Cabrillo National Monument

At the southern tip of the Point Loma peninsula, a large stone statue of Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo gazes out toward the Pacific Ocean. This monument commemorates the landing of the Portuguese explorer here on September twenty-eighth, fifteen forty-two, marking the first time a European expedition set foot on the coast that would become the western United States. Cabrillo had been searching for a passage between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, but his arrival signaled the start of a new, complex era for the Kumeyaay people who had inhabited the region for thousands of years.