Santa Ysabel Asistencia
The Santa Ysabel Asistencia was founded on September 20, 1818, at Cañada de Santa Ysabel in the mountains east of San Diego as an asistencia or “sub-mission” to Mission San Diego de Alcalá. It was to have been a link in a second, inland chain of missions in Alta California, serving as a rest stop for those traveling between San Diego and Sonora. The asistencia was a success and enjoyed a high degree of conversion until the secularization period. The asistencia and its land were used and plundered by Rancho Santa Ysabel and fell into ruin. Eventually three acres of the original asistencia compound were returned to the San Diego diocese of the Roman Catholic Church. Father Joseph LaPointe came to work with the Indians in 1903. With their help, he laid the cornerstone of the present church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist (San Juan Bautista), on September 14, 1924.
Santa Ysabel, San Diego County
Photographer: Jim Albert