Meg Chavez, age 13, of Nogales, Ariz., for her question:
HOW MANY CALIFORNIA MISSIONS DID THE SPANISH BUILD?
Franciscan friars of the Roman Catholic Church helped the Spanish settlement of California by building a string of missions. In 1769, during the expedition of Captain Gaspar de Portola, the governor of Baja California, Father Junipero Serra established the first California mission in San Diego. By 1823, the chain had grown to 21 missions.
The first mission was called San Diego de Alcala. By the time the string was completed, each mission was about one day's walk from the next.
The friars converted many Indians to Christianity. They also taught them farming, weaving and other skills.
Many persons in California and Mexico wanted the missions broken up. As early as the 1830s, not too long after the last mission was completed, the government began selling mission lands to private citizens. By 1846, almost all of the mission property had been sold.
Junipero Serra was born in Petra, Majorca, and joined the San Fernando mission college in Mexico in 1749. Serra became famous as a preacher and made long journeys on foot in spite of lameness. In 1767, he became the superior of the Franciscan missions in Lower California and two years later he built the first mission in Upper California.
After the mission in San Diego was completed, the next California mission was San Carlos Borromero, built in 1770 in Carmel. In 1771 San Antonio de Padua was built at Jolon and San Gabriel Archangel was built in San Gabriel. Number five, built in 1772, was San Luis Obispo de Tolosa.
Two missions, one in San Francisco and another in San Juan Capistrano, were built in 1776 and a year later one was built at Santa Clara.
In construction order, here are the rest of the 21 California missions: Ventura, Santa Barbara, Lompoc, Santa Cruz, Soledad, Niles, San Juan, San Miguel, San Fernando, Oceanside, Solvang, San Rafael and, last on the list, the one in Sonoma.
Before Europeans came to California, lots Indian tribes lived in many of the fertile parts of the vast territory around the California missions.
The Hupa Indians lived in the far northwestern part of what is now California. The Maidu lived in the central section and the Yuma lived in the south. The Pomo Indians occupied the territory that now makes up Lake Mendocino and Sonoma counties north of San Francisco.
Other Indian groups in the California region who came in contact with the string of missions included the Miwok, Modoc and Mohave tribes.
The first European to see the coast of what is now California was Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese explorer employed by Spain. In 1579, Englishman Francis Drake made his famous voyage around the world which included a trip up the California coast. Then in 1602, Sebastian Vizcaino led an expedition into California for Spain and urged in a report to the king that California be colonized. This, a few years later, led to the founding of the California missions.