The OLD MISSIONS of BAJA & ALTA CALIFORNIA, book news and history chat

My co-author Max Kurillo and I met yesterday to make some 'final' edits to our new book, and Max said I could go ahead and share the news and cover with you all.

The book will be the first to include ALL 48 of California's Spanish and Mexican missions in one place of reference and some basic data on each, treated equally.

Most mission books cover either the 21 missions in Alta California (USA) or the 27 missions in Baja California (Mexico). However, that was not how they were established. The entire region was part of Spain and later Mexico.

The first California mission was not in San Diego, but instead at Loreto. San Diego was not even the first Franciscan mission or the first founded by Junipero Serra. Serra did not arrive by boat to San Diego as some have been told, but walked there from Loreto.

Loreto was #1 of the 'chain' of missions and San Diego was #19, founded 72 years after Loreto! There was a whole lot of history going on in 'California' before any mission was built north of the peninsula. The term 'chain' is not really correct, since missions were established all about as needed, and not in any order from south to north. It was over 52 years before the padres even built a mission above the halfway point down (or up) the peninsula.


Can you name the 7 missions on the cover (hint: 5 are in Baja)?

The book is glove box size friendly and spiral bound to lay flat on any page to make it super friendly to use on the road or at home.

Approx. 145 pages and some 160 photographs and maps with input from other Baja authors and Nomads alike to refine the contents. Many photos are from Baja Nomad Jack Swords!

Max and Erline have written other historic interest papers and published three books, including 'California's Camino Real and its Historic Bells'. Max was also the co-host with Huell Howser for a one hour T.V. special on the Historic Bells of the El Camino Real.

*We plan on having the book ready to publish by next month (October, 2012)... and we are offering an early order discount price... Sales details will be posted in the Classified Ads forum here on Baja Nomad.

Thank you for your interest in California (Baja & Alta) history!



[Edited on 3-11-2013 by David K]

DAVID,,COOL

I will take one myself !! I have been to a lot of missions on the one day horse back away trail !! and still (MANY) some to check out !! (THANK GOD) ? have you been to the soleadad mission or more important the historic "pariso" hotspring nearby ???? it played a part of the chain/change of events in the "el camino real" and the missions in alta california..one of cali"s lost secrets you might say !!! K&T

Thank you my friends... and I haven't even told you the price, yet! LOL

Seriously, Max and I think it will be a fair price for what is inside, plus we will offer you here on Nomad, an early order special!

I may show you a sample page when I do the ad... We will try and set up a PayPal for email orders, but we already have a P.O. Box (El Cajon, CA) for good old, mailed-in checks!

Those of you in Southern California can come to a Power Point presentation and Max and I can sign your books in person... will co-ordinate with Baja travel clubs and/or Baja/Mex auto insurance dealers. Be easy on us... we don't have the experience of great Power point presenters, like Graham Mackintosh!

DAVID K

Way to go!

Excellent!

Here is an early sample of the back cover... part has been cropped off the top, where the price was given.

Max has other plans for the back cover, such as comments from other Baja and Alta mission authors.

Max confirmed we have added three historic maps of 'California'...

I have not seen two of them...

*A 1600's map showing California as an island.
*The 1757 Jesuit map of the missions (1747 data).
*A early 1900's map showing the Serra founded missions in Alta California.

I have shown the 1757 map here many times, but it isn't easy to see the small details...




The Map from Jesuit Padre Miguel Venegas's book, published in 1757 show the missions as they were about 10 years earlier. Three planned missions in the north were listed here as started and have been the source of lost mission legends. The Santa Rosa mission is shown on the wrong side of the peninsula, as Venegas (who was never in California) confused it for the visita of San Jose del Cabo mission of the same name.

I added an X for the missions as they are shown on the map, and added the names to help you find them.

In the north, San Juan Bautista ? is the lost Santa Clara mission near Abreojos and Santa Maria Magdalena ? is the planned mission near Bahia las Animas.
Dolores del Norte was the planned name for what would become Santa Gertrudis.

