On Sale Now: Second Edition: THE OLD MISSIONS of BAJA & ALTA CALIFORNIA 1697-1834

Today I picked up the latest printing of our book, and it is now the Second Edition... with some additions, and improvements (Some were made and introduced in November as a 'second printing with revisions'.)

The back cover (below) gives an idea of what this book is about. I call it a user friendly guide to the California Missions... all of them, in order, as they were founded and not based on a political line drawn long after the missions ceased to operate. San Diego was the 19th California mission, and not even the first founded by Franciscan Padre Junípero Serra... The missions were not spaced a day's journey apart nor in any order from south to north.

This book fits easily in your glove-box and will tell you who founded a mission, when it was founded, where it is and if it moved, its full name as well as the common name. We wanted to clear up so much conflicting and erroneous data published the past 100 or more years. There are specific details as to what a 'true mission' was, and we used them to give the facts on the 48 California mission (27 in Baja and 21 in Alta California).. but the two were not separated administratively until 1804, by which time 44 missions were already established!

So many California mission books have been published and most don't mention, or hardly mention, anything about the 72 years of mission activity and the 18 missions already built in 'California' (Baja), before San Diego was founded.
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In the previous printings there were a few typos we found and edits made since the first edition of last September and the second printing of early November, and revised printings of late November and early December.

The Second Edition looks perfect and I am very proud of it. If you have not yet got your copy, the price of the book itself is unchanged at $19.95, and only the California sales tax hike raised the final cost by five cents. Shipping (First Class) is still free in the U.S. and Canada.

Thanks to you, the Baja Nomads who really got our book off the ground with your support!

Here is a look at the book's covers, and what is new inside that is most noticeable (page 6, 114, 115, 132). The only thing new over the last printing is the boxed text on page 6 about Padre Kino's two mission attempts (1683-1685)... Those already with a copy can see the changes below as a free update!

One of our readers was real disappointed we din't mention the La Paz site of 'Guadalupe' and 'San Bruno' missions (failed after 2 years, a dozen years before Loreto). While our book title clearly gives the years we are covering, we do give a brief history of Spain's conquest of the Americas and discovery of California (Baja). We neglected to include the Kino sites, until now, in this new edition.

Thank you for your interest and Max, Erline and I REALLY appreciate your support!










Edited the driving directions to the site, last November. New photo of the actual mission foundation... the first mission book to have this.


New photos at Guadalupe replaced earlier ones of walls that were part of the army base here.


Last November we improved the quality of the 1757 map in the book, and the zoom in version for your research is in our web site!

A sample of two more missions found inside the book:





While not in color inside the book... here are flags of the mission period (2 of which are in the book):


SPAIN (until Mexican independence in 1821)


Empire of Mexico 1821-1823


Republic of Mexico 1823-1864 and 1867-1893

MAPS OF THE MISSION LOCATIONS IN TODAY'S 3 STATES of CALIFORNIA. The numbers are the mission numbers based on the year founded. The location is of the final location if a moved mission, with the exceptions of #7 (La Paz) and #9 (Dolores) in which case the original site is shown. La Paz moved to #13, Santa Rosa at Todos Santos and Dolores moved to La Pasion, much closer to San Luis Gonzaga (#14).

In the book, the maps are cropped more and not in color...







In the book, a page faces each map with the mission's name next to the number.

I hope you enjoyed this look and I invite you to go to our web page and order the second edition: http://oldmissions.com (PayPal/ Credit Card/ or a check to our P.O. Box options).



Thank you very much!
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