200 years at Sonoma’s mission

Sonoma’s Mission San Francisco Solano will commemorate its 200th anniversary this year, a milestone that will be marked in myriad ways.

Kicking the year off, the California Missions Foundation, the only organization dedicated to the long-term preservation and restoration of California’s missions, will feature the Sonoma site at its annual conference this weekend.

On the afternoon of Friday, Feb. 17, presentations focused on the preservation of the California Missions and related historic sites, and include case studies, panels and discussions. Saturday, Feb. 18 will take a look at the history of food and wine along the mission trail. Peter Meyerhof, a Sonoma historian, will present the lecture, “Attempts to Build a Mission North of Sonoma after 1832.”

Other presenters at the conference will include noted archaeologist Glenn Farris; Vincent Medina, who will discuss the cuisine and wine of the mission trail; and Michael Imwalle, associate executive director of cultural resources at Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation.

Registration for the virtual event can be accessed on the foundation’s website at californiamissionsfoundation.org. Tickets cost $65 for foundation members, $85 for nonmembers and $35 for students and docents.

In addition, the City of Sonoma is planning its own recognition for the historic milestone, details of which have not yet be released.

Officials with California Missions Foundation will also come to Sonoma on Oct. 21 for an on-site visit to the historical property, which will include tours, stories and discussions by experts.

Mission San Francisco Solano is one of 21 missions that comprise California's Historic Mission Trail. They are all located on or near Highway 101 and the path roughly traces El Camino Real, which was named for the Spanish monarchy that originally financed California’s missions.

Local schools once taught the history of the mission in a Eurocentric fashion that left out key pieces of the story. A more complete picture includes military and church expeditions to enslave Indigenous people and force them into a lifestyle that did not include their cultural beliefs, language or diet.

In 1769 there were approximately 340,000 Indigenous people in California, according to the Handbook of North American Indian, and when the Mission era ended around 1833, about 100,000 of them had died. About 900 Native American people, including hundreds of children, were buried around the Sonoma mission, according to records. Their names were memorialized on a plaque on First Street East in 1999.

The California Missions Foundation is working with California scholars, leaders and cultural experts to develop its website into a more robust source of historical information. The site aims to connect visitors to contemporary Indigenous California communities. Sonoma Valley lies in the lands of the Coast Miwok, Pomo and Wappo tribes.

Contact the reporter Rebecca Wolff at rebecca.wolff@sonomanews.com. Reporting from the Press Democrat was used in this story.