San Deigo Historic Site 369 SANTA YSABEL MISSION SITE

Slightly over a mile north of the town of Santa Ysabel, on State Highway 79, is the site of the chapel of the Santa Ysabel Asistencia of the San Diego Mission, established in 1818 by Father Fernando Martin. A brush hut thrown up in that year as a temporary chapel was replaced a few years later by a substantial adobe building.

For years after the rest of the church had disappeared one of the mud wallsremained and, in spring, was used to form one end of an improvised chapel ofbrush and reeds, where mass was said for the Indians. The mission bells, said to be the oldest in California, hung the year round on a wooden frame of logs, to call the faithful to worship at that one time. The bells have since been stolen.

At Santa Ysabel Kearny's command stopped the night before going into action at San Pasquale The church, then owned by an English rancher, gave the soldiers shelter from the rain. Some say that wine they were served here contributed to their defeat.

There are many tales of buried treasure at Santa Ysabel, partly because of confusion with the mythical Mission Santa Ysabel of Lower California, wherethe Jesuits were supposed to have secreted a fabulous treasure. There are also stories of a cache left here by a miser.The present chapel stands just to the south of the historic site.