On July 1, 1769, Father Junípero Serra and Don Gaspar de Portolá arrived on the shores of the beautiful land-locked harbor which had been named San Diego by Vizcaíño. Of the 219 men who had left Baja California two months …
On the first day of June 1770, the Spanish packet San Antonio put ashore into the vast pine-bordered harbor of Monterey. It took the ship over a month to cover the more than 400 miles from San Diego. Once ashore, …
The history of the founding of Mission San Antonio de Padua is quite interesting. Early in July 1771, a little party of Spanish Missionaries, headed by three Franciscan Padres, walked into a beautiful, oak-mantled valley near the coastal region of …
In 1771, the arrival of 10 more Franciscan Missionaries at the headquarters of Father Serra in Monterey gave new impetus to his plans. Immediately, he moved to close the long gap between his own San Carlos Borroméo de Carmelo near …
In the Valley of the Bears, so named by Don Gaspar de Portolá and his men on their first expedition from San Diego north in search of Monterey Bay in 1769, Father Junípero Serra founded Mission San Luis Obispo de …
Late in June 1776, Father Francisco Palóu and Lieutenant José Moraga, accompanied by 16 Spanish soldiers, led a small party to the shores of San Francisco Bay. Father Palóu intended to establish a new religious installation, Mission San Francisco de …
Mission San Juan Capistrano has the unique distinction of being twice-founded. The first occasion was in 1775 after Father President Junípero Serra had convinced Captain Fernando Rivera that a new mission to interrupt the long journey between San Diego and …