This comprehensive reference book contains detailed fact sheets about each of the twenty-one California missions as well as an extensive Foreword and Afterword covering the early history of California from 1769 to 1850. The content includes all essential dates; the official name and special designation; the mission's patron saint; the names of the founding missionaries; the Indian tribes from whom the neophytes were recruited; the mission site(s) including the nearest Indian village; plat maps and historic drawings showing the layout of the mission campus; water sources; peak population; agricultural output and livestock data; descriptions, images, and architectural drawings of the mission church; the mission bells; notable art and artifacts etc.; as well as the most significant event and the three-to-four most interesting facts about each mission. Exhibits show the total number of baptisms, marriages and deaths, and the population of the missions, presidios, and pueblos, by decade, beginning in 1790. This richly illustrated book contains the first colorized versions of nineteen of the captivating mission event drawings of A. B. Dodge and Alexander Harmer.