Baja California is a land of missions with twenty-seven missions founded between 1697 and 1834. Twenty-five were founded during the Spanish period and
two more after Mexican Independence (which some historians do not consider as true missions). The land was called California and did not have Baja
added to the name until a need for clarification in 1769 after the establishment of missions in the land north of the peninsula, Alta California.
While it is clear that Loreto was the first California mission to succeed on the peninsula, years earlier, in 1683, Padre Eusebio Kino attempted twice
to establish a new colony. The first only lasted three months and was at La Paz. The second was at San Bruno, about 15 miles north of Loreto. The San
Bruno colony lasted two years. What Kino learned helped make Loreto a success even though Kino never was able to return to California.
Nearly half of the 27 missions were relocated one or more times for better land, better water sources, or to be closer to the Native people the padres
hoped to convert or serve. Today, only a few of the missions with two or more sites have remains that can be seen at two of its sites: Comondú,
Dolores, Santa María, El Rosario, San Miguel, Santo Tomás, San Pedro Mártir.
Missions [8] that have intact, original, or repaired church buildings from the 1700s and can be used for services are: Loreto
San Javier
Mulegé
Comondú
San Ignacio
San Luis Gonzaga
Santa Gertrudis
San Borja
Mission churches [4] that have been replaced by modern construction on the site with no original remains: Pilar de la Paz (Todos Santos)
Santiago
San José del Cabo
Santa Rosa
Mission ruins [10] with some standing walls: Guadalupe (del Sur)
Dolores (Apaté)
Santa María (site 2)
San Fernando
El Rosario (both sites)
Santo Domingo
San Vicente
San Miguel
Santo Tomás
San Pedro Mártir
Mission sites [5] with some remains (tombs, room foundations, or rubble: La Purísima
Dolores (Chillá)
Santa María (site 1: Calamajué)
Santa Catalina
Descanso
Mission sites [3] with no remains. Only Mission Pilar de la Paz is unknown as to the original location, now built over: Ligüí
La Paz
Guadalupe (del Norte)
Of the above list of 30 locations, 3 are second sites for one mission: La Paz/ Todos Santos, Dolores Apaté/ Dolores Chillá, and Calamajué/ Santa
María.
This is the the kind of historic problem solving I enjoy and one of the reasons I was compelled to write the book, Baja California Land of Missions www.oldmissions.com
Here is a look at the mission sites, in the order of the mission's founding year (church seen today usually constructed years after the founding):
1) 1697 Loreto
2) 1699 San Javier
3) 1705 Ligüí (no remains)
4) 1705 Mulegé
5) 1708 Comondú (first and final sites)
6) 1720 La Purísima
7) 1720 Pilar de la Paz (first site plaque and final site at Todos Santos)
8) 1720 Guadalupe (del Sur)
9) 1721 Dolores (Apaté and Chillá)
10) 1724 Santiago
11) 1728 San Ignacio
12) 1730 San José del Cabo
13) 1733 Santa Rosa
14) 1737 San Luis Gonzaga
15) 1752 Santa Gertrudis
16) 1762 San Borja
17) 1766 Calamajué/ Santa María
18) 1769 San Fernando de Velicatá
19) 1774 El Rosario (Arriba and Abajo)
20) 1775 Santo Domingo
21) 1780 San Vicente
22) 1787 San Miguel
23) 1791 Santo Tomás
24) 1794 San Pedro Mártir
25) 1797 Santa Catalina
26) 1830 Descanso
27) 1834 Guadalupe (del Norte)
[Edited on 9-18-2021 by David K]David K - 9-18-2021 at 11:46 AM
Have you ever read anything about Consags grave at Santa Gertrudis? Is it's location known?
Hi Lance!
From my sources:
Consag died on Sept. 10, 1759, at San Ignacio, and is buried there. I will check sources but looked at four books* to find any deviation of this. He
was superior of all missions but in poor health. I do think San Ignacio was the last place he served at (page 199 of my 2016 book).
*The Missions and Missionaries of California (1929); Black Robes in Lower California (1952); Antigua California (1994); Baja California Missions
(2013).David K - 9-18-2021 at 03:02 PM
There is one Mexican historian/ author who loves Padre Consag so much, he has been a bit careless in his facts (in my opinion, of course). We are
friends on Facebook but he is very stubborn about Consag, Dolores del Norte, and Santa Gertrudis details.
[Edited on 9-18-2021 by David K]4x4abc - 9-18-2021 at 05:11 PM
some historians seem to be stubbornDavid K - 9-19-2021 at 01:43 PM
Artifacts such as petroglyphs, missions, or mines, allow people to look at the past, and learn from it. The artifacts are neither good nor bad but
instead are a view to the activities of times gone by.
If they represent a bad event, then learning can prevent it from being repeated. No place do I say the missions were a good thing nor feel it is my
place to push my beliefs on the reader. The events happened and I think we should know about them because they did exist. You make your own judgments
about them, if you feel the need to.
Apparently, some think they must decide for us, like a parent to a child, what we should see or not. Anything they deem counter to their liking must
be destroyed, buried, or burned. Did we not learn anything from Stalin, Mao, or Hitler?David K - 11-24-2022 at 07:03 AM
It should be understood that a mission was not just the church but an all-encompasing enterprise. Missions included dwellings, hospitals, warehouses,
agriculture (farms and livestock), irrigation systems (canals and dams), and other items as part of a new colony to instruct the Californians how to
live like Spaniards. We all know this was disasterous to most of the Native Californians, primarily due to diseases introduced even before the first
mission, by sailors, pearlers, pirates, and eventually, Spanish soldiers.
Nearly half the missions moved one or more times. Usually this was to a better source for water and more land for farming. When a mission moved, it
would often be identified by the new location's name, yet officially be called the original name. The location was often tagged onto the mission name.
Santa Rosalia de Mulegé, for excample or San José de Comondú. The mission-saint first, followed by the Native location name.
The mission of Santa Rosalia did not move away from Mulegé, but almost did when flash floods destroyed crops in 1770.
Exceptions to this helped with the confusion about the missions. When the 1708 miision of San José de Comondú moved twenty-two miles south, in 1736,
it kept the original location name. The new location was a visita named San Ignacio (not related to the 1728 mission further north).
When the 1721 Los Dolores Apaté mission moved fifteen miles south, in 1741, it modified its name to the new location: Los Dolores Chillá. This new
location was also originally a visita, called La Pasión or La Pasión de Chillá. The confusion for modern writers was after the move, the Jesuits
called the mission 'La Pasión' in their writings. This made some historians and writers think La Pasión was a new mission rather than just a new
location for Los Dolores.
Another example is when the 1720 mission at La Paz (Pilar de la Paz) moved 50 miles south in 1748 to its visita site of Todos Santos. The offical name
never changed from Pilar de la Paz, but everyone called the mission 'Todos Santos' after the move. A small detail here is that the visita of Todos
Santos became a mission in 1733, named Santa Rosa de las Palmas. Pilar de la Paz was the older mission (at 28 years), so when it moved south, it
replaced Santa Rosa (just 15 years old).
All these details and potential for confusion were motivators for me to write and publish my book, Baja California Land of Missions, which endeavours
to provide a clear history of the Spanish exploration and occupation with missions, their founding, changes in location, padres assigned to them, and
answer the 'lost missions' question, too!
More history and photos can be found on my website (VivaBaja) and my Baja Missions Facebook group (links below). I am always happy to try and answer
questions... some may be correct! Ha!
