1776
This map was made by the expedition's cartographer Don Bernardo Miera y Pacheco in 1777. It is one of the first known maps of this section of the Southwest. Source: National Park Service.
Exploration
On July 29, 1776 - while the Declaration of Independence was on its way to England - Fathers Francisco Atanasio Domínguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante set out into the unknown from Santa Fe. They were looking for an overland route to the new Spanish mission in Monterey, California. They failed, stumbling back six months later, starving and freezing.
Along with eight mestizo guides their journal documented first contact with numerous native peoples, their maps are among the very first of the American Southwest and served a generation of later explorers. Their failure preserved the American West as we know it.
Yet, their story is largely unknown outside the four states they crossed - New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona.
Our goal is to change that. This is the multicultural founding story that America forgot.
“May our coming foster a greater understanding of, and among, ourselves and our neighbors - Native, Hispanic, and Anglo-Americans. May it signal a deep, unabashed love of our Mother, Nature, in all Her dominions; and may She, in forgiving Her children their human frailties, rest a gentle hand upon us.”
— DEBE Officials, during preparations for the 1976 ride
1976
Inheritance
Two hundred years later my father, a decorated Vietnam veteran, William “Bill” Daley, led the Domínguez-Escalante Bicentennial Expedition (DEBE). To those who rode with him, he was simply known as “Jefe”.
The opportunity fell into his lap, dreamed up by Gordon Wallace of Prescott, AZ. For a year, my dad, Wallace, and Joseph Cerquone - their official diarist - planned, recruited, organized. When Wallace fell ill just before the ride, my dad was pressed into duty as Trail Boss.
On July 29, 1976 the DEBE set out into the known from Santa Fe. Over the next four months they would retrace the original expedition as best they could, documenting everything: daily journals, route maps, newspaper clippings, photographs. Local communities turned out by the thousands. Then... nothing.
Their original goal - a trail on par with the Appalachian, Continental Divide, and Pacific Crest - would also fail. The national media ignored their effort, the archive went into storage, and the story never reached audiences beyond the Four Corners.
The opportunity passed. As did my father, in August 2025. The archive and the torch passed to me…
2026
Convergence
Now, it’s my turn. Departing July 29, 2026—exactly 250 years to the day—we're weaving three expeditions into one story. Professional documentary crews will capture the complete 1,900-mile journey, filming at locations precisely documented in my father's 1976 archive and the friars' 1776 journals, for national broadcast and streaming.
We will bring educational curriculum for schools across the country, and real-time social media documentation will bring this story to audiences my father never reached.
America's 250th anniversary won't repeat for another generation. Colorado's 150th happens simultaneously. This multicultural founding story—as significant as anything happening in Philadelphia in 1776—finally gets the platform it deserves.
The moment is now. This time, the story gets told.