Again, the data used was from about 1747... Consag made his voyage to the head of the gulf and the Tres Virgenes eruption of 1746 is listed on the map. The La Paz mission hadn't moved to Todos Santos, where Santa Rosa mission was still operating.

No takers on guessing the names of the missions on the front cover?

Other than his founding of the 18th California mission, in Baja, not all was done in a good way. The Franciscans 'looted' the Jesuit missions for supplies, and people, to establish the Alta California missions. Serra had a cargo trail built from Bahia San Luis Gonzaga west to supply his new mission of San Fernando. The trail by-passed Mission Santa Maria, which soon was reduced to a visita of San Borja mission.

Once the Franciscans (led by their president Junipero Serra) saw the poor conditions the Jesuits were working under when they took over the California missions in mid-1768... they were overjoyed when Spain instructed them to get to San Diego and Monterey (areas only seen from the sea, before Serra led the expedition north).

Once Serra saw the land north of the peninsula (Nueva California/ Alta California), the Franciscans were 'happy' to give the peninsula to the Dominicans... who got more than they had wished to get when they petioned the King to co-establish California with the Franciscans.

In 1773 the Dominicans arrived to assume responsibility for the Jesuit founded missions, the one mission on the peninsula founded by Serra, and to build new missions between the existing ones and San Diego. Serra personally founded nine missions in Alta California after his first, in Baja California.

The Dominicans founded 7 Spanish missions or 8, if you count El Descanso (which was really a new site for San Miguel). Their 9th mission (Guadalupe) was founded after Mexico won its independence. The Franciscans also founded one Mexican mission in Alta California (Sonoma).


Okay... I got some work to do, and I am meeting Max maybe this afternoon to okay the last edit...

Once I am comfortable with the stage it's in for publishing, I will post an ad here on Nomad with the early-order details. Nomads who expressed a desire for the book will get a u2u, as well.

I am really excited to see this much interest in the mission history... even if it took a book (and not just my posts) to do it!!

Here is a map of the missions to the north...in "Old California"
Good Luck with the new book David...

Thanks Kris... that is actually "New" California... The peninsula is "Old" California!

Here is the mission locator map for New or Alta California... The numbers are the mission numbers as they were founded 1-48... so you can see that the missions were NOT built in sequence from south to north as we were perhaps once told in school...

NEW BOOK NOW FOR SALE, AVAILABLE THIS OCTOBER

Mission T-Shirts from Max

When Max came up with the boxes of new books, he also surprised me with this new t-shirt featuring the photos of all 48 missions. The 27 in Baja, on one side.... and the 21 in Alta on the other! On the sleeves are the flags of Spain and Mexico as they were most of the years during the mission period.





Would this be something we should produce? If we do market them (and other spin-offs from the new book), I will post an ad in the Baja Nomad ads forums.

Book & T-shirt

Baja KML file fixed

I'll send you via private e-mail the repaired KML file for Baja Missions; it took about 20 iterations and manual editing using a text editor to get the bad HTML coding out; about 6 hours work. But better than re-creating from scratch.

As far as creating your own, especially if you are going to share your creation, you need to remember that as you link to objects (maps, images, website URL's, etc), the object must be "out there" on the Internet. Then the rest is simple coding to retrieve it into your creation.

Here is a sample for one of the "credits" placemark within the larger KML file. See if you can follow the text. It's pretty straight-forward:

<img src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc6/187955_488104201199887_1102680592_n.jpg"><br><br>

<b> Thanks to following persons, companies, groups, publications & websites for their information (text, images, maps, references, locations, links, etc.) ... </b><br><br>

