David K
Honored Nomad
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Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Baja California Land of Missions and Old Missions of the Californias
Baja California Land of Missions is a detailed examination of the missions on the peninsula and includes the
names of the missionaries and dates they served. A look at how California peninsula was discovered and an examination of the "lost" missions is
included. GPS and road directions round out the contents of this book, first published in 2016, with new photos and driving directions as part of the
updating in 2020.
Old Missions of the Californias is a look at all the California missions, both in Baja and in Alta California, in the order they were
founded. Photos from past and present at the 48 missions as well as chapters on the Camino Real and founding Catholic Orders are included in this new,
handy publication.
Want to see more missions and other historic sites in Baja? Visit our Facebook group page and the albums in it. https://www.facebook.com/groups/bajamissions/
Order these and other books at www.oldmissions.com
[Edited on 9-6-2020 by David K]
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pacificobob
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opportunities like this are rare.
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64493
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Thank you all for your orders...
Baja books at outstanding prices from www.oldmissions.com
I also have these (new, uncirculated)...
'In the Shadow of the Volcano' by Baja Nomad, Mike Humfreville: 8 (now 4)
'Guacamole Dip' by Daniel Reveles: 4 (now 2)
'Portrait of Paloma' by Harry Crosby: 9 (now 4)
'Gateway to Alta California' by Harry Crosby: 18 (now 9)
My 2016 (2020 updated) book, Baja California Land of Missions will not be printed after the stock I have is gone (48 books). It has been an amazing
success and all the work and research to produce it was worth the effort! Over 1,300 books in circulation... Not bad for a Baja history/ travel book.
The new 2020 book, co-authored with historian Max Kurillo, 'Old Missions of the Californias' is available into the future. It has all 48 California
missions described, in the order they were founded. Not as much data on the Baja missions as in my book, but basic details.
Thank you!
Edit: Quantity updated...
[Edited on 5-3-2021 by David K]
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64493
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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A companion to the new Baja California Atlas from Benchmark
On the new Atlas maps are all the mission locations with their names and dates of operation.
'Baja California Land of Missions' is the source of the mission information.
We suggest you have 'Baja California Land of Missions' along with the new Atlas to provide the full details to make your travel more interesting. The
GPS waypoints for each mission is in the Land of Missions book, as well.
The map books are shipping this week and my mission book can ship nearly every day (M-F).
 
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64493
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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A text sample from the book, Baja California Land of Missions
#14 San Luis Gonzaga Chiriyaqui (1737-1768)
Mission San Luis Gonzaga is on the Magdalena Plain of Baja
California Sur. In 1721, it was originally established as a visita,
or satellite visiting chapel of the mission of Los Dolores Apaté.
The Guaycura Indian name for the oasis was Chiriyaqui
(Chiriyaki). On July 14, 1737, the visita was elevated to
mission status with the arrival of Jesuit Padre Lamberto
(Lambert) Hostell. The mission was named after Don Luis de
Velasco, who provided 10,000 pesos for its founding. This
mission was usually referred to simply as “San Luis” in most
letters and reports of the time. San Luis Gonzaga was the last
mission founded in the southern half of the peninsula,
today’s state of Baja California Sur.
Padre Hostell was not able to remain at his new mission after
its founding because he was called away to an emergency at
San José del Cabo. His time away lasted from August 1737 to
November 1740. Hostell returned to San Luis Gonzaga after
that absence of over two years.
The Guaycura tribes of the Magdalena Plain were scattered
to such a degree that Hostell’s first order of business was to
establish three pueblos(population centers) that included his
mission plus two visitas. One visita was called San Juan
Nepomuceno and the other was called Santa María
Magdalena on the bay of the same name. A third visita was
planned and was to be called Santa Trinidad, but records do
not indicate it was established. In addition to attending his
own mission, Hostell would travel frequently to Los Dolores
and assist Padre Guillén.
