Mission San Francisco de los Julimes

When Fray Joseph de Arraneguí arrived on May 31, 1715, to found missions, he found La Junta changed since Spain's earlier visits. Through contact with settlers in Nueva Vizcaya, many people here wore European-style clothing, grew wheat, practiced a form of Christianity and spoke Spanish. His party built six missions. They were small and underfunded, their priests came and went, yet until secularization they made some headway. The missionary presence did little to stop Apache raids, which by then reached deep into Spanish territory.

What the plaque says

Mission San Francisco de los Julimes One of nine Missions established in the Big Bend country by Father Fray Nicolas Lopez, O.F.M., and Don Juan Dominguez de Mendoza in 1683-1684. Maintained by Franciscan missionaries for the civilizing and Christianizing of the Jumano, Julimes and other Indians of this area. (1936)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Leaton State Historic Site — 13 mi
  The adobe trading post on the Rio Grande below Presidio, where digging has rewritten the stories told about it and a self-guided walk leads through its rebuilt rooms.

More markers nearby

• Native Peoples of La Junta de los Rios — 7.1 mi
• Captain Henry Skillman, C.S.A. — 10 mi
• Mission del Apostol Santiago — 13 mi
• Presidio del Norte — 13 mi