BajaNomad

Discover Baja Blog: San Fernando de Velicatá, Father Serra's first mission

David K - 4-29-2014 at 10:26 PM

The first Franciscan founded California mission and the first mission founded by Padre Junípero Serra was NOT San Diego!

San Fernando was the 18th California mission... Read the mission's history, see photos at the site over 80 years apart, and more: http://discoverbaja.wordpress.com/2014/04/29/the-spanish-mis...

sargentodiaz - 5-1-2014 at 12:58 PM

It's amazing that even that much remains.
After all, it's nothing but sun-dried mud mixed with whatever dry vegetation they could find.

David K - 5-9-2014 at 07:34 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by sargentodiaz
It's amazing that even that much remains.
After all, it's nothing but sun-dried mud mixed with whatever dry vegetation they could find. [/quote}

It was the first mission I camped at on my first Baja trip once I turned 16... It was so much bigger in 1974!



I went back in 1975 and took this photo from the other side:

boe4fun - 5-10-2014 at 09:10 AM

I took one of my patients down around 12 or 13 years ago. He is Catholic and was a docent at the Mission San Antonio in Alta California (near King City). There was an old gentleman living in the shack next to the ruins - I think his name was Jose, and he was a 3rd or 4th generation who lived there. He took us further up the dirt road and showed us some rock paintings. He was amazed at the technology used to make the prosthesis for my patient.

David K - 5-10-2014 at 10:14 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by boe4fun
I took one of my patients down around 12 or 13 years ago. He is Catholic and was a docent at the Mission San Antonio in Alta California (near King City). There was an old gentleman living in the shack next to the ruins - I think his name was Jose, and he was a 3rd or 4th generation who lived there. He took us further up the dirt road and showed us some rock paintings. He was amazed at the technology used to make the prosthesis for my patient.




fishsticker - 5-10-2014 at 10:22 AM

see u2u

David K - 5-10-2014 at 05:32 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by fishsticker
see u2u


Thanks for the note, does the statue you saw look like this one?



Taken at the chapel next to the Guadalupe mission site west of Loreto, about 1996.

fishsticker - 5-11-2014 at 09:00 AM

Yes except the Baby Jesus was missing. The hand had been broken and it was sent by ship to San Diego for repair sometime in the 1800's and never returned. She has a new set of clothes now.

David K - 5-11-2014 at 09:15 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by fishsticker
Yes except the Baby Jesus was missing. The hand had been broken and it was sent by ship to San Diego for repair sometime in the 1800's and never returned. She has a new set of clothes now.


The Baby Jesus was sent to San Diego to fix its broken hand?

Since the photo above was taken in the 1990's, it is not the same statue that you saw in the other village.

Mission artifacts were often safe-housed in the homes of locals or in small chapels built after the mission was closed.

Many mission artifacts were collected by people who claimed to be (or may have really been) from the government to secure national treasures. When the adobe mission church buildings were abandoned and stripped of building materials for the newly arrived mainlanders who used the wood and tiles for their own homes.