San Francisco Solano de Sonoma near San Francisco, CA
The San Francisco Solano de Sonoma is the last and most northernmost Californian mission and is just 20 miles north of San Francisco. It was founded to replace Mission Delores in Spain as the weather was very much damper there and the health of the Indians was not good. Therefore it was felt that the warmer climate further north would be much better. Despite this idea being turned down initially, the increasing Russian population in the area led to the agreement of building the mission in 1823. Building started with a wooden hut covered with white washed mud and later a wooden chapel with leather sides was constructed. The mission did not have a good reputation inicially due to the mistreatment of the Indians there. However, once the management was changed, it soon become a thriving mission with lots of buildings, workshops, orchard, mill and livestock. There were so many activities that it soon became self supporting. In 1834 missions were returned to the people and so it was declared that mission be taken over and the Indians working there should be released but the new owner kept the Indians and built so much more that a town was eventually established but the mission fell into disrepair. Eventually it was almost destroyed by earthquakes but was rebuilt in 1926 as the Sonoma State Historic Park with most of the buildings being restored and they are what stand there today.Archaeological work has been done in the area to find out more about the history and the old buildings as well as the restored ones.
