The San Francisco Solano Mission also known as the Sonoma Mission, was the 21st mission made. It was named in honor of St. Francis Solano, a Franciscan born in Spain in 1549,who spent 20 years as a missionary to the Peruvian people. The Sonoma Misssion was founded on July 4, 1823 by Father Jose Altimira a Franciscan, assigned to mission Dolores of San Francisco. The reason Father Altimira founded the Sonoma Mission was because he wanted to build a Mission further North where the weather was nicer.

The mission's first church was made of wood then whitewashed with mud. It was used for 3 years then was destroyed in 1838. In 1840 a larger church was built of adobe bricks then destroyed. Apparently none of the early churches had any grand distinguishing look. The 1840 church was plain, built only by adobe bricks and decorated around the windows by large wooden beams. This mission only had a bell hanging from a few wooden beams.

On June 14, 1846 Sonoma was taken over by a group of American settlers who declared a "California Republic" and raised the Bear Flag. The Bear Flag hung over the mission until July 9, 1846 when the American flag was raised in Monterey Bay, California.

In the late 1800's the buildings were in very bad shape and were used for a variety of purposes including storage of hay. The 1906 earthquake caused damage to the mission. From 1911-1913 State funding provided the money to rebuild the church to look like it did in the 1840's.

The mission today is now the Sonoma Mission State Historic Park. It has been renovated many time's. I think it is in pretty good shape except for a few cracks.

What stands out in my mind about the Sonoma mission is that it was the last mission made. It has been founded without approval first from the Church and it survived the 1906 earthquake.