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willardguy
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mission san luis gonzaga chiriyaqui, davidK
when I bring up the story of the ruins of a jesuit warehouse in the vicinity of bahia willard I get blank stares. a couple months ago I walked all
around the area of the fish camp on the west shore of the bay and couldnt find anything resembling a ruin.
I have read accounts of a warehouse ruin but it was the other gonzaga, the one between mag bay and loreto.
im not doubting anyone but could we have the wrong gonzaga?
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David K
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More than 1 Gonzaga in Baja...
| Quote: | Originally posted by willardguy
when I bring up the story of the ruins of a jesuit warehouse in the vicinity of bahia willard I get blank stares. a couple months ago I walked all
around the area of the fish camp on the west shore of the bay and couldnt find anything resembling a ruin.
I have read accounts of a warehouse ruin but it was the other gonzaga, the one between mag bay and loreto.
im not doubting anyone but could we have the wrong gonzaga?
|
The MISSION of San Luis Gonzaga Chirayaqui 1737-1768 is in Baja California Sur, southeast of Cd. Constitucion
The BAY of San Luis Gonzaga is in Baja California (norte). Sometimes called 'Willard Bay', but historically is the bay named by Consag in the 1740's.
Named by Padre Consag when he discovered the bay and here is his part of his 1746 map with the bay...
The ruins on the shore of the bay were probably constructed by the Franciscans in 1768-1769 to off load supplies for the nearby mission of Santa Maria
de los Angeles, or their new mission of San Fernando Velicata... When I made my 2002 Gonzaga Sidetrips web page, I was thinking they were Jesuit
ruins, but the Jesuits were expelled just a few months after moving their last mission to the present Santa Maria site, to have constructed such a
facility, I now believe. The ruins are on the west to southwest shore of the bay... and they are just a foundation of the warehouse... Here is my
photo taken in 2002...
GPS: 29°48.92'/ 114°24.61' That is my 2001 Tacoma on the far side, and beyond is Punta Willard and to the left is Papa Fernandez'
[Edited on 9-3-2012 by David K]
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David K
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Push pin is on the north wall of the warehouse.
You can make out the rectangle of the ruin just past the concrete slab of some former fishcamp building.
[Edited on 9-3-2012 by David K]
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David K
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Here's another warehouse, but built over 100 years after the Gonzaga Bay one, by gold miners...
EL ALMACEN... closer to Okie Landing.
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willardguy
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thanks david, if you don't mind, what was your source regarding this warehouse on the west end of bahia willard? gracias amigo!
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David K
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Originally it was Gerhard and Gulick's Lower California Guidebook first mentioned in their 1958 edition.
Homer Aschmann has an aerial photo pointing to it in his 1959/ 1967, THE CENTRAL DESERT OF BAJA CALIFORNIA: Demography and Ecology
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David K
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The point is Willard, but the bay and island is San Luis Gonzaga... The U.S. Navy on an H.O. chart called the point, bay and island all 'Willard' and
a lot of people started using Willard instead of Gonzaga.
Some maps with the correct bay names (San Luis Gonzaga on the north of the island, and Ensenada de San Francisquito to the south, to Punta Final):
This one didn't have room to put it in the north bay and slightly changed the south bay's name:
Sometimes we see the bay name shortened to 'San Luis' and applied to both parts, as in this 1905 mining map:
and this 1823 map:
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willardguy
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thanks david, I have that lower california guide book and although they talk about the chiriyaqui mission site a bunch there is very little about what
i'll call "our gonzaga". is there some way you could print the aerial view from homer aschmann's book? if not thats cool, gracias!
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Barry A.
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My Mom and Aunt camped at those ruins many times back in the 'early 50' thru the early '70's and I have many slides of them taken by them. There also
is the ruins of an old fishcamp building nearby and closer to the water, as David K indicates. There was/is another abandoned Fish Camp north of the
subject "ruins" in a shallow arroyo, with big cliffs and a large hill between the two areas, cutting off any easy access between them. I have also
camped there several times, but it is separate from the possible Franciscan ruins, but they sure do exist.
Lots of interesting ruins, that few folks ever get to, in that area.
Barry
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David K
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| Quote: | Originally posted by willardguy
thanks david, I have that lower california guide book and although they talk about the chiriyaqui mission site a bunch there is very little about what
i'll call "our gonzaga". is there some way you could print the aerial view from homer aschmann's book? if not thats cool, gracias!
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Go to page 84 of G&G of the 3rd or 4th editions (1962-1970) for all about San Luis Gonzaga Bay. Go to page 300 of Aschmann's to see the photo with
an arrow pointed close to the ruin site.
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David K
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SCANS
Gerhard & Guilick's Lower California Guidebook:
Aschmann's page 300:
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David K
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Barry A.
My Mom and Aunt camped at those ruins many times back in the 'early 50' thru the early '70's and I have many slides of them taken by them. There also
is the ruins of an old fishcamp building nearby and closer to the water, as David K indicates. There was/is another abandoned Fish Camp north of the
subject "ruins" in a shallow arroyo, with big cliffs and a large hill between the two areas, cutting off any easy access between them. I have also
camped there several times, but it is separate from the possible Franciscan ruins, but they sure do exist.
