Mission Park Ruins

Our mission is the Number One tourist destination for anyone visiting Santa Barbara.  I'm not just biased because I live here.   It is called "Queen of the Missions" for a reason; the most significant being it is the only California mission that has been in continuous use since it was built in 1786.  It is also the most beautiful.  One of the Franciscan padres brought a book on Roman architecture with him so the church resembles an ancient Latin temple.

However, what tourists miss is the park across the street, and for any history buff, it is a fascinating glimpse into the "golden age" of mission life.  The missions did not consist of a church building only, but contained acres of land and housing for the native people.  In Santa Barbara, the Chumash lived in 250 adobe homes.  They grew wheat, corn, barley and beans.  There were thousands of cattle, sheep, and hogs to tend.  The padres taught them to cut stone, burn bricks and make mortar.  Their work can be seen in the ruins of the aqueduct, an incredible feat of engineering.  Water came from a dammed creek above the mission and was carried by a stone aqueduct to a storage basin below.  Segments of this system and the upper and lower reservoirs still exist.

Upper Reservoir

There are also ruins of a tannery, a grist mill, a jailhouse and filter house and broken segments of the aqueduct line the path through the park.  I had the entire park to myself yesterday.  Many locals don't even know this place exists!

The Santa Barbara mission thrived until the secularization in the mid 1800's.  The Indians were placed under civil jurisdiction and no longer protected by the church.  Many of the missions were abandoned during this time.  However, in Santa Barbara one of the local priests was politically savvy and had himself appointed as administrator and was able to continue using the mission until 1865 when it was once again returned to the church by Abraham Lincoln.  Consequently, the Santa Barbara Mission today is an important archive for books and documents.  Its library is the oldest in the state.

Grist Mill Ruins

Jailhouse Ruins

Returning to the Mission across the street, you can see the intact remains of the Lavanderia, which was built in 1808.  Water poured in from the aqueduct and the mission inhabitants were able to wash their clothes here.  I love the spouts at each end.  The south spout is a mountain lion and the north one, a bear.

I'll leave you with a quote from my trusty old Thompson and West book, 1883, "History of Santa Barbara County."

The fountains of clear water, bursting and spouting among the shrubbery and fruit-laden trees, gave the Indian a more exalted idea of the value of civilization than any sermon or homily, and the stores of grain and meat formed a strong inducement to forego the precarious freedom and starvation of the mountains and adopt the religion of the friars.