In the early years of the 20th century, Herbert Eugene Bolton opened up a new frontier in the study of American history. The Spanish borderlands, long neglected or passed over by Anglo-American historians, became his special field of endeavor. Bolton's research took him to the archives of Mexico, where he found a wealth of unpublished, even unknown, material which threw new light on the early history of the North American continent, particularly of the American Southwest. Names such as Garcés, Kino, Anza, Oñate, Escandón, and Moscoso took on new meaning.