Carmel Mission, part one

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

It was sort of a spur of the moment thing -- on Friday I woke up and the first thing that popped into my head was the notion to head south 140 miles to Carmel.

Officially, my reason for going all the way down there was to gather a few more photos so I could round-out the Mission Trail set on what I call my "big" site.

Unofficially, I was there to see how much of the Mission I remembered from my youth -- I grew up in neighboring Pacific Grove and made several visits.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Despite their glory, the California Missions were not completely successful at spreading the word of God to the native populations. And thier congregations kept dying. White Man brought with him some odd and nasty diseases the Indians had no defenses for.

In 1791 the Mission population was 924, but by 1823 the population had been reduced to 381. Later, Carmel Mission sat in ruins for decades. The last Indian descendant of the Mission died years ago, getting a large write-up in the local newspaper.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Living so close to Carmel Mission when I was a kid, you would think I would have paid more visits -- after all, throngs of Catholics make pilgrimages to Carmel Mission from all over the world. But my parents were devout and Bible-thumping Baptists, and sometimes Catholics and Baptists just don't agree on certain specific details. Oh, it's a long story...



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Focus near, focus far.
I suppose that's the way THIS photographer sees it...


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