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Description
Santa Ysabel Indian Mission began as an asistencia for Mission San Diego de Alcala in 1818 and was dedicated to Saint Elizabeth, Queen Isabel of Portugal. The asistencia was a success and enjoyed a high degree of conversion until the secularization period where the mission was used for Rancho Santa Ysabel. In 1901 the mission land was returned to the Catholic Church and the mission reorganized. Today Santa Ysabel Indian Mission is known for the Mystery of the Bells. In 1926 the mission’s two bells, the oldest bells in California, made in 1723 and 1767, disappeared without a trace and for 40 years sightings were reported, but the bells never turned up. In 1966 pieces of the bells were returned to the mission by the decedents of those who stole them. The thieves apparently believed that the bells were made up of a high amount of gold and wished to melt them down for the gold. When they discovered that the bells in fact did not contain gold they kept the pieces hidden and their families kept their secret until their deaths.
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