Mission San Luis Rey, Set 1

When travelling the west coast of the United States, one realizes that the history does not go back too far. One of the best ways to find it is to visit the Spanish missions that dotted the map up and down California. Mission San Luis Rey, a few miles north of San Diego in Oceanside, is one of the best missions to visit.

The building and grounds are expansive and there is much to see in the galleries. Here, the third photograph below shows President Abraham Lincoln's signature on an order granting the property to the Catholic church after it had slipped from their control. He signed it shortly before his death in 1865.