By Heather Cardoso’s fourth-grade class at Nordstrom Elementary School
Published in the January 20 – February 2, 2016 issue of Morgan Hill Life
Our fourth-grade class went back in time last month when we traveled the El Camino Real to visit Mission San Juan Bautista. While we were there in the 1800s, we met “Father Lausen” who founded the mission. He took us on a tour of the mission grounds.
The mission church is spacious and has six statues. We noticed animal prints in some of the tiles. The cemetery is on the north side of the church, overlooking the valley and the San Andreas Fault.
The mission was a busy place with more than 1,200 Indians. Many Indians were working in the gardens and kitchens. Others were making candles or weaving, among other things. Father Lausen then invited us to lunch. The Native Americans, the Mutsun tribe, served us “atole,” a porridge made from corn.
After lunch, we walked over to the Plaza Hotel and had a cup of coffee with “Mr. Zanetta.” We discussed how San Juan Bautista was becoming an important stop on the stage route and plans for a new stable.
We were thinking about staying at the Plaza Hotel but some of us didn’t have the $2 to stay the night. Instead we went next door to talk to “Mr. Breen” in the Adobe House.
He invited us inside and showed us his home and told us that he had just purchased 400 acres of agricultural land in the San Juan Valley.
It was time for us to continue our journey back to the present.
Along the way we made a quick stop in 1871 to make sure the Plaza Stable came out OK. We were delighted to see that the stable could serve 11 stagecoach companies and house 25 horses.
At last we arrived in San Juan Bautista 2015, jumped on our bus, and headed back to Nordstrom Elementary School in Morgan Hill. It was a day we’ll never forget.
After a Junior Journalism workshop by Morgan Hill Life Publisher Marty Cheek, Nordstrom Elementary School fourth graders in Heather Cardoso’s class wrote this column.
