HGB Ep. 566 - La Purisima Mission

Moment in Oddity - Hidden Message in a Bottle Found in Lighthouse Wall (Suggested by: Jenny Lynne Raines)

We love lighthouses and there is one located in Corsewall, Scotland at the most northerly point of the Rhins of Galloway that contained a once-in-a-lifetime discovery. A message in a bottle was found within the lighthouse wall. The message was written using a quill and ink and it was dated September 4th, 1892. Written in cursive were the names of the three engineers who installed a new lens and lantern at the top of the lighthouse. Once the task was accomplished and the lighthouse was re-lit, the team sat down with that quill and ink to record their names and to describe the purpose of their work at the lighthouse. The men then rolled up the paper and placed it inside a glass bottle. They then inserted the bottle into an empty space in the lighthouse wall. And there the bottle sat for 132 years. Recently there were engineers hired to make some repairs to the lighthouse. The men discovered the hidden bottle and retrieved the note from within. The engineers were astonished to discover that the paper described the exact same task that they were currently working on. The note read, "Corsewall Light & Fog Signal Station, Sept. 4th 1892. This lantern was erected by James Wells Engineer, John Westwood Millwright, James Brodie Engineer, and David Scott Labourer, of the firm of James Milne & Son Engineers, Milton House Works, Edinburgh, during the months from May to September and relighted on Thursday night 15th Sept. 1892. The following being keepers at the station at this time, John Wilson Principal, John B Henderson 1st assistant, and John Lockhart 2nd assistant. The lens and machine being supplied by James Dove & Co. Engineers Greenside Edinburgh and erected by William Burness, John Harrower, and James Dods. Engineers with the above firm." Finding a mysterious message in a bottle after being hidden for 132 years, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Danish-Icelandic Act of Union Signed

In the month of December, on the 1st in 1918, the Danish-Icelandic Act of Union was signed. This treaty agreement established Iceland as a fully sovereign state in a personal union with the Danish king. The state was then known as the Kingdom of Iceland but was still connected to Denmark through a shared monarch. Iceland then had its own flag, government and control over their domestic affairs, however, Denmark was responsible for managing Iceland's defense and foreign affairs. The treaty contained a clause wherein both Iceland and Denmark could request a reevaluation of the agreement in 1940. This clause allowed for the possible dissolution of the union if no new compromise could be made within three years. In 1944, Iceland wanted to have the issue of its constitutional status and the question of full independence settled. Due to WWII, negotiations with Denmark could not be conducted. On June 16th, 1944, Althing, which is Iceland's national parliament, abolished the 1918 Act. The following day, the Constitution of the Republic of Iceland was established.

La Purisima Mission (Suggested by: Marisa Tull)

La Purísima Mission is located in Lompoc, California. The Spanish mission once covered nearly 300,000 acres and was established to evangelize the local indigenous people known as the Chumash. The mission was successful with as many as 24,000 cattle and sheep and over 2,000 people. There was a major earthquake and the Chumash eventually revolted and the mission was abandoned. Eventually it was restored and is today a state historic park with stories of hauntings. Join us for the history and hauntings of La Purisima Mission. 

Lompoc (Lom poke) is based on the Chumash (choo mash) word lumpo'o, which means "in the cheeks." The Chumash apparently liked to name things for body parts and they were the main people group living in this area. This town has a very diverse history starting with the indigineous people groups who lived and hunted here for 10,000 before the first European settlers arrived. The Spanish building their mission would utterly change the culture and a devastating earthquake in 1812 would change the landscape. After the mission was abandoned, a Temperance Society decided to make this their mecca and they purchased 43,000 acres in 1874. By 1888, Lompoc was an officially city and it began to thrive as a port was built for shipping. The railroad would change that at the turn-of-the-century and agriculture would become a main focus for the economy. The area would become known as "The Valley of the Flowers." Then it was discovered that diatomaceous earth could be mined here and major mining operations began for that and that is still one of the main employers here. Vandenberg Air Force Base was established here as Camp Cooke in 1941 and it was the first Air Force missile base. When the Space Shuttle Program began, there were high hopes to use the base as a launch pad. The explosion of the Challenger in 1986 shut down the West Coast Program for good. The area went into an economic crash, but tourism helped bring it back and one of the top places to visit is the refurbished mission. This is the most authentically restored mission in California's mission system.

