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This site is owned, designed, and operated by Kenneth A. Larson who has over a quarter century of experience in design and construction of scenery for the Entertainment Industry and Theme Parks using Computer Aided and Traditional approaches to Design. Ken also has experience in other areas of Design.
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Select photographs of my many visits to The Missions of the United States South and Southwest built by Spain and Mexico between 1565 and 1823. All photographs taken by Kenneth A. Larson. All rights reserved. © 2008 - 2013. |
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Founded
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Personal ObservationsI was unable to find the exact location. There is a marker along the Old Road, on the west side across from a gas station, north of Rye Canyon. |
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Estancia de San Francisco Xavier, founded on Dec. 3, 1804. A former Rancho to Mission San Fernando... Estancia de San Francisco Xavier began as a ranching out-station, and probably a religious outpost, of Mission San Fernando. It may have been upgraded to an asistencia, but this is disputed. Father Pedro Muñoz and Father José de Miguél were probably the founders. Portolá had considered the confluence of Castaic Creek and the Santa Clara River to be a "very suitable site" for Father Junípero Serra to establish a mission, but this was never realized. Later, as Mission San Fernando's herds grew, the mission needed more land. Only a few years after the founding of Mission San Fernando, the Santa Clara River Valley was seen as an ideal location for a mission rancho, or estancia. Early in 1804, the padres at Mission San Fernando learned that Francisco Avila had claimed several thousand acres east of Piru Creek along the banks of the Rio Santa Clara, land owned by the Mission. The padres protested to Governor José Arrillaga at Monterey that these lands belonged to the church. After due study, Governor Arrillaga acknowledged the mission's title and rescinded Avila's grant. The fathers decided to establish a presence in the Santa Clara River Valley to protect their interests. The Estancia was built with Tataviam labor in 1804 on the site proposed by Portolá and Crespí. According to church historian Zephyrin Engelhart, "At the Rancho de San Francisco Xavier, or Chaguayabit, a building was erected to provide for a granary and other necessary rooms." It also included a kiln, granary and tiled sacristy. The Estancia was named for St. Francis (San Francisco) Xavier, the patron of foreign missions and "Apostle of the Indies," who lived from 1506 to 1552. The feast day of St. Francis Xavier was December 3. The first building built was 105 feet long and seventeen feet wide. It had dirt floors and thirty-four-inch-thick, whitewashed adobe walls. Later a second structure was built, 107 feet long and almost twenty-three feet across. This building had five rooms, the largest featuring a burnt-tile floor and altar. This second structure was erected to the north of the original building, at the edge of a precipice that dropped off to the valley floor below. Two adobe walls with gates ran between the two long buildings at either end forming an enclosed courtyard. Overall the front facade was sixty feet long. Records are not clear as to when the Estancia was upgraded to an asistencia if it ever was. It has been argued that it remained an estancia. Another adobe structure known as the "Old Milk House" was built about the time of the upgrade. To prevent cattle from wandering away, a bar was placed across present-day Newhall Pass and a sturdy fence was erected along Piru Creek in 1813. A dam rose up in Piru Canyon, and irrigation ditches brought water to crops in the western, or Camulos, section of the rancho. During October, 1821, about 3,000 pounds of corn was shipped to Santa Barbara from the asistencia. Following Mexican independance in 1833, the Mexican government confiscated all mission holdings. The next year, Mexican Lieutenant Antonio del Valle was assigned to inventory the property of Mission San Fernando. The land was supposed to revert to the indians, but Don Antonio appealed to his friend Juan B. Alvarado, governor of California, for the deed to the former asistencia. Alvarado granted the 48,000-acre rancho to Antonio, then 46, in January, 1839. Don Antonio died two years later and in 1845 the rancho passed to his son, Ignacio, who was mayor of Los Angeles until the war with the United States. By 1849, the former asistencia had become headquarters of the Del Valles' Rancho San Francisco. The Del Valles sold most of the rancho in the 1860s, retiring to their hacienda at Camulos, at the western fringe of the rancho. The property passed through a succession of owners until being renamed "Newhall Ranch." Today, little more than memories remain of the Asistencia. The last vestiges of Asistencia de San Francisco Xavier were razed in 1937, after vandals broke up the tiled floors and adobe walls in search of fabled mission treasure. Archaeologists working with the Newhall Ranch development from 1993 to 1995 uncovered roof and floor tiles, hand-blown glass, hand-crafted nails and pottery dating from 1750 to 1840. The asistencia site remains undeveloped and the Newhall Ranch Company plans to deed the site to a nationally-renowned non-profit organization that will preserve and manage it on an ongoing basis. Location: Castaic Junction Sources for most of the material on this asistencia are various articles published in : ©1998, THE SIGNAL · ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, Santa Clarita's local newspaper. Also: Leon Worden - August 28, 1996 - ©1996, THE SIGNAL -- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Can anyone provide me with better directions to this site? I'd like to photograph the site for this web site. |
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 Looking south from across the river. |
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| The marker is on the west side of the Old Road, about a half mile north of the site. | |
 Some where around here. |
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| Note:This is not the official site for any of the places shown in US Mission Trail. US Mission Trail is not responsible for accuracy of the information. Hours of operations, prices, and exhibits are subject to change without notice. |
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Support this Web Site I hope that you find this web site helpful. It started because of my love for the California Missions and interest in History and a desire to share my photographs and tales of my adventures. I don't allow paid advertising. This web site is for your benefit and enjoyment and I make no profit on it. For twenty years it has been supported primarily from my regular paycheck as a Set Designer. A non-tax deductable donation helps cover the cost of operating this web site and may be made to Kesign Design Consulting through PayPal. | ||
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