<a href="http://www.discoverbajacalifornia.com/missions/route.htm">iscover Baja California.com</a> ... <a href="http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=22679">California State Parks Service (Mexico Missions)</a> ... <a href="http://www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=22722">California State Parks Service (California Missions)</a> ... <a href="http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/77winter/bajaroad.htm">The San Diego Historical Society</a> ... <a href="http://www.bajamission.com/baja_missions.html">ave Werschkul / Saints and Demons in a Desert Wilderness</a> ... <a href="http://www.questconnect.org/baja_california_missions.htm">Adventure Learning Foundation 1</a> ... <a href="http://www.questconnect.org/baja_gps.htm">Adventure Learning Foundation 2</a> ... <a href="http://www.davidksbaja.com/bajamissions">Jack Swords, Kevin Clough, Robert Jackson, and David Kier</a> ... <a href="http://www.timsbaja.com">Timothy Walker</a> ... <a href="http://www.baja-almanac.com">Baja Almanac Publishers</a> ... <a href="http://www.moon.com">Joe Cummings, Moon Handbooks 'Baja'</a>

Formatting color, alignment, bold, etc are simply done with tags: <b> or </b> for bold-on, bold-off.

Once it's made, you can angle the view and snapshot it, elevate the placemark into the sky with a line down to it, etc.

[Edited on 2012-10-15 by bryanmckenzie]

More and Color Photos!

http://facebook.com/oldmissions

Founding Dates of the Missions in Baja California

2012-2015 Old Mission Book News

Three years have passed since our 'Old Missions' book was first published, and we couldn't be happier with the level of success it has achieved in answering the questions of how many missions were in California, when and where they were founded, and by who.

Max and I have been invited to provide many lectures for clubs and historic groups, and even a car dealership (one of our biggest groups, thanks to Toyota of El Cajon) asked us for an Old Missions PowerPoint lecture.

The important fact that Baja California was the first California and Baja was not added to the name until 1769 when the name Alta California was first used, as a means to distinguish between the two areas. 18 Spanish California missions were founded over a 72 years period BEFORE San Diego mission was founded. The mission we had been told was the first mission!

Giving Baja California the spotlight for a refreshing change in perspective was one of our goals.

The Old Missions book went into a Second Edition with edits and updated data and photos of the last California mission, Guadalupe. We have made other minor changes or typo corrections as we have spotted them with following printings. Since we are the publisher, we print books as orders come in allowing us to upgrade the book frequently.

While we offer a perfect bound (typical book) version, the spiral bound has been far more popular as it allows one to keep the book open on the mission page you are visiting or studying. Call it a mission recipe cookbook if you must!

In the three years we have been selling The Old Missions, the price has not been increased. We have also added other books and created a combo package, with more books soon being added from the inventory of a former Baja book distributor.

If you would like to be added to our email list to be contacted with the new additions at M&E Books, send us a note "Please add my name" to our email oldmissions@gmail.com

Also visit our Facebook page (we appreciate if you 'Like' the page too) at http://facebook.com/oldmissions where news will be posted and many more mission details and photos are located that could not fit into our book!





Would your San Diego County club or organization enjoy a one hour PowerPoint lecture?








Max lectures on the Alta California missions and I lecture on the Baja California missions... in the order they were founded. This gives the audience an easy visual how missions kept being built in Baja after San Diego was founded as we exchange turns talking and answering questions. Maps are included to show where the missions are in the three California states.

A tour is planned for April 19-28, 2016 via 4WD van to visit 15 missions, cave art, mines, and more that I will be onboard, seats still available: http://www.discoverbaja.com/2015/08/13/missions-trip/

Join me if you can... otherwise, have Max and I provide your group with our slide show lecture... and do pick up the latest edition of 'The Old Missions of Baja & Alta California, 1697-1834'. Thank you! http://oldmissions.com

[Edited on 10-10-2015 by David K]

Baja is a land full of missions!

This map points out the 25 Spanish Missions, and nearly half of these had more than one location where it was founded and operated.

Not included on the map are the two missions of El Descanso and Guadalupe (del Norte). Both of these were actually new locations of San Miguel and the actions of a lone priest after Mexican independence. They were not authorized by Spanish officials.

The Old Missions of Baja California are such a significant part of the history of the peninsula from 1697 to 1849!