Anyone who’s ever passed through the major cities and towns of California has probably passed by one of its 21 iconic Spanish missions, all of which have been restored and preserved over the years. These sites represent some of the oldest structures from California’s storied history that remain, and today they still feature prominently in travel literature for their respective cities.

These historical churches and dwellings are not without their share of controversy, and many of them are riddled with dark stories of their past.

Where I live on the California Central Coast, there are at least seven such missions that make for quick pit stops or day trips – and your mileage may vary, both on distance and on interest in their backgrounds.

Take, for instance, the La Purisima Mission in Lompoc, a place commonly associated with ghost sightings. Apparently, in 1824, there was an uprising by the Chumash people that culminated in a bloody battle at the mission between the Native Americans and the Mexican soldiers. Today, visitor reports range from “cold spots in random places to hearing “death chants” in early morning hours and even a well-made bed in one of the locked exhibit rooms that often becomes rumpled overnight.

These ambiguous claims are difficult to corroborate despite the fact that they often lead ghost hunters to the scene to investigate. But there’s still one curious aspect of these reports. Back in the 1940s, the mission was restored by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Apparently, while a group of workers were pulling up a section of old Spanish tile flooring inside the church, they found four or five small skeletons of children or infants. As it turns out, this is supposedly the very same area that visitors frequently report cold spots.

Ghost stories aside, if we continued north along the 101 freeway, we’d eventually pass by the tiny town of San Miguel. Most people zip on by, hardly even noticing the exit signs. But what’s unique about this little village in rural California is the dominating presence of Mission San Miguel, located at the south end of a scant stretch of residences and business that occupy the town of 2,000 or so residents.

While I’ve always found this mission to be one of the more aesthetically interesting ones, it also holds one of the arguably darkest chapters in the history of the California mission system – and very likely its most alluring unsolved mystery.…

On a cold December night in 1848, a group of bandits brutally slaughtered all of the inhabitants of the mission. Their objective: to find a secret gold hoard hidden somewhere on the mission grounds. They left empty handed.

It’s a story that I’ll continue in my next post, and one that I’ve taken a lot of time to research. I think that once you read about it, you’ll share some of my interest and curiosity about just what happened at Mission San Miguel in the closing days of 1848.