Portolá Expedition

The bronze and the state register disagree by two days: the plaque says the expedition reached the junction of the Arroyo Mupu with the river on August 13, 1769, and the register says August 11, the same date it gives for the village at Piru, some fifteen miles upriver. The Mupu the plaque names were the Chumash of a village here, whom the San Buenaventura priests later served at an asistencia they called Santa Paula, the name the town kept. The expedition had named the place for two martyrs.

What the plaque says

On August 13, 1769 Reaching the junction of the Arroyo Mupu with the river, the place was named the Holy Martyrs, Ipolito and Casiano. Upon founding the Mission of San Buenaventura, the priests established here an asistencia and christened it Santa Paula, where they frequently held services for the conversion of the Mupu Indians.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mentryville and Pico Canyon — 25 mi
  A company town in a canyon, and a mile and a half further up the road, the well that started the California oil industry.
• Leonis Adobe — 27 mi
  Miguel Leonis left his estate to relatives in France and called Espíritu Chijulla his housekeeper; she spent sixteen years proving in court that she was his wife.

More markers nearby

• Union Oil Company Building — 0.5 mi
• Sycamore Tree — 3.8 mi
• Olivas Adobe — 13 mi
• San Buenaventura Mission Aqueduct — 14 mi