The Facebook group, now with over 430 members [update, now over 500 members], are seeing the latest photos and history of the 27 missions and many
other historic locations on the peninsula.
Baja California (Norte & Sur) mission history and travel to the historic sites are the topics of discussion. Have new trip photos of these
artifacts of the past? Share them!
Some of the latest additions: Two months ago, I visited the San Ignacio, Guadalupe, and Mulegé mission sites plus the visita of San Juan Londó and
the oldest Spanish ruins in all the Californias, San Bruno (1683-1685). Five months ago, I visited Mission San Fernando de Velicatá (now a mile
behind a locked gate) and the Viking ship petroglyph featured on TV's America Unearthed. The mission info posts and photos are bumped up to easily
find them, as well.
Join us or just have a look. The page was originally made to supplement and have an exchange with the readers of my book, Baja California Land of
Missions:
To keep things fresh, I frequently change the photo at the top. Today, it is the aqueduct to La Magdalena... a mysterious mission-era site near
Mulegé that has been obliterated by flash floods and the widening arroyo.
where is the aqueduct to La Magdalena first mentioned?
OK, I am copying from a book: The Peninsular California Missions 1808-1880 by Msgr. Francis J. Weber, 1979. If I find more, I will share.
There is just a photo of the aqueduct and a small mention in Ed Vernon's 2002 book.
The aqueduct is most impressive. I presume you have seen it or at least my photos of it from 2009 and 2015? It ends at the stone pila I visited in
2015.
Aqueduct photos
David K - 8-10-2019 at 12:40 PM
2009:
[Edited on 10-6-2022 by David K]4x4abc - 8-10-2019 at 02:01 PM
got any closeup images of the water channel?David K - 8-10-2019 at 02:40 PM
I posted all I took. I have a few more at the pila but none of the west end where the canal empties into it. The thorny brush was just too thick.
I fear the pila may be lost to the widening arroyo since 2015.
Visitas = Mission Visiting Stations
David K - 8-11-2019 at 10:04 AM
Rather than start a new thread, I think we can just continue with mission discussion here, for now...
A visita of a mission was a satellite chapel at an Indian village (rancheria) where many functions of a mission occurred (agriculture, religious
training, etc.). In many cases the only difference between a visita and a mission was that the visita did not have a full-time priest and instead was
"visited" by the priest from the head mission.
Like a mission, a visita was not only the church there but an entire project that often included irrigation works (dams, canals), roads to connect
with the head mission (part of the Camino Real network), the farm to grow food or cattle ranching.
Some visitas had churches that were impressive and mistaken as missions by modern writers and map makers (San Juan Londó, San Pablo, San Juan de
Dios). Even the Jesuits had called some of their visitas "missions" in anticipation of their future status.
Almost every mission had visitas attached to it, some had many. In some cases, visitas would indeed become missions and sometimes a mission relocated
to one of its visitas.
In literature, it is not always clear if the places named were typical visitas or simply Native rancherias (villages) given Spanish names.
The possibility of seeing ruins at the many visitas adds so many more sites in Baja California to visit and explore! Seeing more of Baja California is
always a good thing!
Some visita facts...
Missions locations that were first visitas of an older mission:
SANTA ROSA (1733) was a visita of Mission Pilar de la Paz, called Todos Santos. When the La Paz mission moved from La Paz Bay in 1748, it moved to
Todos Santos and replaced Mission Santa Rosa there. This created a lot of confusion to modern writers! After the move, even the missionaries would
call the location Todos Santos but the mission was officially 'Pilar de la Paz'.
SAN LUIS GONZAGA (1737) was a visita of Mission Dolores before it got its own priest and was elevated to mission status.
SANTA GERTRUDIS (1752) was originally to be called Dolores del Norte, planned in the early to mid 1740s. A location for it was searched for many times
by San Ignacio's priest (Fernando Consag). It would be established at a spring he called La Piedad and construction there began before a priest was
available. Some books give the year 1751 for Santa Gertrudis, but the priest (Georg Retz) opened the new mission the following year.
SAN BORJA (1762) was discovered (by the Jesuits) in 1758 and made a visita of Santa Gertrudis in 1759. Again, construction began before it became a
mission as well as a suitable road to connect the two missions had to be constructed.
EL DESCANSO (1810/1830) was a new location for Mission San Miguel when floods in 1809 destroyed the farmlands at San Miguel. After the mover, Descanso
was called San Miguel la Nueva. However, the Dominican Padre Ahumada at some point moved back to the old San Miguel location before he was reassigned
in 1815. Hard to know if Descanso and San Miguel both operated together as dual missions or simply mission & visita?
In 1830, Padre Felix Caballero built a new mission at El Descanso with operated for 4 years before Caballero's final mission was founded at Guadalupe.
Missions that relocated to one of their visitas:
SAN JAVIER (1699) moved to its visita/farm of San Pablo in 1710. That is where the beautiful church was constructed we see today.
SAN JOSE DE COMONDU (1708) moved to its visita of San Ignacio in 1736 (this is not the modern San Ignacio) and the mission name moved with it. The
original site is called Comondú Viejo.
LA PAZ (1720) moved to the location of its visita of Todos Santos in 1748, which had become a mission called Santa Rosa in 1733.
LOS DOLORES (1721) moved to its visita of La Pasión in 1741.
EL ROSARIO (1774) moved to its visita/ farm that was called San José, 2 miles down the valley.
Other missions moved but it is not always to a visita. Nearly half of the missions moved during their life.
Visita Photos:
San Juan Londó (Visita of Loreto & Comondú)
San Juan Londó
San Pablo (Visita of Santa Gertudis)
San Pablo
San Juan de Dios (Visita of San Fernando) in 2000, before the site was covered over in 2006 by a farmer.
David K - 8-12-2019 at 04:01 PM
Some additional visitas, other Nomads may have "visited"...
La Presentación
San Isidoro
Santa Ana
San Miguel (de Comondú)
San Miguel (de Guadalupe)
San Telmo (no ruins?)
There are so many places with maybe nothing left or maybe behind a fence, now?David K - 3-17-2020 at 12:03 PM
If your Baja travels have been delayed, you can get a dose of Baja history and historic locations, travel details to those locations, photos and more!
The Baja California Land of Missions Group has over 980 members now, and you are invited to join us to read, ask, and share... www.facebook.com/groups/bajamissions and answer the question to show us you are a real person with interest in this subject.
