It was the intention of the padres to found another mission in pretty meadowland a few miles south of San Francisco Bay as soon as the San Francisco mission was well established. The mission of Santa Clara indeed was established …
It was on Easter Sunday, March 31, 1782, that Father Serra founded the mission, San Buenaventura, which proved to be the last he established personally. The Spanish King had changed his position again, claiming that a few white settlers were …
The “Queen of the Missions”. On a spring day in 1782 the Padre Presidente of the California Missions, Father Junípero Serra, and the Spanish Governor de Neve founded (as Serra supposed) the presidio and mission of Santa Barbara. Today the …
Mission La Purísima was founded December 8, 1787, at the site of the present town of Lompoc. In 25 years the mission was extremely prosperous, with herds of livestock numbering in the thousands. Then came the great earthquake of 1812, …
As early as 1774 a Franciscan padre traveled north along the beach from Carmel, and located the site for Mission Santa Cruz at the other end of crescent Monterey Bay. He came to the mouth of a fine river, noted …
When Mission Nuestra Señora de La Soledad was founded on October 9, 1791, the “Golden Age” was beginning for the California missions, and there was anticipation for another successful venture. The lonely spot had been named by Portolá, and thus …
The Franciscan missionaries had long hoped to establish a “chain” of missions in which each link of the chain would be a day’s ride apart on horseback. By 1796 there were thirteen missions along the California coast from San Diego …