Founding of Mission Santa Cruz

Father Fermín Francisco de Lasuén, successor to Father Junípero Serra, established the mission on the San Lorenzo River floodplain below what would later be named Mission Hill. The outpost was originally set up near the Uypi village of Aulintak, close to the river's mouth, on August 28, 1791. The original mission was a small structure dedicated on September 25, 1791. Over the following three years, until 1793, the padres rebuilt the mission on the hill overlooking the river. As with other California missions, it served for the ecclesiastical conversion of natives, first the Amah Mutsun people, the region's original inhabitants, called Costeño by the Spaniards and later known as the Ohlone.