascadero Mutual Water Company
Serving the colony since 1913
From Expedition to Home: The Anza Legacy in California & Cambria
Tue, Mar 03
|Atascadero Historical Museum
Step into California’s living history! Hear 8th-generation Californian Bobby Soto share his family’s journey from the Anza Expedition and early presidios to ranching, vaqueros, and Hearst Castle.
Time & Location
Mar 03, 2026, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Atascadero Historical Museum, 6600 Lewis Ave, Atascadero, CA 93422, USA
About the Event
Join us for an evening of living history. The featured speaker is Bobby Soto, an 8th-generation native Californian whose family history is closely tied to the Anza Expedition. His five-times great-grandfather, Ignacio de Soto, along with his wife Bárbara and their two young children, were selected by Anza for the 1775-1776 expedition and stationed at the newly established San Francisco Presidio. The Soto family’s story continued through Monterey, San José, Jolon, Adelaida, and the San Simeon coast, where family members worked as vaqueros for George Hearst.
Bobby worked for 35 years at Hearst Castle, retiring as Restoration Supervisor in 2003, while continuing his family’s long tradition of raising cattle on ranchland in Cambria. He is the author of a family history tracing the Soto lineage from the Basque region of Anguiano, Spain, to their eventual settlement in Cambria.
Doors open at 6:00 pm with light refreshments, followed by welcome remarks…