Chapel of Santa Ysabel (Site of)

Neophyte was the mission's word for a baptized Indian, and the bronze still uses it for the 450 Payómkawichum and Kumeyaay who lived here by 1822. What the plaque leaves out is what the place is known for. Two bells hung outside, bought from Loreto in 1846 for six burro loads of grain and cast in 1723 and 1767, the oldest in Alta California. They vanished one summer night in 1926. The clappers turned up the next day and came back in 1959. The bells never did.

What the plaque says

Santa Ysabel Asistencia Site Father Fernando Martin celebrated the first mass on Sept. 20, 1818 at a site nearby, an outpost of Mission San Diego. By 1822 Santa Ysabel had a chapel, cemetery, granary, many houses, and 450 neophytes. After secularization in the 1830's, priestly visits were rare. Tradition asserts that services have been held here since 1818, under ramadas erected against one wall after the roof caved in. The present chapel was built in 1924. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 369 Originally registered April 3, 1940. Plaque placed by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego, Santa Ysabel Tribal Council, and Squibob Chapter, E Clampus Vitus, September 26, 1987.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Borrego Springs — 20 mi
  A dark-sky town ringed by state park, with 130 metal beasts loose in the desert around it.
• Anza-Borrego Desert State Park — 22 mi
  Six hundred thousand acres of badlands, slot canyons, and palm oases, and the biggest state park in California.

More markers nearby

• Warner's Ranch — 7.7 mi
• San Felipe Valley and Stage Station — 11 mi
• Pedro Fages Trail — 12 mi
• Box Canyon — 16 mi