The mission begins with Father Junipero Serra who was born in 1713 in the village of Petra in Spain. His parents worked in the crop fields and that is what he did as a child. But he would visit the Franciscan friary that was near his home and his heart was really pulled that way. At the friary he was educated and his parents allowed him to become a novice in the Franciscan order when he was 17. He eventually became a full member of the Franciscan order and was given the name Junipero. In 1737 he became a full priest. The man was brilliant and he earned his doctorate and he decided yo go on a foreign mission and that is how he came to be in the Americas. He began in Baja California, which was under Spanish military rule. He and his fellow priests only had spiritual control. Father Serra noticed that as they moved through Baja California that the native population was dwindling. They were killing the indigenous people with disease, particularly syphilis. He moved further into California and he devised a plan to build three missions along California's central coast.

Serra planned the mission, but he didn't get to see it come to fruition. He had passed away in 1784 from tuberculosis. His successor was Spanish priest, Father Presidente Fermin de Lasuen. He was born in 1736 and became a Basque Franciscan. Lasuen would be known as the "forgotten friar," and he was often lonely and depressed. The priest should've been memorable as he founded nine of the twenty-one missions in California. He dedicated the La Purisima Mission on December 8, 1787 with a focus on evangelizing the Chumash. The Chumash had a difficult decision to make. They could either convert to Catholicism and join the mission or they would have to leave the region. In those first few years, several thousand Chumash were baptized into the Catholic Church. The price would be heavy for the Chumash. The Spanish brought many diseases with them. Hundreds died from chicken pox and measles. 

Those first years there was a lot of building at the mission as well. Over 100 adobe buildings were built and livestock were raised. A water system was designed that would help with the growth of crops. This was a prosperous time for the mission until the morning of December 21, 1812. The Santa Barbara earthquake shook the ground beneath the mission, scaring the priests, soldiers and indigenous people. This quake wasn't too bad, but the one that followed fifteen minutes later was so intense that the adobe walls of the buildings shattered and most of the mission was turned to ruin and rubble. The priests described it as "presenting the picture of a destroyed Jerusalem." Damage happened at all the missions within a 100 mile radius. Soldiers at the Presidio in Santa Barbara abandoned it, opting to build thatched huts, which proved to be a good idea because the area was played by earthquakes for months. The Presidio is a haunted location itself with stories of ghostly nuns and priests and soldiers. Not only was La Purisima Mission decimated, but a large fissure opened in the hill behind the mission and several feet of mud washed out from the crack. It was impossible to rebuild at this site.

Father Mariano Payeras (Pah ye rahs) had become the leader of the mission and he made the decision to rebuild in the location where it is located today, four miles northwest in the Canyon of the Watercress. A Catholic community grew up around the chapel and 1,000 Chumash converts called this home. Father Payeras was loved by everyone and was zealous in his work. Father Payeras was born on the island of Majorca in 1769. He joined the Franciscan order and traveled to Mexico to attend a missionary school. Then he worked at four missions in California for the rest of his life, ending at La Purisima. He wrote a catechism in the language of the Chumash that was never published, but proved useful at the mission. Father Payeras was given an ecclesiastical burial under the church's pulpit after he passed away on April 28, 1823 at the age of 53.

A rebellion had started in Mexico while Payeras had been in charge of the mission and the relationship between the Chumash and the Catholics was becoming strained. The supply ships had stopped coming and so a black market started with people looking for food and supplies. As the tensions rose, the Spanish made it worse by forcing the Chumash to work for very little money. Mexico fought for its independence from Spain and won in 1822. With the ousting of Spain from Mexico, the mission system started to lose its hold in California. And the Chumash at La Purisima rose up against the heads at the mission, locked themselves in the church and they controlled the mission for a month before Spanish soldiers from the Presidio marched on them and killed sixteen of them. Others were wounded. Pillars throughout the site still bare the battle scars to this day. Many of the Chumash ran off after this. There was soon no support for the missions. By 1845, the missions had been secularized and La Purisima was auctioned off by the Mexican government. A man named Don Juan Temple bought it for $1,100.00. This would be the time when the Mission Period became the Ranching Period.

