Santa Gertrudis Asistencia facts for kids
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Santa Gertrudis Asistencia Monument, April 2018
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| Location | Approximately five miles north of Mission San Buenaventura on the Camino Real |
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| Coordinates | 34°20′51″N 119°17′49.5″W / 34.34750°N 119.297083°W |
| Patron | Gertrude the Great |
| Native tribe(s) Spanish name(s) |
Chumash |
The Santa Gertrudis Asistencia, also called the Santa Gertrudis Chapel, was like a small branch of the main Mission San Buenaventura. It was part of the many Spanish missions built in Alta California, which is now part of the state of California.
This chapel was built sometime between 1792 and 1809. It was located about five miles from the main mission, further inland along the Ventura River. Sadly, the original site was covered up in 1968 when a highway, California State Route 33, was built. Before the highway was constructed, experts called archaeologists dug up and studied the area. Some of the original foundation stones were saved and used to create the Santa Gertrudis Asistencia Monument. This monument was named a historic landmark for Ventura County in 1970.
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History of Santa Gertrudis Chapel
The Santa Gertrudis Asistencia was set up as a "sub-mission" for the Mission San Buenaventura. Its purpose was to serve the Chumash people who lived in the Ventura River valley. This area was important for farming. We don't know the exact date it was built, but historians believe it was between 1792 and 1809. This was when the second church was being built at the main mission. The chapel was named after Gertrude the Great, a religious figure from the 1200s.
Location Along El Camino Real
The chapel was built along El Camino Real, an old trail that connected all the Spanish missions in California. This trail turned north from Mission San Buenaventura, following the Ventura River. The Santa Gertrudis site was about 5.1 miles north of the river's mouth. It was also about 220 feet from the river's east bank. Some stories say it was near a large sycamore tree that the Chumash people used for their special ceremonies.
In 1926, a writer named Sol N. Sheridan described the spot:
- "The spot had always been a sacred one to the Indians."
- "There at the point where the Casitas Pass road branches from the road to Ojai, stood their own sacred tree."
- "It was a great sycamore under whose wide-spread boughs they had always assembled to worship their primeval god."
- "Amongst whose leaves, even down to modern times, they used to hang their offerings of gay feathers and bright cloth and the skins of animals."
Temporary Mission Relocations
During four difficult times at the Mission San Buenaventura, the mission priests, called padres, might have moved temporarily to the Santa Gertrudis Asistencia.
The first possible move happened after a fire in the 1790s. This fire destroyed the first mission church. Some accounts say that a "temporary mission -- the little Mission Santa Gertrudis -- was erected and used for religious services until 1809." This was when the second church at Ventura was finally finished.
The second move was after a big earthquake in 1812, known as the 1812 San Juan Capistrano earthquake. The padres moved inland and stayed for several months while the main mission was fixed. During this time, they built adobe buildings and huts. However, one historian thinks that a letter from 1813 suggests the 1812 move was to a different spot, closer to the main mission.
The third move happened in December 1818. This was because of a threat from pirates led by Hippolyte Bouchard. The padres moved inland with the mission's animals and valuable items. It's not completely clear if Santa Gertrudis was their safe place. But historian E. M. Sheridan wrote that "Miguel was put in charge of the advance guard of Indians to head northward and make arrangements for the reception at Casitas, at the Chapel of Santa Gertrudis." This chapel was thought to be far enough away to be a safe place until the pirates left.
The fourth move followed another earthquake in 1857, the 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake. Two historical records suggest that the padres moved to Santa Gertrudis after this earthquake.
By the mid-1880s, the remains of the chapel were plowed over. The owner, Salmon R. Weldon, started farming the land.
Archaeological Dig at Santa Gertrudis
In the 1960s, the state of California planned to build California State Route 33 right over the area where the Santa Gertrudis Asistencia was believed to be. Before building the highway, the California Department of Highways worked with the California Department of Parks and Recreation. They decided to do an emergency archaeological dig. Archaeologists Roberta S. Greenwood and R. O. Browne led this project. The fieldwork took place between March 8 and April 29, 1966. They had tried digging before in 1964 but didn't find anything.
Discovering the Chapel's Foundation
During the 1966 dig, they found the exact spot of the chapel. They used an old map from 1853 of Rancho Cañada Larga o Verde. This map was found at the Bancroft Library in Berkeley, California. The excavation uncovered the foundation of a building that was about 15.5 meters (about 51 feet) long and 11.25 meters (about 37 feet) wide. It was built facing the Camino Real. The foundation was made from large sandstone boulders. These stones were likely carried from the nearby Ventura River and placed in trenches.
The building had four rooms arranged in a U-shape around a sheltered courtyard. Based on its size and location, and what seemed to be the main entrance, Greenwood and Browne believed that Room 4, the largest room, was used for worship.
Building Materials and Missing Pieces
No parts of the walls were found standing. However, an adobe brick was discovered at the site. This led Greenwood and Browne to believe that the walls were built with adobe bricks made right there.
They also didn't find any complete roof tiles. They thought that a person named Emigdio Ortega might have taken the tiles. He might have used them for building the Ortega Adobe in 1857. Ortega reportedly bought roof tiles from the mission padres after the 1857 earthquake. When they compared 57 broken roof tiles from Santa Gertrudis with tiles at the Ortega Adobe, they looked "identical." This suggested the tiles were indeed taken. The archaeologists also noted that if the roof tiles were removed, the adobe walls would have quickly fallen apart.
Greenwood and Browne also wondered if some floor tiles from the chapel might have been taken. They found 35 tiles at the Rocky Mountain Drilling Company, which was close by. These tiles looked similar to fragments found at the chapel site.
They also found the remains of two ovens or kilns behind the building.
After the archaeological findings, many people wanted the chapel to be moved and rebuilt. However, no plan was approved before the highway was built. So, in January 1968, the chapel's remains were moved out of the highway's path. They were buried in a pit about 160 meters (about 525 feet) southeast of where the building originally stood.
Santa Gertrudis Asistencia Monument
In 1968, some of the chapel's foundation stones were moved to create the Santa Gertrudis Asistencia Monument. It is located about 500 feet south of the chapel's original spot. You can find it on the east side of North Ventura Avenue. It's about three-tenths of a mile north of the Ventura Avenue Water Purification Plant. This monument was named Ventura County Historic Landmark No. 11 in December 1970.
During the big Thomas Fire in December 2017, trees next to the monument burned. But the monument itself, being made of stone, was not damaged.
See also
Images for kids
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Excavation of the Santa Gertrudis site by Greenwood and Browne, 1966
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Memorial with trees burned, April 2018
