Mission Trail Today - The California Missions

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Mission Trail Today

Select photographs of my many visits to the California Missions build by Spain and Mexico between 1769 and 1823.

Santa Ysabel Asistencia
Founded September 20, 1818
by Father Fernando Martin
in Santa Isabel

Updated
Page

Personal Observations

We visited Santa Ysabel Asistencia on January 24, 2004. It had been raining off and on all day, usually as we drove between the missions. While not one of the major missions, Mission Ysabel was a rewarding stop as part of the total mission experience. On the day that we visited, no one was present until a group of tourists arrived just as we were leaving. We didn't see the caretaker. The gift shop unfortunately was closed, but the church and museum were open. A few items were for sale in the museum with visitors on the honor system to pay the donation box.

Mission Art & Photo-Art

I am still researching this mission and am a bit confused by some conflicting literature that I've read. The San Diego Historical Society web site states that Santa Ysabel was a ranch belonging to Mission San Luis Rey but I can find no other account of it related to San Luis Rey. The San Diego Historical Society web site also states that Santa Ysabel was an asistencia to Mission San Diego. A plaque at the mission states that it was an extension mission to Mission San Diego.

History

Mission Santa Ysabel's (Pronounced "Isabel") beginnings are not clear. One account attributes Sunday, September 20, 1818 as the day when a site was blessed at Elcuanan. Mission Santa Ysabel is one of the "asistencia" (Extension or sub-missions) Missions. Three mission asistencias were built in the San Diego district. Santa Ysabel is sometimes referred to as the "Church in the Desert."

Whereas Mission Pala, an asistensia to Mission San Louis Rey de Francia, needed only a resident priest to be a full functioning mission, Sant Ysabel asistencia was never more than an outlying outpost to Mission San Diego de Alcala, a chapel and a few residences to serve the needs in this agricultural region of Mission San Diego's lands.

Santa Ysabel Asistencia was to have been a link in a second chain of missions in Alta California, an inland chain, equal in importance to the established coastal chain. The Mexican Revolution ended this effort. After 1836, the Padres only made occasional visits. The building soon after fell into ruin. The ocasional masses were then celbrated in a grass ramada.

The Santa Ysabel Rancho passed into the possession of Jose Joaquin Ortega and Edward Stokes in 1844. The American traveler John Russell Bartlett wrote in 1852 that Santa Ysabel Mission was a roofless church and a few huts. Former mission lands were given to the Mesa Grande Reservation in 1883 and the Santa Ysabel Reservation in 1893. Sometime later, three acres were returned to the Catholic Church and services resumed. A new church was built on the original site, the corner stone being laid September 14, 1924.

The asistencia raised wheat, barley, corn, beans, and also had orchards and vineyards.

A major event in the more recent history of the Asistencia occurred on a summer night in 1926 when the beloved bells mysteriously disappeared, only the clappers remained on the ground. One of the two bells were reported to be the oldest bell in California. The older bell, inscribed: N.S. de Loreto, 1723, was named for Our Lady of Loreto and came from Loreto Mission, Baja California. The second bell was dedicated to San Pedro and dated 1767. The Indians traded six burro loads of wheat and barley. When the adobe chapel deteriorated and was no longer able to support the bells, they were hung from a wooden frame near the ramada. When Jose Maria Osuna discovered the bells missing, he took the clappers home for safe keeping. Eventually the clappers were returned to the mission in 1959 where they now rest in the museum. There is still no trace of the original bells. New bells were installed in 1993.

Address and Directions

State Route 79
Santa Ysabel, CA 92070
760-765-0810

Mailing address:
PO Box 129
Santa Ysabel, CA 92070

Now known as Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church, Mission Santa Ysabel Asistencia is located in the Santa Ysabel Valley about 10 miles north of the tourist town of Julian along the east side of State Highway 79.

Photography Gallery

Front.

Church interior.

If you should ever find some mission bells without clappers in your attic, please contact the mission.

As the sign says...

Angel of the Lost Bells
An original carving by Steven Berardi inspired by the search for the lost bells of the mission of Santa Ysabel. The Padre and the Indians brought two bells 150 years ago for six burro load of barley. The oldest bells in California made in 1723 and 1767. In 1926 the bells mysteriously disappeared. The Mission has not given up hope that the bells will be returned. The day after the bells disappeared Jose Maria Osuna found the clappers. They were returned in 1959 and are now kept in the Indian Museum.

Grotto of Our Lady.

Front.

Church interior.

Museum.

Cemetery, "Respect our families, no tourist please."

Cemetery.

The main site, church at center.

Display of well and wind mill with cross.

The plaque beside the door reads,

Santa Ysabel Asistencia Site

Father Fernando Martin Celebrated the first mass on September 20, 1818 at a site nearby, an outpost of Mission San Diego. By 1822 Santa Ysabel had a chapel, cemetery, granary, many houses, and 450 Neophytes. After secularization in the 1830s, priestly visits were rare, tradition asserts that services have been held here since 1818, under remadas erected against one wall after the roof caved in. The present chapel was built in 1924.

California registered historic landmark no. 369.

Originally registered April 3, 1940. Plaque placed by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego, Santa Ysabel Tribal Council, and Squibob Chapter, E Clampus Vitus, September 26, 1987.

Sources:

This web site was created because of my love and respect for the California Missions. This web site is for your benefit and I make no profit on it. A non-tax deductable donation to help cover the cost of operating this web site may be made to Kesign Design Consulting through PayPal ...

This page last updated 7-30-13

This site maintained by Kenneth A. Larson.
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