January 12, 2011

Wednesday 12~~~~ Today was a beautiful sunny and we drove to visit the old Catholic Mission LaPurisima (The Mission of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary). It was the eleventh of twenty-one Spanish Missions established in what later became the state of California. Founded December8, 1787 the La Purisima Mission land holdings once covered nearly 470 square miles. Bordered by the Santa Maria river in the north and Gaviota coastline in the South. The land was home to the Chumash people and the Spanish settlers. The Mission was best known for its hides and blankets, and its inhabitants herded as many as 24,000 cattle and sheep. Today, history lives at LaPurisima State Park with over 2000,000 visitors every year. It is self guided tours and sometimes the park provides a re-creation of life here during the 1820's, when the residents engaged in candle making and weaving, pottery making, black smithing and leather work. In the early years of operation, several thousand Chumash Indians were baptised into the Catholic Church and small adobe buildings were built, a water system developed, crops were planted, livestock were raised and the Mission grew and prospered. It suffered an earth quake in 1812 and the buildings were severely damaged, the after shocks and drenching rains damaged the Mission beyond repair. The priest requested that the Mission be rebuilt 4 miles away where it became a thriving Mission again. It had a better water supply, a better climate and was closer to the access of El Camino Real , California's main travel route. In a few years LaPurisima was once again a thriving community with about 1000 Chumash Indian Neophytes living on the land. Due to measles and Small Pox brought in by the settlers the Chumash Indian population went from a high of 1600 to 33 in 1913. In 1834 the order to secularize California's Missions was enforced. Mission assets were to be civilly administered, landholdings divided up among the habitants and the neophytes be released from supervision of any type. In1845 the Mission was sold for $1000 to Juan Temple of Los Angeles, it subsequently changed hands a number of times prior to the close of the 19th century. Buildings and other features of the Mission eventually collapsed from weather and other long neglect. In 1933 when the property was given to public ownership by Union Oil Company, the Mission was a complete ruin. Preservation and reconstruction of the Mission complex began in 1934 through the efforts of the state and county of California, the Nat. Park Service and the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps.) Under direction and labor from the latter two organizations, the buildings and grounds were restored and furnished to appear as they did in 1820. We enjoyed this Mission so much and with it a self guided tour you can take all day and carry your lunch and sit and eat on the many benches all over the mission. The walls are so thick and the rooms so large, it is so impressive to see. I really enjoyed the church in the mission with the old confessional booth and the lectors post so high in the air. The stations of the cross were so old, the pictures were absolutely gorgeous. We took a lot of pictures, I will post a few of them.