Misión Santa Inés

Founded in 1804, the Santa Inés Mission was a church complex designed to convert the local native communities to Catholicism and teach them Spanish ways of living and working. By the time of its establishment, there were already eighteen other missions in California alone, in addition to the dozens of others throughout the modern-day US Southwest. Franciscan friars ran these complexes with the permission of the Spanish Crown. Except for some military outposts, these territories remained largely unpopulated by European communities. They were also frontier zones, near regions claimed by other (such as British, French, and indigenous) powers. In addition to the sanctuary, the complex featured residences, workshops, and an aqueduct. This source is part of the Historic Churches in the Southwestern US Source Collection.