On October 17th 1769 the Portola expedition arrived at the San Lorenzo River and put a cross on what is known as Mission Hill. Incoming ships would see the cross then galleons would dock in today's present Santa Cruz. In 1769 many of Portola's men died up near San Gregorio near Purrisma which today is a ghost town but the explorers camped here and first laid eyes on the regions redwood forest. The men had died of dysentery from drinking dirty water but that did not stop them from finding the baby and finding the city of the Holy Cross which is present day Santa Cruz. When the explorers anchored there galleons they did so right along the coastline which led to over twenty missions similar to the one you will see on this addition on our site.

About twenty years later Fathers Alonzo, Salazar and Lopez arrived pitching tents on the hill where the current church stands. Really they just made it to the San Lorenzo River then cut up the hill where they would make this site the place of their mission church laying the cornerstone on February 27, 1793 and by May of 1794 it would be dedicated to serving all those in the region including Native Americans. The mission was built with adobe brick which is composed of clay when wet gets very sticky then mix it with minerals and quartz. When they mixed it well they would shape it into bricks then letting it sundry for a couple weeks till it was hard. I believe they also added straw into the mixture to help keep it all together. The windows, doors, frames, benches etc were wood cut from the redwood forest nearby maybe even some of the trees that grew around Santa Cruz. 

The problem is that adobe once wet begans to deteriorate a little especially when the first mission was washed away in a flood. Missions were often rebuilt swiftly the second one had a bell tower and the bells could be heard from everywhere below Mission Hill. The bell tower did end up falling over during the 1840 earthquake. I cant even begin to imagine the chaos that ensued when the mission begin to collapse. Many of the buildings on site were damaged then another earthquake occurred in 1857 and everything was in ruins. This was a gorgeous place it had gardens, graveyard, dormitory buildings, school and housing for the priest. By 1858 a third mission would be built just a year later while it was not as beautiful it was made out of wood and many of the Catholics in Santa Cruz attended service here for 30 years. 

By 1889 a new church was built this is the current one you see in the photos on our site and it still stands today despite numerous damage from earthquakes. It is the church the Holy Cross Parish uses in Santa Cruz for their Catholic headquarters and its design is Gothic. When the second mission was dismantled some things were brought into the Holy Cross Church but not everything. The beautiful Santos were taken to the Mission at Carmel while the nine majestic bells were sent to a Mission in San Francisco which today are still in use. Missions were become obsolete around 1834 and on along the Pacific Coast this may have been because the lands were not being secularized by the Mexican Government. While most missions came to an end or were destroyed in earthquakes the Mission would be built a third time only this time it would be a replica based on what a French Artist named Leon Trousset painted while he traveled through Santa Cruz in the 1850's and you can see still that painting in the Misión Galería Gift Shop.

A lady named Gladys Sullivan Doyle lived in Santa Cruz for many years and had an uncle who was a US Senator. Mrs Doyle wanted to see the mission rebuilt so she decided to make a very rich donation to the parish. As a matter in fact she paid for the entire cost for it to be rebuilt and in 1931 a copy of the old Mission was built which is a replica that is only half of the size of the original Mission. The architects and builders spent time combing through old books and pictures. They tired to make the Mission as close as to the original built here on the hill. When Gladys Sullivan Doyle passed away she was buried at the new Mission. Unfortunately they were locking up so I did not get to spend as much time as I wanted to exploring the Mission grounds and inside. But if you pay attention you will see the beams are made with redwood while the roof has clay tiles. When you walk on inside even just standing in front of the Mission you tend to feel like as if you stepped back into time it really is a magnificent site to see. 

When the Spanish had arrived on the coastline there were thousands of Native Americans and many villages they came across along their travels. As many as 40 different tribes lived between San Francisco and Santa Cruz. The Spaniards called them Costenos or Costoans which means Coastal Dwellers. Their were two tribes that did most of the work at the mission calling themselves the Ohlone and the Zayane. Sadly almost the entire tribe was wiped out because the Spanish had brought disease with them and the Natives did not develop an immunity to such sicknesses. 

