Mission Nuestra Senora de la Soledad, CA

Mission Nuestra Senora de la Soledad, CA
We decided to take a ride through the hills and valleys to visit this Mission. This took us through an area which is used for grazing cattle. There were large herds of cattle which makes you realize that, where we are in CA, is a large producer of beef. When you were in the flat land, the farming was obvious. There were miles and miles of fields planted and others being prepared to be planted. The harvesting of ice berg lettuce and romaine were being done and we were familiar with looking at this as we had seen the same thing being done in Yuma, AZ. The wildflowers were in bloom for us all along the way. Sue is keeping track of the many Catholic Missions that we have visited in CA and this one is being added to her list.
This Mission was a small Mission, considered to be in a rural area, when it was established in 1791, even though there were over 2,000 baptisms and 736 marriages performed here.
As with many of the Missions, it fell into ruins during the secular period. In 1954 the Native Daughters of the Golden West and a local group began rebuilding the Mission. This Mission does not have an active parish and Mass is only celebrated once a month at this Mission. The rose bushes around the Mission were beautiful and are cared for by a lady in her 90’s.