The 21st and last California 'Spanish Mission'
Was really the first Mexican Mission!

​EN ESPAñOL: La 21.a y última 'misión española' de California ´fue en realidad la primera misión mexicana!

By Miguel Pérez

It was California's only Franciscan mission established after Mexico won its independence from Spain. And yet some people often assume that San Francisco Solano is a Spanish mission, the 21st and last of the Catholic Native American communities established here between 1769 and 1823.
 
In reality, it was Alta California's first and only Mexican mission for neophytes. And since the mission system only lasted a few years under Mexican rule, San Francisco Solano had a short life - 11 years! It was established on July 4, 1823, almost two years after Mexican independence, and closed in 1834.

​It was originally meant to replace both the Spanish Franciscan mission in San Francisco and its asistencia (sub-mission) in San Rafael. But approval for its opening took so long that, in the meantime, the asistencia became a full mission, and it was finally decided to keep all three as working Catholic neophyte communities.
 
Now part of the Sonoma State Historic Park, some 45 miles north of San Francisco Bay, Mission San Francisco Solano also became Mexico's northernmost mission in Alta California.

It’s driving force was Father José Altimira, a relentless Franciscan from Barcelona, who is credited here for the early success of the mission. In fact, the first Mexican mission would not have been realized without the persistence of its Spanish Franciscan founder.

It's delay in getting started was caused by conflict between the Catholic Church and the Mexican government. While the government was in a rush to get started, the Church took its time to respond to the proposed plan to move the mission.

​The Mexican government's rush to establish another mission north of San Francisco Bay was the same as it had been for the Spanish empire when it controlled California: To dissuade the Russians, already settled further northwest, from encroaching into territory Spain and later Mexico claimed as their own.

"The principal (object of the Superior Mexican Government) is to arrest as soon as possible the progress of the Russian settlements in Bodega and (Fort) Ross,” wrote Alta California’s Mexican Governor, José Figueroa, according to an exhibit here.

Altimira's main objective was to move ailing Native Americans to a much better climate. He had chosen a valley called Sonoma by the local Miwok natives. And although he had a different motive for building the new mission, Altimira agreed with the government and defied the Church.

​"With the government's encouragement . . . Father Altimira pressed forward,” an exhibit says. “Fields were planted, wells were dug, and temporary buildings were constructed including a temporary wooden church."

​Altimira had already extended the boundaries of the Spanish colonization of California and marked the final outpost of El Camino Real.

But he was ordered to stop. Church officials made him wait until they could agree with the government on plan to meet the needs of a growing neophyte population living north of San Francisco Bay.

​When an agreement was reached to keep all three missions in September of 1823, with Altimira heading the new one, they had to come up with another patron saint. Since the new mission would not replace San Francisco de Asis and keep that name, they chose San Francisco Solano, a similar name, but this time honoring a 17th century missionary to South America.

"Mission Solano grew rapidly for a time: Indian neophytes numbered nearly 700 by the end of 1824, and both field crops and livestock prospered," notes a historical marker here. 

Nevertheless, the mission grew too fast for its own good. Once it became overcrowded and natives began to build houses in the surrounding area, their crop compensation was less than for those who lived in the mission, leading to an 1826 uprising by the outsiders who raided misson supplies, set native mission homes on fire and "destroyed much of what Father Altimira had accomplished."​

But although a very discouraged Altimira moved on to work at other missions and eventually back to Spain, the mission kept prospering.

​"The Mission eventually grew into a complex of buildings with over 10,000 acres of land," notes a short guide given to visitors here. "In 1832, the Mission's most prosperous year, over 900 Indian workers were in residence.” Other markers indicate that the natives who converted to Catholicism here came from 35 different villages, and that they worked at “well-stocked” mission ranches “in operation at Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Napa, and Suisun.”

Just outside of the mission, three historical markers list the names of many of the Native Americans who lived and died here. “In this sacred ground lie buried men, women and children of the local Coast Miwok, Patwin, Wappo and Pomo Tribes,” notes the inscription. “They built, labored and died at Mission San Francisco Solano.”

​Yet, a decade after it was secularized and disbanded by the Mexican government, San Francisco Solano, the northernmost mission, became miliarized – an important Mexican army outpost. “The Catholic mission dominated life here from 1823-1834, a historical marker explains. “But the Mexican government soon shifted its focus to developing Sonoma as a pueblo – a town and military outpost."

The mission became temporary housing for Mexican soldiers led by General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, who was "sent from San Francisco to oversee and defend the pueblo," and then became the most prominent figure in Sonoma's rich history, the subject of my next article. "Native Americans and others built many adobe buildings here under Vallejo's leadership," a maker notes.

​After the mission was secularized in 1834, its chapel continued to serve as the parish church of Sonoma until 1881. But then it was used as hay barn and eventually left in ruins, "finally regaining some of the lost dignity and almost total disintegration when it was restored in 1913," another marker says.

​The restoration efforts began in 1903, when the two remaining mission buildings were purchased by the California Historic Landmarks League and then became part of the California Park System in 1906. After several civic clubs raised funds and petitioned the state legislature for additional support, San Francisco Solano was back, at least some of it. Out of 21 rooms in the main original mission building, only three remain today.

Yet, what remains here is amazing history. I was surprised to learn that the first vineyard north of San Francisco Bay was planted here by Padre Altimira, and that his vines were replanted twelve years later by General Vallejo who then became (in 1839) the first commercial wine maker north of San Francisco – the heart of today's "wine country."

​​​With so much mention of Vallejo I was curious to know why I did not see a statue for him. “Is there a Vallejo monument?” I asked the clerk at the mission gift shop. “He is a big shot around here,” I joked. “How come I don’t see him?”

​She gave me a huge smile, asked me to follow her outside, pointed toward the park across the street and said: “He’s sitting on a bench over there," as if she was talking about a living person.

​"What? On a bench?"
 
It was time for me to explore the rest of the Sonoma State Historic Park, including what is left of Vallejo's estate. To get there, all I had to do was cross the street. LOL And all you have to do is read my next article.

​EN ESPAñOL: La 21.a y última 'misión española' de California ´fue en realidad la primera misión mexicana!

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