California Missions Museum at Cline Winery.

 

Yesterday a group of docents and staff from Sonoma State Historic Park were treated to a tour of the California Missions Museum.  The museum houses 21 scale models of the California missions which were created for the 1939 California Pacific Exhibition. There are also paintings of the missions as well as stained glass panels that were previously housed in Mission Dolores. 

The museum literally sits on holy ground.  

Father Altimira had sanctified the location for the building of his new mission... a mission that had not been approved by the church... but decided to move the building location 6 miles away when he came back with the construction materials and found the location occupied by a Miwok village. 

Altimira's brutal mistreatment of the indigenous population lead to an attack on the mission in 1826, causing Altimira to flee to San Rafael then back to Spain. 

The site is part of the mission lands which fell to Guadalupe Vallejo during secularization, and butts up against Sonoma Creek, making it the western most boundary of the land the US government recognized as being his property during the survey of California, which resulted in the fixing of the boundaries of Rancho Petaluma in 1860.

I should not have been surprised that his name came up on the plaques during the tour. I will, at some future time, need to look into "The General Vallejo Memorial Association"

One of the first things we saw was a lovely little chapel.  It was made with bricks from the Swiss Hotel, which was was constructed by Salvador Vallejo adjoining his first Sonoma home, built in 1836. 

The roof was made of the original wood shingle materials common to the missions before they were replaced by clay tiles, made necessary because in 1776 the Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa was burned down when a flaming arrow was fired into the roof of the building, a response to the mistreatment of the indigenous population by the church.

The site of the little chapel is adjacent to what was once a hot spring, but two subsequent earthquakes have shifted the tectonic plates sufficient to deny the spring its heat source.

Outside the museum proper is a small mission farm setting, complete with two miniature donkeys, which were well remembered by those among us who had visited the museum in the past, a garden which at one time held two pheasants as well as seasonal crops, a mission bell, and a (faux) mausoleum. 

The museum had a more modern look than the other buildings, although it still incorporated some of the shapes in structure and woodwork of the buildings of the time.

Inside the mission, one wall holds the stained glass from Mission Delores, and the displays of the mission run around the outside of the room.

The detail on each of the models was amazing. They are, in themselves, a piece of history. 

The California Mission Museum is shortly reopening to the public and for school groups.  There is even a "mission scavenger hunt" that students can complete as they learn about the California Missions.

Check their website at http://californiamissionsmuseum.com/  for more details, and a more complete history of this fascinating museum.