These were not violent tribes as a matter in fact they would fish or gather shellfish as a food source. They ate clams, mussels, oysters, abalone and fish. Sometimes they would fish upstream in the rivers and creeks in search of trout, sturgeons and trout. They could go up to the Henry Cowell Redwood Forest if they felt like hunting antelopes, rabbits, bears, moles or deer. They would hunt for ducks, doves and quails but probably also seabirds also. The only birds they would not kill were eagles, owls and ravens because they were sacred and perhaps frogs. They thrived off the land and they prospered until the Spanish arrived which led to their demise.

The local natives also collected blackberries that grew wildly in the region along with gooseberries, madrone and elderberries. They also ate acorns they harvested in the woods. They would make flour with the acorns soaking them in water to draw out the toxic tannin often found in them. But once they had pure flour for baking they could make cookies or even soups. They would make arrow heads and knives from obsidian found along the coast. Sometimes turning beautiful shells into jewelry like pendants and earrings or even attaching them to there belts for example. Cloaks and head dresses were made out of feathers from birds. 

The last of the Zayante people was a woman who lived many years near Zayante Creek in the mountains just behind Santa Cruz. She is buried somewhere in Henry Cowell Park but nobody knows where. But can you imagine being the last of your tribe how lonely yet painful that must had been. Lets face it the Natives were not treated fairly when the Spanish arrived they were forced to convert to Catholicism, disease wiped out there tribe and plagues. In a sense they were not treated nice either because the Spanish seen the tribes as a labor force to build there missions. While many natives lived on the grounds on Mission Hill most of them were not very happy. As a matter in fact the entire hillside is littered with unmarked burials because some came to the Mission only to die here.

While the Holy Cross Church is not the oldest site found on Mission Hill behind it is an old stone wall. The Spanish would make a cement often called mortar piecing together rocks. When they put a layer of mortar down they would then put a layer of rock till a walk was formed. The oldest wall or remnants of any structure can be found at this site. But really the wall is all that remains of the original parish and today is behind fencing to protect it. Nobody even knows what the wall was for but between both of the walls is a series of gravestones so I assume when this building had collapsed instead they used this area as a small cemetery perhaps for priest or other parish members. 

The Padres of the mission were farmers when they were not teaching the bible. They would harvest barley, corn, peas, beans and wheat. But they also were ranchers and when they came to this hill to begin the mission they only had 33 cattle. But by 1814 they had 3,300 cattle, 3,500 sheep, 600 horses, 25 mules and 46 hogs. When they were not farming they were cutting down trees sending out lumber to the other missions. Just remember that when the Spanish came to Santa Cruz most of the forest in the region were redwoods which provided much of the needed lumber to construct stables and other missions in the area. They could cut down a redwood tree cut it into boards then export it via wagon up the coastline. 

The Padres did not do it all alone they had quite a few Native American People living at the Mission who went to work daily. One of the oldest buildings still standing today was a dorm it was closed when we arrived. But life was simple the natives would get out of bed at sun rise attend church to pray then eat breakfast working till noon then go to church again right before an afternoon nap called a siesta. They would then wake up do some more work till dusk when the bells would ring calling them home. They would pray a third time then eat dinner and go to bed only to do it all over again the next day. Religion was a part of the natives lives daily only because the Padres wanted to educate others Christianity and baptize them. During the 23 years the Padres who lived on site may have baptized as many as 1700 local natives. You can still see the baptismal font they used as the Mission carved out of limestone which contained the holy water. You can see it in a courtyard behind the replica of the Mission something I did not get to see but nearly 2000 natives were baptized on that very font. So one can say that this hill does contain many holy relics worth a gander. 