The Catholic church acquired the title to Purisima in 1874 after going to court, but there was no reestablishment of the mission. The land was sold in 1883, without including the cemetery or the church, which by this time was in ruins. The Residence Building was used as housing, a blacksmith shop, a barn,  a general store and saloon. Eventually this building was abandoned after a fire destroyed part of the building. The Union Oil Company bought the land after this and then deeded it to the Landmark Club of California in 1905. They made a deal that the club had to repair the Residence Building, but they weren't able to raise the capitol needed and the Union Oil Company got the title back. The Catholic Church retained ownership of the chapel through this whole time and they joined the Union Oil Company in 1934 in giving the property to the County of Santa Barbara. California and Santa Barbara County bought more land, growing the property to 507 acres. This became La Purisima Historic Monument under the Division of Parks. The National Parks Service used a Civilian Conservation Corps Camp to help restore the site. This is today, a living museum. A museum, with ghosts.

For decades, people have claimed that the mission is haunted. Perhaps one of the most haunted locations in California. There are those who claim there is a dark energy here. There can be no doubt that the docile Chumash being forced into conversion and work and having their land taken, has left behind some negative energy and feelings. Ghostly soldiers have been seen by volunteers, docents and visitors. Cold spots are felt and people often feel that they are being watched. The corridors are filled with shadowy figures. When these figures are approached, they silently disappear. Many unexplained sounds are heard, including disembodied footsteps and whispers. Doors slam shut on their own. There are also reports of a spirit, people call the Weeping Woman. Visitors claim to hear her cries near the cemetery and others have seen her apparition wearing period clothing.

At the time when the mission moved from the Mission Period to the Ranching Period. At this time, there was a fiesta held on the site and a woman named Anita caught the eye of two different men. These men were named Jorge and Vincente. They challenged each other to get Anita's attention. The men were going to ride horses and try to grabbed three chickens that had been buried up to their necks. They were to ride at a full gallop, grab and chicken and wring its neck. Jorge didn't get any chickens and Vincente got all three. Jorge later fought with Vincente and he killed Vincente. The body was buried somewhere around the soldiers quarters. Jorge ran and was never captured. The spirit of Vincente is said to haunt the Soldier's Quarters. 

Bill Henry was a long time docent and he had several experiences over the years that he shared with the Lompoc Record in 2012. He was dressed as a soldier for a presentation and he felt something push or shove him from behind. When he turned, there was no one behind him. Early one morning he was opening up the park buildings and he had his young granddaughter in tow. Both of them suddenly started hearing what he calls “death chants.” The granddaughter was terrified  by them and wouldn't return to the property. Henry also saw the spirits of three girls perched in the window seat of the Cuartel. Henry says of the mission, "There are some things that just cannot be explained away, including sounds, lights without a visible source and random movements."  Bill told Ghost Adventures that he was cleaning up after Founder's Day festivities and he went into the Soldier's Quarters and saw bare footprints in the sand in an area that is locked up and the public doesn't have access.   

Another worker named Arthur Carlos said that the way the Married Soldier's Quarters were set up was that the wife and soldier shared a bed and there were cots for daughters. Boys were supposed to sleep outside. Arthur was sleeping overnight and he was on a cot, when he was awakened by something. He looked towards the door and he saw a soldier with a leather jacket and this figure gave him a very menacing look. He said to himself, "Ok Art, get a grip. You're just imagining things and this isn't real so don't worry about it." So he looked away and then he looked back a couple minutes later and the figure was closer. Pretty soon, the spirit was standing over him. The menacing look was still on the spirit's face and then it reached down and grabbed his neck. Arthur wrenched his neck to the side and his eyes popped open. He was like, oh I was asleep and dreaming, but then he realized that his adam's apple was really sore and throbbing. He was really freaked out after that and he won't sleep alone in that room again.

One visitor to the site said that she felt a sudden chill while exploring and she felt as though something were behind her. She turned a saw a shadowy figure the mission. The figure vanished as quickly as it appeared and she was quite shaken by the experience. Another woman had been visiting and she had dressed up as a vaquero and she was walking near the Sacristy Door, a place where women were not allowed during the mission time and this woman was thrown back up against the door. That woman never returned to the mission.

A volunteer at the mission was working late and they heard faint chanting in the chapel. He was the only person at the chapel, so he couldn't figure out where this chanting was coming from. He went to investigate and the chanting stopped. One day, there was a man playing music on a guitar in the chapel and he stepped over the grave of Father Payeras. His guitar immediately went out of tune. When he stepped back to where he had been, it went back into tune. He again stepped over the grave a few minutes later and the guitar went out of tune. The guitarist looked down and realized he had stepped over the grave, so he stepped back and the guitar was back in tune. He moved away from the grave because clearly, someone was not happy with him stepping over the grave.

