California mission: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

The California missions are a series of settlements established by Spanish Catholic Franciscans, to Christianize the local Native Americans, but with the added benefit of giving Spain a toehold in the frontier land. The missions introduced European livestock, fruits and vegetables and industry into the California region.

The 21 missions were established along California's El Camino Real (Spanish for King's Highway), much of which is now U.S. Highway 101. The mission planting was begun under the leadership of Father Junípero Serra in 1769, and concluded in 1823, although Serra had died in 1784. Father Fermín Francisco Lasuén took up Serra's work and established nine more from 1786 through 1798. Others established the last three.

The missions are the best-known historical element of the coastal regions of California. This popularity, stemming largely from Helen Hunt Jackson's highly romantic novel Ramona (1884), has been both a blessing and a curse. It has earned the missions a prominent place in California's historic consciousness, and sent a steady stream of visitors to these sites.

In many cases, it led to the reconstruction of these missions, with at best an honest but poorly informed attempt to adhere to historic reality. Lacking substantive knowledge of the native people who built and inhabited these missions, the reconstructors largely left them out of the story. Many reconstructed missions are adorned with lush gardens, even though research indicates that these did not exist. Furthermore, the reconstructions severely damaged the archaeological record.

The missions

The missions were placed about 30 miles apart, so that they were separated by one day's long ride on horseback along El Camino Real.

In geographical order, north to south

• Mission San Francisco Solano, in Sonoma
• Mission San Rafael Arcángel, in San Rafael
• Mission San Francisco de Asís, in San Francisco
• Mission San José de Guadalupe, in Fremont
• Mission Santa Clara de Asís, in Santa Clara
• Mission San Juan Bautista, in San Juan Bautista
• Mission Santa Cruz, in Santa Cruz
• Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, south of Carmel
• Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, south of Soledad
• Mission San Antonio de Padua, northwest of Jolon
• Mission San Miguel Arcángel, north of Paso Robles
• Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, in San Luis Obispo
• Mission Santa Inés, in Solvang
• Mission La Purísima Concepción, northeast of Lompoc
• Mission Santa Bárbara, in Santa Barbara
• Mission San Buenaventura, in Ventura
• Mission San Fernando Rey de España, in San Fernando
• Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, in San Gabriel
• Mission San Juan Capistrano, in San Juan Capistrano
• Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, in Oceanside
• Mission San Diego de Alcalá, in San Diego

In chronological order

• Mission San Diego de Alcalá founded 1769

• Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo founded in 1770
• Mission San Gabriel Arcángel founded 1771
• Mission San Antonio de Padua founded in 1771
• Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa founded in 1772
• Mission San Juan Capistrano founded 1776
• Mission San Francisco de Asís founded in 1776
• Mission Santa Clara de Asís founded in 1777

• Mission San Buenaventura founded 1782
• Mission Santa Bárbara founded in 1786
• Mission La Purísima Concepción founded in 1787

• Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad founded in 1791
• Mission Santa Cruz founded in 1791
• Mission San Fernando Rey de España founded 1797
• Mission San Miguel Arcángel founded in 1797
• Mission San Juan Bautista founded in 1797
• Mission San José de Guadalupe founded in 1797
• Mission San Luis Rey de Francia founded 1798

• Mission Santa Inés founded in 1804
• Mission San Rafael Arcángel founded in 1817
• Mission San Francisco Solano founded in 1823