The Journal of San Diego History
SAN DIEGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY
Winter 1988, Volume 34, Number 1
Thomas L. Scharf, Editor
Book Notes
Raymond Starr, Book Review Editor
Mission in the Valley of the Bears: A Documentary History of San Luis Obispo de Tolosa.
Edited by Francis J. Weber. Hong Kong: Libra Press Limited, 1985. 240 Pages. $18.00
California a Sorrowful Mission: A Documentary History of Nuestra Senora de la Soledad.
Edited by Francis J. Weber. Hong Kong: Libra Press Limited, 1985. 159 Pages. $18.00
These two volumes continue Francis J. Weber’s “California Mission Series” which will include a collection of sources on each of the twenty one Franciscan missions in California. San Luis was established in 1772 in the Valley of the Bears; the modern community of San Luis Obispo grew up around it. The Soledad mission was the thirteenth established (in 1791) and was located at the base of the hills around the Salinas Valley. It suffered from drought, sickness and other problems and remained small. After Secularization it rather literally melted into ruin. Following the pattern for the series, each volume contains a variety of items ranging from excerpts from official records to letters, newspaper and magazine articles and other materials. The volumes are primarily for the layman inasmuch as they do not contain the usual scholarly apparatus of full citations, etc.
