By Charissa Plattner

Did you know it took 9 years to build Mission San Buenaventura?  Father Junipero Serra founded it on Easter Sunday, March 31, 1782 when he raised a cross and celebrated Mass on the beach of the Santa Barbara Channel.  It was the ninth and last mission founded by Father Serra. 

         He dedicated this mission to Saint Bonaventure, a Franciscan Mystic and Doctor of the Catholic Church.

         Father Serra made the bells out of wood, because there was no more iron.  The walls of the mission compound were 6-1/2 feet thick!!  It originally was going to be the third mission built, but it was postponed twelve years.

         The Chumash Indians who lived nearby were friendly and loved living near the mission.  They were master boat builders.  The women were known for their basket making.  By 1816, 1,328 Indians were living inside the mission compound in cone-shaped homes made of tule grass.

The hard-working Indians built an aqueduct made of clay pipes that was seven miles long.  This brought water from the Ventura River to the mission. The orchards and gardens grew and made the mission famous for its' exotic fruits, herbs, vegetables, bananas, sugar cane, figs, and coconuts.  Lots of farm animals grazed in their land!  Mission San Buenaventura was known for its crops of wheat, corn, vineyards, and raising cattle or sheep.

The nick name for this mission was “Mission by the sea,” and like other missions, it was by the sea. 

When the first church burned down, a larger stone church was built over it.  Then the earthquake of 1812 severely damaged it, but it was quickly reinforced.

         Today the mission is a museum displaying many interesting missionary relics, like two unusual wooden bells, ancient one-horse olive crusher to make oil, and the art work of the Chumash Indians that were painted all over the church walls and altars.

         This mission is located halfway between San Diego and Carmel, at San Buenaventura Mission, 211 East Main Street, Ventura, CA 93001-2622.

         That’s all I can tell you now.  I hope you learned a lot!! !! !!