Richard Senate is a world-renowned paranormal investigator out of California. He is a California historian and lecturer, so he has visited the mission many times. On one of those visits, he led a team of students and psychic researchers. He said, "Independently, the group’s members felt cold spots throughout the church at the Mission." Many had an odd feeling and one of the students said he had a sense of fear or unease while inside the church. Senate was told by someone who had worked on the Civilian Conservation Corps team in the 1940s, that he and other workers unearthed five small skeletons from under the tile floor of the church. Senate asked this worker to join him at the mission and show him where the skeletons had been found in the chapel. Those spots matched up with where the students had felt cold spots. 

Senate told Ghost Adventures that he has had three dramatic experiences at the mission. He was in the chapel alone one day and walking down the center when he got really dizzy and he looked down to catch his bearings and when he looked up, there were three Native Americans kneeling on the floor up near the altar. He described them having long hair and one had a blanket thrown over their shoulders. Their clothes were all dirty and ripped up and he distinctly remembered seeing one with pock marks all over his face. He believes those marks were from small pox. And Senate was positive that this wasn't a vision from the past or something residual because one of the Native Americans turned and looked at him. And then they all just disappeared. The second experience happened in the Weaving Room. Senate was standing near the door and he heard flute music. It was just a few notes and he didn't see what was causing the sound. Senate took the crew over to the Padre's Quarters and it was here that he saw the ghost of a greyhound dog. It was curled up on the floor sleeping. It woke up, look at Senate and then disappeared.

Novelist Tamara Thorne was at the mission and she heard disembodied voices speaking something other than English. A visitor named Steve claimed to see the ghost of a Padre in the Padre's Quarters. It's believed this was the ghost of Father Payeras. The bed in here always seems to mess itself up too. A docent named Dee Lonnon said, "I went out one night, and I was one of the last people to see the building be closed up and locked. I wanted to be there when they opened the room the next morning. By 7 a.m., I took my dogs out there for a walk, and sure enough, the bed was messed up, just like someone had been under the covers overnight." Now maybe an animal sneaks in somehow, but the place is locked tight. Steve Schuler-Jones was the operations ranger at La Purisima and he had many experiences. He was the contact for the security company and he got several calls that the alarm had been triggered. He would drive to the site and fine nothing out of the ordinary.

Ghost Adventures investigated the site in June of 2009. The evidence they collected included hearing a baby crying, battle cries, knocking and flute music. They caught several EVPs which captured "come here," "lay down," "sit up," "do you belong here," some Spanish words and the name Vincente", "lay down", "sit up", "do you belong here?" They captured an orb of light floating by the altar. On a thermal camera they captured something that looked like it was a figure standing out in the field. Maybe it was a Spanish soldier. They also caught what sounded like residual sounds of a man speaking in the field. There were people who said the thermal image was nothing. Someone going by CWilsonLPC defended the thermal signature caught by Ghost Adventures saying, "With regards to the thermal photo, it’s relatively hard to debunk, the area they pointed at was towards the south of the mission (alongside Purisima Road), if it was a false positive, there would have been heat signatures of all the animals in the paddocks there since from their direction, alongside any heat signatures from passing vehicles and wildlife in the brush, the paddocks would have been adjacent to their angle, there is the possibility of a trespasser since people do hike the trails there at night, but it would have been extremely unlikely since the trail access points come from the far north of the mission complex (at the base of Mission Hills neighborhood, a good 45-60 min hike), and the only other access points would have been guarded (all Purisima Road entrances). The Spanish soldier guess is reasonably accurate however, since the Spanish were outside the complex during the revolt while the native Chumash were inside."

Zak and crew also experienced the really common occurrence of the bed getting messed up on its own in the Padre's Quarters. The mattress and sheets were pushed up. Nobody was in the room from the time they were shown the room. When the room was first shown, the bed was neatly made. They crew also had a bizarre temperature fluctuation that we've never seen before. Their temperature gun went from 70 degrees to 40 degrees in the weaving room. Maybe it was a malfunction, but if not, that is really weird. 

La Purisima Mission is a reminder of a history where the indigenous people were pushed into changing their culture to suit strangers to the land. We have found time and again that subjugation of native people and causing their deaths through sickness or war, leaves a psychical energy that manifests in a supernatural way. Is that what is happening at La Purisima Mission? Is the mission haunted? That is for you to decide!