The California missions were founded by Fr. Junipero Serra. He made them because the Spanish king wanted settlements in California. People went from mission to mission by following crosses which were marked on trees. The trees were on the El Camino Real. Unfortunately, the tree’s bark grew over the crosses. We know this because when the trees died the crosses were exposed. Today the trail is marked with small replicas of the mission bells.My mission report is on Mission San Miguel Archangel. It was founded in 1797 and is number 16 in the mission chain. It is located in San Miguel by Paso Robles. My family and I went to visit the mission this month. It’s really warm in San Miguel. At least there was air conditioning in the gift shop. The mission area was rocky and had a lot cactus around the sides of the buildings.
Mission San Miguel is named after Saint Michael the archangel. The current appearance is the same as when it was founded. The inside has never been repainted. Today it is still a parish church.
The first thing I saw when I walked into the mission was a statue of Father Junipero Serra. Then I saw a stove made from stone. It looked like a beehive. There was also an olive press. They used it to make olive oil for bread. Finally, I saw a wine press. It looked like a giant wheel in a giant bucket.
I took a self-guided tour with the papers I got from the mission information center. It had directions for where to go. On the self-guided tour, I saw the sheep gate where sheep were taken for shearing. Each side of the courtyard is 230 feet long. The courtyard has a fountain in the center. I learned that the adobe walls were built in the early 1820’s.
The dining room has rough furnishings similar to the ones in the early days. The tables were really small. The room also has shelves built into the wall.
The living room’s walls were painted by mixing ground up minerals and cactus juice. They also had an organ, spinning wheel and a loom. They even displayed real ground up minerals and wool. The kitchen had an oven, like the beehive ovens outside. The missionaries baked their bread in them.
They had a canon in the outside courtyard in case the Indians revolted against them. This happened at Mission San Diego. The Indians destroyed Mission San Diego. So then they built protection at the other missions.
In 1806, a fire destroyed two rows of buildings. The fire ruined various shops and all raw materials. The fire also destroyed part of the church’s roof. Other missions donated provisions and goods to restore the mission.
My family and I could not get into the church because an earthquake in 2003 damaged it. It is still being fixed. The building is surrounded by scaffolding, so we couldn’t see the cemetery because you have to go through the church to get there. That ended our self-guided tour.
I was really impressed by the mission. The size impressed me the most. Before we left we walked around the outside of the mission grounds. It was bigger than I thought.