In addition to the relics in 1862 The Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul opened up the Holy Cross School, boarding and day school as well. This was the first education institution of this parish. When the construction of the church begin in 1889 of the present brick gothic church under Reverend Hugh McNamee it spelled the end of the transition from a Mission to a Parish. In 1891 the local parishioners of Santa Cruz erected a granite archway in front of the church to commemorate the founding of Mission Santa Cruz. Later on new buildings sprung up between the 1920's through the 1960's including a high school and rectory. Then from 1982 till 1984 the church had been renovated for the 1989 upcoming centennial and by 1989 the church was formally consecrated. Sadly in 1989 an earthquake hit the area hard causing cracks and damage to the church. The services were then moved to the Parish Hall which ended up burning down in June of 1990 which then services had to be moved to the school courtyard and eventually a tent pavilion. It took about a decade to make necessary repairs to the church in that time so was the Mission Chapel and Convent on site. The new gym and parish hall that were built were completed in 1999 and a Historic Garden was grown to commemorate the Native Americans who were buried on this hill. 

Burials begin on Mission Hill from around November 1791 through December of 1850 making it one of the oldest cemeteries in Santa Cruz County. Most believe burials continued here until the Old Holy Cross Cemetery in 1873 but there are no burial records for the period between 1851 - 1873. As constructions continued in 1885 many of the mains most unknown were transferred to the Old Holy Cross Cemetery where they were interred into a mass grave. With that being said not all the remains were removed from the Missions Property or this hill and so many folks have no idea that this hill was in fact also a graveyard. Santa Cruz Memorial Cemetery is just below Mission Hill you can physically see the Holy Cross Church from walking its grounds. While the burials found on Mission Hill contains some of the oldest interments from the very first European Explorers in California the second oldest would be Evergreen Cemetery also found nearby both of which we have visited.

The original Mission Cemetery lay to the east of the old missions adobe church and some said it had an irregular shape. It extended east from the front which was southeast corner of the church to a point where it angled to the northeast. At a point about 150 east a wall angled west to the church almost parallel with the front or southern cemetery wall. When the new brick church was built for the site of the old mission church it was substantially wider then the mission church about 25' so it was necessary to excavate the graveyard west of the church. Their was an article in the Daily Surf in 1885 which talked about leveling the cemetery to the grade of the rest of the ground and stated anyone who desired to remove the remains of there loved ones or friends would be given the opportunities. While others who did not claim there loved ones ended up being buried under the new gothic church but only a portion of the cemetery the rest remaining today are found under courtyard gardens.

Also another great feature of Mission Hill is its railroad tunnel and was built to satisfy city businesses desire to keep the freight trains from barreling through the lower Plaza on their way to the wharves. When you went through the dark tunnel you came out right to the local passenger station and where travelers first had gotten a first glimpse of Santa Cruz. The first passenger train that traveled through this tunnel made its way to nearby Felton in 1874. I did not get to see the tunnel because honestly I did not learn about it till after I came home and it may warrant a second trip so I can physically investigate it more first hand. But while the trains were roaring through the tunnel just directly above it was parishioners praying in the Holy Cross Church. 

The entire purpose of this project was not for the paranormal but for the rich cultural history which led to Santa Cruz's development as a major coastal city. As a matter in fact when the mission was built on the hill the Spanish town developed below it and eventually by the mid 1800's people were coming from all over the world to make lives for themselves while in the process of becoming a parishioner of this mission and even taking a baptismal leap of faith. I have no doubt that this parish is haunted their are at least twenty buildings that can be found on the top of the hill all belonging to the Holy Cross Parish which includes the convent, school, mission, church etc. and many other buildings on site. 

Then you must take into an account that this hill is a Native American Burial ground. Some of the last members of the Ohlone and Zayante tribe were buried next to the mission today their graves remain unknown perhaps even forgotten. This parish has experienced over the years an influx of priest, nuns, children, men and women all who have experienced love and loss, life and death, tragedy and success. Where history is found more then often so are the dearly departed. My only wish is that I could have spent more time at the parish Mission Hill is full of secrets but you cannot simply see or learn about them on merely one trip. All the locations we have journeyed at in Santa Cruz never would have existed without the Mission bringing others together where the city of The Holy Cross was born. Where some of the first Europeans landed on the west coast exploring the shores of the Californian Coast where this hill was claimed with a Holy Cross and a dream!

Copyright By
Lord Rick 
PGS Founder
Author, Talk Show Host, Journalist, Paranormal Investigator, Urban Explorer and Producer

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