Area History

The Mission Church , which became the centerpiece of the mission buildings, was completed in 1821. The Spanish artist, Don Esteban Munros, directed the Indians in frescoing and painting the interior, and their artwork can be seen today. A little group, which included Father Fermin de Lasuen and Father Buenaveture Sitjar and eight soldiers, returned to the site marked two years before and founded Mission San Miguel on July 25, 1797. The mission was the 16th of the missions founded in California . Later, the town of San Miguel was developed adjacent to the mission.

During this general time period, the Indians used the mineral springs in the area known as "El Paso de Los Robles," which referred to the numerous valley oaks that adorned the area's landscape. The Indians, and even animals, used the hot springs for curative purposes. Old-timers told of a grizzly bear that made regular nocturnal trips to cure a lame leg by grasping an overhanging limb with his forepaws and dipping his sore leg into the hot pool. A writer in the 1830's reported that "Father Juan Cabot, the minister of San Miguel Mission, erected a small house at the spot to offer shelter and convenience to bathers and it was used by many persons."

When Padre Abella, the last of the mission Franciscan padres, died in July 1941, there were only thirty frightened, helpless Indians left of all the mission's flock. First the Spanish, and then the Mexican governments had allowed greed to undermine the missions, and thus destroy their greatest assets.

The Mexican government appointed Jose de Jesus Pico as San Miguel's civil administrator in 1841. He quickly issued a decree to sell the mission. On July 4, 1846 , Petronillo Rios and William Reed purchased the mission buildings and the remaining mission lands. Earlier, the Rancho el Paso Robles, some nine miles south of the mission, had been granted by the Mexican government in 1844 to Pedro Narvaez, who had transferred it to his countryman, Petronillo Rios. In 1857, the Rancho was purchased by D. D. Blackburn, J. H. Blackburn and Lazare Godchaux. Godchaux sold his interest to Drury James (uncle to Jesse James).

After Mexico declared itself a free nation independent of Spain , the new Mexican government decided in 1825 to secularize the missions as quickly as possible, to eliminate the role of Spain in Mexico and to reduce the influence of the Catholic Church in owning and managing the California missions.

San Miguel Mission, with its 53,000 acres of mission lands, was one of the last missions to be secularized on July 14, 1836 . Ignacio Coronel assumed jurisdiction over San Miguel mission property and lands for the civil government of Mexico . Under Mexican rule, most of the Indians deserted the mission and the buildings deteriorated and livestock raising and farming was generally abandoned.

In the mid-1840's, a movement by Americans to free California from Mexico was successful. On July 7, 1846, Commodore Sloat, on his flagship Savannah, arrived in Monterey with 250 marines and sailors, and unfurled the American flag over Monterey, which was the Mexican government's capital city for its California territory.

On July 10, 1846 , Captain John Fremont arrived at San Miguel Mission. His army made camp on the three hills just west of the mission, where soldiers rested and ate many of Señoras Reed's and Rio 's sheep. After the Americans gained control of California by deposing Pio Pico on August 10, 1846, the mission churches, priests' dwellings, cemeteries, gardens, and orchards were ordered left in charge of the padres until the question of ownership was decided later by the United States' Courts.

In 1859, President Buchanan declared that the Mexican government's confiscation of church lands was illegal, and he returned the mission to the Catholic bishop of Monterey . Only the church and the buildings on the immediate grounds were returned. The mission still belongs to the Bishop of Monterey, though it is run by the Franciscan padres who returned to the mission in 1928. The same Franciscan order had founded the mission in 1797. Today it is a parish church.