Francisco Atanasio Domínguez was born in Mexico City around 1740. In 1776, Father Domínguez teamed with a young Franciscan named Silvestre Velez de Escalante to explore a possible route from Santa Fe, New Mexico to Monterey, California by heading Northwest out of Santa Fe. Known as the Domínguez-Escalante Expedition, this exploration was the earliest that the Spanish arrived in the area now known as Utah. After the expedition, Dominguez returned to Mexico and passed away circa 1805.