Mission Santa Maria after wilderness fire/burn

In November 2008, I photographed an all Jeep group traveling to Mission Santa Maria. When I neared the site, I noticed how the ground and many of the palms were charred. Even the blue fan palms has burned - their skirts completely gone where wildlife had once nested.






This fire lead almost to the granite pools




The palm tree to our right also burned.


To the right is a burnt Creosote bush.


At Mission Santa Maria, palm trees lining the stream behind the Mission were also burnt at the base, but otherwise appeared to be healthy.


Traveling back to the swamp that one must cross, the entire palm forest was burnt, but appeared mostly healthy.


Exiting the swamp looked like this.



Traction is often hard to come by for those who travel to the Mission.

Nice photos of an awesome location... the 17th California mission and the last one founded by the Jesuits (May, 1767).

A year earlier (1766), they first established the 17th mission at Calamajue, under the name 'Nuestra Señora de Columna', but the water, which was 'okay' following a wet season, soon returned to its typical salty mineral mixture that prevented crops from growing.

The mission was moved north and renamed 'Santa Maria de los Angeles' and in 7 more months the Jesuits were ordered to Loreto to be sent back to Europe. The Franciscans who assumed responsibility for the California missions (later in 1768) are the ones who built the adobe ruins we see today.

Santa Maria was abandoned the following year after the better site at San Fernando Velicata was founded by Junipero Serra, on his walk to Alta California.

got missions?

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Originally posted by David K got missions?

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Originally posted by Ken Cooke Quote: Originally posted by David K got missions? Thank you for that summary on the missions. I do believe the indigenous Americans who worked these missions were not "converts", but "slaves"?

The Spanish government used the Church to convert any native people to the European style of living... The padres believed they were saving souls and civilizing a savage land. The native Indians were invited to join the Europeans, they were not forced. However, once the became members of the church there were penalties for not performing duties, which they did in exchange for food that was better than their average diet, it would seem. The Indians offered their children to be baptized, as they saw the Europeans as offering much more than they had. Sadly, the introduction of diseases was the invisible enemy to the native Indians on the peninsula. The European style of living also did not help with adding to the population... clothing, and a ban on polygamy and orgies during the pitahaya harvest saw to that.

[Edited on 7-13-2012 by David K]