San Antonio de Pala Asistencia Cross - Pala, CA
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 33° 21.926 W 117° 04.428
11S E 493134 N 3691802
This cross is located in the parking lot for this Catholic Mission... and that parking lot was most likely part of the church yard when the Mission was founded in 1816.
Waymark Code: WMJY3Z
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 01/14/2014
Views: 2
San Antonio de Pala Asistencia was founded to assist Mission San Luis Rey. This simple wooden cross is set atop a rocky base without explanation.
As for the Mission, Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us:
"The San Antonio de Pala Asistencia, or the "Pala Mission", was founded on June 13, 1816 as an asistencia ("sub-mission") to Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, some twenty miles inland upstream from the mission on the San Luis Rey River. It was part of the Spanish missions, asistencias, and estancias system in Las Californias—Alta California. Today it is located in the Pala Indian Reservation located in northern San Diego County, with the official name of Mission San Antonio de Pala. It is the only historic mission facility still serving a Mission Indian tribe.
Pala (a derivation of the native term Pale, meaning water) was essentially a small rancho surrounded by large fields and herds. The Pala site had been noted by Father Juan Mariner and Captain Juan Pablo Grijalva on an exploratory trip in 1795, when they went up the San Diego River, and then through Sycamore Canyon to the Santa Maria Valley (or Pamó Valley) and into what they named El Valle de San José, now known as Warner Springs. Once Mission San Luis Rey began to prosper, its existence attracted the attention of large numbers of mountain Native Americans, called the Luiseño by the Spanish."