Lots of interesting ruins, that few folks ever get to, in that area.
Barry |
We just gotta get those slides converted to digital format (cd disc)!! Costco has this service as do photo shops... any chance Barry... like maybe a
birthday present for me this month? (LOL)...   
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willardguy
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lol! well there's my problem, I got the 1956 edition, as of then the boys had not written much about gonzaga bay.
barry, i'd love to see any old photos you might have, the abandoned fish camp in the arroyo is about a "driver" away from my house. (if you're tiger
woods)
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willardguy
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and the old spanish well we get our water from, pozo de los frailes! bet most the old timers didnt even know it had a name!
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Barry A.
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| Quote: | Originally posted by willardguy
lol! well there's my problem, I got the 1956 edition, as of then the boys had not written much about gonzaga bay.
barry, i'd love to see any old photos you might have, the abandoned fish camp in the arroyo is about a "driver" away from my house. (if you're tiger
woods) |
Yep, that's it. We would walk over to Papa Fernandez for dinner every night that we didn't have fish. (not that often, and usually a result of not
fishing and doing some exploring all day).
Converting slides is expensive, even at Costco. My son has all my Mom's and Aunt's slides from the '50's and '60's over in Independence, CA.
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David K
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| Quote: | Originally posted by willardguy
lol! well there's my problem, I got the 1956 edition, as of then the boys had not written much about gonzaga bay.
barry, i'd love to see any old photos you might have, the abandoned fish camp in the arroyo is about a "driver" away from my house. (if you're tiger
woods) |
That would be it... since their travels for that 1956 edition (mostly Gulick's) were done BEFORE Arturo Grosso blasted the first pilot Jeep trail
north to San Felipe, from Calamajue/ Chapala... and that was in 1956.
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Barry A.
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| Quote: | Originally posted by David K
| Quote: | Originally posted by willardguy
lol! well there's my problem, I got the 1956 edition, as of then the boys had not written much about gonzaga bay.
barry, i'd love to see any old photos you might have, the abandoned fish camp in the arroyo is about a "driver" away from my house. (if you're tiger
woods) |
That would be it... since their travels for that 1956 edition (mostly Gulick's) were done BEFORE Arturo Grosso blasted the first pilot Jeep trail
north to San Felipe, from Calamajue/ Chapala... and that was in 1956. |
Well, in that case, my Mom and Aunt must have been at Gonzaga Bay in the LATE '50's, not the early '50's as I previously stated. They travelled in an
old VW bus back in those days, and went everywhere in that machine. My first trip to San Luis Gonzaga was in the early/mid 1960's, as I recall, in a
different VW bus.
Barry
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willardguy
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your mom and aunt in gonzaga in the 50's in a VW bus!!! now those girls have some braggin rights!
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David K
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It was really special to arrive to Gonzaga by any vehicle in the 50's or 60's!
When my parents took their first trip south of San Felipe (in a new Jeep Wagoneer) in '65, they drove into Papa Fernandez' to find a film crew who had
flown in (as the majority of tourists did in those days)... making a movie about hunting bighorn sheep and other game in North America.
They didn't know it at the time, but they were filmed driving into Papa's compound, stopping, and my dad got out, looked around, then ducked back to
speak to my mom(you can even see my mom sitting in the Jeep).. The movie was called The American Adventure (or something like that) and was in
theaters some 7 years later. WE WERE SHOCKED and jazzed when we saw the movie (my mom and I) and couldn't wait to get to my dad and take him to see it
to surprise him! The film was a documentary about hunting game from Mexico's Baja to Alaska (polar bear).
Not PC today, but was okay in 1971 or 2 when the movie came out.
Anyway, there was no narration during the time it showed the Jeep driving in and my dad getting out... then it went on to talk about how they were
going to hunt a bighorn... weird. I guess it was so rare to see a new car or any car at Gonzaga Bay, it deserved to be in the movies!!
I have tried to find that movie on a DVD or VHS with no luck.
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Barry A.
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| Quote: | Originally posted by willardguy
your mom and aunt in gonzaga in the 50's in a VW bus!!! now those girls have some braggin rights! |
They were characters, for sure. They also drove that VW bus alone to Cabo San Lucas on the old dirt track before the paved road went in, taking a
month to complete the entire trip down, and back. My Mom was a young widow, and my Aunt was never married. I was back east in College and did not
get to go------this was in about 1958, I believe (if I remember right). My aunt helped Gulick with some of his mapping in the Laguna Salada area,
also, and I have some of the correspondence back and forth on that endeavor. Fun stuff for sure. My Aunt was a retired Colonel in the Air Force, a
rare thing for a women back in those days, and she was also a pilot. She passed on at 78 years old 17 years ago. All my camping trips back in my
youth were with her, almost always in the desert----the desert---her (and my) real love.
Barry
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