In 1744, the Visitador General of the Jesuits was Padre Juan
Antonio Balthasar and as part of his duties, he made a routine
tour of the California missions. He reported the neophyte
population at San Luis as being 488. Balthasar also noted that
Padre Hostell was attempting to establish a mission at the
visita of Magdalena. Balthasar suggested to his superiors that
a new missionary be sent to assist Hostell to open a
Magdalena mission. An additional Jesuit in California would
also allow Hostell to assist his old companion Padre Clemente
Guillén at Los Dolores. This proposed mission on the great
Pacific bay never materialized. Padre Hostell was later sent
to Los Dolores and replaced an ill and dying Padre Guillén.
Padre Juan Javier Bischoff replaced Hostell at San Luis
Gonzaga from 1746 to early 1751.
Padre Jacobo (Johann Jakob) Baegert arrived on May 28,
1751 and remained at San Luis Gonzaga for seventeen years.
When Baegert arrived, he found the site in a somewhat
ruined condition. Bischoff had left sometime before Baegert
arrived, and in the interim a storm collapsed the small church
there. Two other huts were all that stood at the mission to
serve for storage and a residence. The new padre began to
remodel his house by adding windows to let in light, a tiled
roof, and to whitewash the walls. It had been such a dark
room, Baegert called it a “cave.”
The handsome cut-stone church that remains intact to this
day was constructed from March 1753 until December 1758.
Baegert had an aqueduct constructed from the mission
spring to a small plot where he planted cabbage, melons,
turnips, and sugarcane. Later he planted wheat and corn, but
the water was limited and the dry climate restricted
production. Plagues of locusts also frequently destroyed
crops. The desert surrounding the mission provided great
quantities of the pitahaya cactus fruit. Baegert would
sometimes serve himself pitahayas with wine poured over
them, on a china plate, and pretend he was eating
strawberries back in Germany. Goats, sheep, and cattle were
raised at the mission along with horses and mules.
Baegert and his Jesuit brothers were all forced to leave their
missions and return to Europe by Royal Order of King Carlos
III. The sixteen Jesuits all left California soil on February 3,
1768. Baegert wrote a most detailed account of his mission
experiences and of the native Californians and it was
published in 1772. An English translation was published in
1952 under the title, Observations in Lower California (see
map on page 213).
When the Franciscans assumed operations of the California
missions in April 1768, a report gave the population of San
Luis Gonzaga at 310. Padre Andrés Villaumbrales was the
new Franciscan missionary at San Luis Gonzaga. However,
Villaumbrales was not there long before his mission was
closed. Spain’s new Visitador General, José de Gálvez decided
to populate the rich agricultural lands of Todos Santos, far to
the south, with the neophytes of San Luis Gonzaga and Los
Dolores. On August 20, 1768, San Luis Gonzaga mission was
abandoned, and its neophyte Indians joined those of nearby
Dolores in a forced relocation, far from their ancestral
homeland. Losing their Jesuit priests was difficult enough,
but leaving their native territory was a devastating blow to
the Guaycura Indians.
To visit the mission of San Luis Gonzaga, take a twenty-two-
mile-long graded dirt road east from Highway One,
beginning at Km 195, about eight miles south of Ciudad
Constitución. A small village is located at the mission oasis.
Ruins of other buildings date back to the years when this
was a large cattleranch and a rest stop on the Camino Real
to La Paz.
Missionaries recorded at San Luis Gonzaga:
Jesuit
Lambert Hostell 1737-1738 and 1741-1745
Clemente Guillén 1739-1740
Johann Bischoff 1746-1750
Jakob Baegert 1751-1768
Franciscan
Andrés Villaumbrales April 5, 1768
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In addition, the book has two photos of the mission church (1951 & 2017) and a map that locates it on the peninsula.
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64493
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Only a limited number of the 2021 Baja California Land of Missions
remain...
This 2021 version was the 10th printing of my 2016 book, with newer photos and travel data added.
Do I print more? My distributor says they will order more... but, maybe not?
It sure has been a bigger success than I had dreamed back in 2016. Today, it costs more to print and ship books than when I priced them 6 years ago!
Maybe what we have in stock will be the last???
To be sure you have your own signed copy before they are gone, please order at www.oldmissions.com They make great gifts, too! 
Thanks amigos!!!
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