Mission San Miguel Arcángel

Walk into the church and you are looking at the 1820s. Salinan painters covered these walls to Esteban Munrás's designs, finishing by 1821, and the interior has never been repainted. No other California mission can say that. The bronze gives Lasuén's reason for choosing the site, the great number of Salinan Indians living hereabout, and that is the founder's reason rather than theirs. The argument the plaque does not make is on the walls: the paint is their work, and it is still exactly as they left it.

What the plaque says

Mission San Miguel Arcángel Selecting this site because of the great number of Salinan Indians living hereabout, Fray Fermín Francisco de Lasuén, O. F. M., second president of the California missions, founded San Miguel Arcángel on July 25, 1797. The sixteenth in a chain of twenty-one Franciscan missions, its influence has played not only upon the native population, but upon the history of California as a whole. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 326 Plaque placed by the California State Park Commission in cooperation with the San Luis Obispo County Historical Society and the Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West, Parlors No. 150 and 94, March 26, 1966.

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Rios-Caledonia Adobe — 0.4 mi
• Estrella Adobe Church — 5.4 mi
• Atascadero Administration Building — 18 mi
• Santa Margarita Asistencia (Site of) — 25 mi