Mission Santo Tomás de Aquino ( es, Misión Santo Tomás de Aquino) was founded in what is now

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

on April 24, 1791 by the Dominican missionary José Loriente, with the authorization of the president of the missions, Juan Crisóstomo Gómez. It was named for Saint

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known wit ...

. The mission was established in the territory of the Kumeyaay, on the mountainside of the San Solano hills in northwestern

, Mexico. It bridged the 120-kilometer gap between the previously founded missions of San Vicente and San Miguel. The mission was relocated twice, in around 1794 and in 1799. Historians are uncertain concerning the locations of the first two mission sites. The third and final location was at the modern town of Santo Tomás. The population was over 250 individuals in 1800, and it reached its peak of 400 in 1824. The mission was secularized in 1833, but a priest continued to serve the neophytes until 1849. In that year, the native population had fallen to 40, and the mission was abandoned to the military, who used it as a fort and capital for southern California. Deteriorating ruins survive at the site.

Location and natural habitat

The mission was built in a large valley crossed by two or three little springs in the town that today bears the name of the former mission. Among the flora that the missionaries found were

mezcal Mezcal (, ), sometimes spelled mescal, is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from any type of agave. The word ''mezcal'' comes from Nahuatl , which means "oven-cooked agave", from and .What is MezcalElmezcal.org Traditionally the word " ...

, chamizo,

alder Alders are trees comprising the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus comprises about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few sp ...

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist so ...

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

, poplar, and

elderberry ''Sambucus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Adoxaceae. The various species are commonly called elder or elderberry. The genus was formerly placed in the honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceae, but was reclassified as Adoxaceae due to ge ...

. Agricultural crops included

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

, olives,

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus '' Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years a ...

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley p ...

, beans, and other vegetables, all of which were cultivated using irrigation. It is estimated that the mission had around 80-178 hectares of farm land.

Mission Compound

A full reconstruction of the final mission site is nearly impossible, because the foundations have been destroyed by constant plowing through the years. However, it is possible to form a mental picture of the evolving mission infrastructure with the aid of reports from contemporary priests. Presumably at the second mission site, Miguel López reported in 1795 that some 70 ''varas'' (60 m) had been laid down as foundation for the construction of the mission. One year later López and José Loriente reported the construction of a residence with a grand hall, three rooms, common spaces, a dispensary, and separate residences for single men and women. In 1797 another report refers to the existence of a small corral for smaller livestock.

Commerce

The mission's proximity to the coast allowed it to take part in maritime commerce that exploited the nearby Bocana de Santo Tomás and Bahía de Todos Santos at Ensenada, Baja California, Ensenada. Accounts such as those by William Shaler and John Locke, going as far back as 1795, mention trading with the Santo Tomás missionaries. Sea otter fur was a popular trade item on the shores under the jurisdiction of Santo Tomás. In 1809, the Boston vessel ''Dromio'' acquired 1,700 furs in the course of a 34-day period in the bay of Ensenada. It is worth mentioning that most of the commerce near San Tomás was illegal because of the Spanish Crown's restrictions against trading with vessels under foreign flags. Beginning in the late 1790s, grapes were grown for winemaking. Santo Tomás is home today to several Baja winemakers and is one of the three principal grape growing and wine making regions in Baja California.

List of resident padres

Missionaries who directed Mission Santo Tomás during its formative years included: * 1791 – 1797 Josef Loriente * 1798 – 1803 Miguel López * 1803 – 1803 Eudaldo Surroca

References

* Meigs, Peveril, III. 1935. ''The Dominican Mission Frontier of Lower California''. University of California Publications in Geography No. 7. Berkeley. * Vernon, Edward W. 2002. ''Las Misiones Antiguas: The Spanish Missions of Baja California, 1683-1855''. Viejo Press, Santa Barbara, California.

External links