Mission Sonoma

The Sonoma Mission was the last Spanish mission built in California, founded in 1823 by Father Jose Altimira. Its official name is Mission San Francisco Solano, named for St. Francis of Solano, a 17th-century missionary to the Peruvian Indians, but it's more commonly called Mission Sonoma.

Interesting Facts

Mission Sonoma was the last and northernmost California mission. It was the only one founded after Mexico gained independence from Spain and it was the only one founded without the Catholic church's prior approval.

1820's - 1830's

Father Jose Altimira came from Barcelona, Spain, to California in 1819, to help at Mission Dolores. The ambitious young man soon got tired of the routine work at the established mission, and he devised a plan to move it north to a warmer spot.

Instead of asking the church for permission, he went to the Mexican Governor Don Luis Arguello. Altimira wanted to move both the San Francisco and San Rafael missions to the new location. Arguello thought that would help keep the Russians out of northern California.

Altimira went north to scout a spot founded Sonoma Mission on July 4, 1823. He went back to San Francisco and took soldiers and supplies back to the new location. Other Fathers in the church opposed his plan, and when the Church finally approved the new mission, they insisted that the two remaining ones stay in place.

Father Altimira was determined to prove that he was right about the new mission, and it had a good start. He brought almost 700 Indian neophytes from San Francisco. The vineyards, planted in the midst of what is now the Sonoma Valley wine area, flourished.

However, Altimira was a cruel man who flogged and imprisoned the natives in an attempt to "civilize" them, and they soon revolted. A large group attacked the mission. They stole and burned, and soon afterward Father Altimira fled to San Rafael. After that, he worked at San Buenaventura and returned to Spain in 1828.

Father Buenaventura Fortuni, who had worked at Mission San Jose, replaced Altimira. He rebuilt the mission and its buildings and regained the Indian's trust. 1832 was the mission's most successful year, when Fortuni recorded 127 baptisms, 34 marriages and 70 deaths, and a total of 996 neophytes. The mission also had 6,000 sheep and goats, 900 horses, 13 mules, 50 pigs and 3,500 cattle. The fields produced wheat, barley, beans, peas, and corn.

In 1833, the Zacatecan Franciscan priests from Mexico took over the Sonoma Mission, and Father Jose Gutierrez was placed in charge. Father Gutierrez also punished the Indians by beating them in an attempt to control them, an action that eventually helped General Vallejo gain control.

Secularization

The mission buildings were barely finished when Sonoma Mission was secularized on November 3, 1834.

General Mariano Vallejo, Commandant of the San Francisco Presidio, took control. He was supposed to give the property to the Indians, but he kept it for himself instead. Vallejo founded a town around the mission, which is now the town of Sonoma. The chapel was used as a parish church until 1880 and was eventually sold to a man who built a saloon in front of it and used the chapel as a storehouse.

The Historic Landmarks League bought the mission property in 1903. They finished restoring the mission in 1926 when they turned it over to the State of California. After further restoration, the mission is part of the Sonoma Mission State Historic Park.