Portolá-Crespi Monument
2600 Sand Dunes Drive
Seaside
Year 1769

The marker reads:

Portolá-Crespi Monument

In the winter of 1769, the Spanish expedition in search of Monterey Bay, under the command of Don Gaspar de Portolá and Father Juan Crespi, erected a cross on or near this site and left the following message: “The land expedition is returning to San Diego for lack of provisions today, December 9, 1769.”

This monument was dedicated December 9, 1969, by the Citizens of Monterey in honor of our 200th birthday.

A Portolá-Crespi cross stands near the mouth of the Carmel River.

A cross once stood beside this marker. After we visited the site in December 2018, we looked at the site in Google Street View and saw a photograph dated December 2008. The cross was still in place.

By December 2018, Sand Dunes Drive had been closed to vehicular traffic but was open to pedestrians and cyclists. This closure perhaps explains why the Google photograph has not been updated in ten years.