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The California Missions Resource Center is a comprehensive and unique resource for historical information on the twenty-one California Missions. We strive to provide quality information for students, teachers and people interested in discovering the wonderful history of the early missions and the people who helped create and shape the California we know today.

Featured Mission

San Diego de Alcála

California's first mission was founded on July 16, 1769. Mission San Diego's church (rebuilt in 1931) has a captivating 46 foot campanario (bell wall) you won't forget. This mission has inviting grounds, informative displays, and a rich history.

A photograph by David J. McLaughlin.

California Mission Fact Sheets

What Do You Want to Know about California's Missions?

It's all here in the Key Fact Sheets - available for each of the 21 missions.

We now offer the Key Fact Sheets as a digital download making them immediately available for your project or travel plans.

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The California Missions Resource Center is a comprehensive and unique resource for historical information on the 21 California missions.

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Stretching from San Diego to Sonoma, the 21 missions of Alta California are storied reminders of California and our nation's past. Few regions of the world have such a physical, visual timeline of a nation's growth and development.

In 1769, under order of the Spanish king, sea and land expeditions departed Mexico for California, meeting in San Diego where the first fort and mission were established to serve as frontier outposts. The King sent military troops and Franciscan missionaries to the new land to colonize the territory and convert its Indian inhabitants to Christianity.

Over 54 years, four forts, or presidios, and twenty-one missions were founded along the California coast. Some of these sites eventually evolved into the state's major cities, including San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Jose and San Francisco.

Founding of the California missions began seven years before the American Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, and ended 25 years before gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in 1848. Mission expansion came to an end in 1823, when mission bells rang in Sonoma.

The California Missions Foundation was created in 1998 as the only organization dedicated to restoring and protecting all 21 mission structures and their contents, with the goal of preserving California's rich history.

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Stretching from San Diego to Sonoma, the 21 missions of Alta California are storied reminders of California and our nation's past. Few regions of the world have such a physical, visual timeline of a nation's growth and development.

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California Missions - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com

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Find out more about the history of California Missions, including videos, interesting articles, pictures, historical features and more. Get all the facts on HISTORY.com

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In 1776 the Declaration of Independence declared the East Coast free from British control. 3,000 miles away on the West Coast Spaniards sought to claim the lands by building 21 missions from 1769 to 1823. California's 21 Missions are a fraction of over 100 missions that were built in North America.
When you take a drive along I-101 in California today, the popular coastal highway follows El Camino Real (The King's Road) created as a travel route by Spaniards who built 21 missions. Each mission was designed to be about a day's journey from the next (approx. 30 miles) and today, you can still visit replicas of these original missions as you drive on that highway that largely parallels the Pacific Ocean along its route north and south. Most of the missions are open to the public -- some charge a fee, while others are free to see.

Because the construction of the missions utilized locally available materials such as adobe brick, there are only a few mission remnants (walls, cornices, towers, etc.) from the original structures that have survived devastating earthquakes and neglect. The replicas of the original missions, however, provide experiences that allow children and adults to relive the California mission era that began in 1769 and ended not long after the last mission was built in 1823.

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1 | Basilica San Diego de Alcala | 10818 Mission Rd., San Diego, CA | 1769, restored, looks like new, church services

In Lompoc you can visit La Purisima Mission and see livestock grazing in the fields. Santa Barbara's mission includes an amazing aqueduct system still in place from the mission era, and at Soledad Mission roosters roam free on the grounds, much as they would have done 200 years ago.

The California missions are only a fraction of those built by Spaniards in their quest to claim vast holdings in North America. You can travel south of the border into Mexico to see and learn about many missions there, or travel between California and Florida, discovering similar structures were built in Arizona, Texas, Mississippi and other states.

The goal of the Spanish government was to recruit local natives, then convert, educate, and civilize the indigenous populations, turning them into Spanish colonial citizens. Total assimilation of indigenous populations (called neophytes or new believers) into European culture and the Catholic religion was a doctrine established in 1531 in Spain. Believing that it was possible to create self-sustaining mission villages, the government sent "missionaries" from the Catholic church to help construct and operate each mission. The effort did introduce modern foods, trees, cultivation methods to produce wine, and livestock to areas where fish and wild game were meals of choice, but measles and other diseases also arrived, decimating entire native populations except for a few survivors.

Under the leadership of a Franciscan, Fr. Junipero Serra, the California mission system had been launched. He is buried at the Carmel Mission. When the Mexican Congress passed the Act for the Secularization of the Missions of California on August 17, 1833, it called for the colonization of both Alta (our current California in the U.S.) and Baja California (Mexico) from proceeds of the sale of the mission property to private interests. Most missions fell into disrepair, but those with a passion for history and heritage have worked hard to save these landmarks. Only one or two no longer exist.

How the mission locations were selected:
Mission sites were intended to stay close to the coast and Pacific Ocean. The furthest inland is Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad (Soledad Mission) 30 miles inland. A scarcity of imported materials and lack of skilled laborers, compelled the mission Fathers to employ simple building materials and methods in the construction of mission structures. Each mission required a water supply for drinking and growing crops, and the coastal weather provided a Mediterranean climate easier for survival.

Introduced from Spain:
Olive trees and olive oil production.
Citrus groves and orchards that launched the fruit industry.
Wine grape stock plantings and production of wine

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California Missions List of 21 Missions, Photos, Location

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In 1776 the Declaration of Independence declared the East Coast free from British control. 3,000 miles away on the West Coast Spaniards sought to claim the lands by building 21 missions from 1769 to 1823. California's 21 Missions are a fraction of over 100 missions that were built in North America.