Today we wrap up our central coast adventure with six more San Luis Obispo County sites (and one Santa Barbara one for good measure to bring us up to an even 20 sites visited on this trip).
Our first stop was the Estrella Adobe Church (CHL 542).
It is the first Protestant church in northern San Luis
Obispo County.
It was built in 1878 but
fell into disrepair until renovations in 1952.
There are 48 people buried in the cemetery including Henry King (alias
Clark de Frost) who stole barbed wire from a local rancher, was shot and buried
in a shallow grave. When the rains
uncovered him he was moved to another unmarked grave on higher land.
They also have giant pine cones, as Libi modeled!
Next we stopped at the Rios-Caledonia Adobe (CHL 936). Sadly it was closed today, but we were able to walk around the grounds and get a feel for the place.
The adobe was constructed in 1835 by local Native Americans to be used
as a security outpost for the mission.
It passed through many hands in the coming years and served as a
residence, inn, and stagecoach stop.
According to local legend many infamous people bunked here when it was
an inn: Jesse James, Tiburcio Vasquez,
and the Dalton Brothers.
Now onto our first mission of the day-- Mission San Miguel Arcangel (CHL 326).
This was
the 16th mission established in the chain of 21 California missions.
On the drive in, we met this local character who saw me photographing the bell tower and asked me to take his photo. He is biking from Santa Rosa to South Carolina to visit his brother who has cancer. I hope that he makes it safely, as he has a long way to go!
The mission folks are so funny-- in the parking lot there is this sign. Who says church folk don't have a a sense of humor? :)
The mission was founded
in 1797 by Father Lasuen and was meant to link Mission San Antonio de Padua in the north
to San Luis Obispo in the south.
The
native people living near here were called the Salinan tribe and they
contributed greatly to the construction of the building and the murals
inside.
The original structure was lost
to a fire in 1806, but was reconstructed by the same native people.
After secularization the buildings were owned
by the Reed Family who were murdered here.
The 2003 earthquake caused a great deal of damage that was only recently
repaired (2009).
Old buildings always make us feel like giants!
They have some nice displays inside the mission of what life was like for the missionaries.
Love those old mission walls!
When we entered the church they were doing a field trip, so we got to listen in.
The brother who was their docent was great! Very funny and approachable!
Ron was struck by the all-seeing eye above the altar. In the literature about the sanctuary it says that this was included to remind the Native people that they now had a god who was watching them all the time! (Ron's note: did Freemasons help build this mission? How were the Illuminati involved? My high school seniors love Illuminati conspiracy theories!)
This mission had beautifully painted walls--- all the way up to the ceiling!
St. Francis is seen here thinking about death according to our hijacked tour guide-- hence the skull he is standing on.
The pulpit was beautiful-- I especially like the dove hanging from the top.
It was very helpful to have the diagram explaining all of the different murals and art pieces.
The cemetery contains both Salinan Indians and church members.
We drove south to Atascadero next to see the Administration and Veteran's Memorial Buidling (CHL 958).
The town of Atascadero was founded by Edward G. Lewis as a model community, or a utopia. He had another similar community in University City, Missouri.
This building was to be the centerpiece of Lewis' beautiful town, designed by Walter D. Bliss, and constructed of locally produced brick.
The building sustained major damages in the 2003 earthquake. It only reopened last year, in time for the town's 100th anniversary!
Not only did the building serve as the main building for the early government of the town, over the years it was a private school for boys, a veteran's memorial building, and it's now home to county offices.
Edward G. Lewis is an interesting character-- a publisher who had some of the largest circulation numbers in the nation. His "Woman's Magazine" was so popular with advertisers that charging 10 cents per annual subscription still made him money. Lewis founded the American Woman’s Republic, a membership fee-based organization established to help women learn about government and politics in
preparation for the time when they would have the right to vote. Sadly the organization didn't last to see woman get the vote, but the concept was cool!
Next we made our way to the site of the Santa Margarita Asistencia (CHL 364). This site is on private land-- and both the state and the sign tell you
that in no uncertain terms. They were kind enough to put up a sign for
all the landmark hoppers like us!
This was an outpost of the San Luis Obispo mission. Here, the Native Americans and the padres cultivated grain and stored items for the mission.
The next logical stop was the Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa (CHL 325).
San Luis Obispo was the 5th mission founded by Father Junipero Serra.
The original mission was built by the local Chumash Indians from 1793-1794.
There are still a few original parts of the mission but most of it has been reconstructed due to fire and earthquakes.
The museum is well done-- with lots of artifacts from early and more recent mission days.
Here are the original mission doors on display.
The story of the three bells was interesting-- they had three bells: the joy bell, the grief bell and the Gloria bell. We had a lovely discussion with Libi as to when she thought each of the bells were rung.
We were able to get a quick peek at the sanctuary as soon as the daily mass was over.
They extended the church to the side, to accommodate some of the over 2000 families they now serve.
Libi took this photo of the fountain outside the mission. I believe that this fountain is to honor the nickname of the area Llano de los Osos (or the level of the Bears due to all the bears that were found here).
We wanted to hit an even number of sites, so we made one final stop at the Carpenteria and Indian Village of Mishopshnow (CHL 535).
This Chumash village was first discovered by Cabrillo in 1542. It was then re-discovered by the Portola expedition and re-named San Roque in 1769. The soldiers on the expedition noticed the Chumash building wooden canoes, so they nicknamed the area La Carpinteria, the Carpenter's Shop-- a name that stuck!
It was a great few days full of family fun and lots of cool historic sites!
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