Less than half a mile west of the San Diego Convention Center, just past the Manchester Grand Hyatt and next to the Seaport Village sign, lies the marker for a mass grave.
Somewhere beneath the soil of La Punta de los Muertos, “Dead Men’s Point,” rest the bodies of an indeterminate number of Spanish sailors who perished from scurvy on a 1782 survey mission commanded by Don Augustín de Echeverria.
Some historians claim the ground holds the bones of another 100 sailors who succumbed to scurvy and dysentery during the first expedition to San Diego, led by explorer Gaspar de Portolà and Father Juniper Serra in 1769.
Mass burials have been part of San Diego history from the beginning, and, if catastrophe were to destroy the city, mass burials would likely mark the city’s end, too. And local government is somewhat ready for it—Section VI of Annex F of the regional “Operational Area Emergency Plan” describes the conditions that would necessitate...
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