Beyond Boulder Pass -- Mission San Fernando

1912 View of the Convento colonnade of San Fernando Rey de España Mission

San Fernando Valley residents usually refer to it as Mission San Fernando, but its full name is Mission San Fernando Rey de España.  It was named for Saint Ferdinand, King of Spain, when it was founded on September 8, 1797, by Father Padre Fermín de Francisco Lasuén de Arasqueta.

By 1806, more than 1,000 Indians lived at San Fernando Mission where they raised cattle for the production of hides, leather goods, and tallow.

The original church building was damaged in an 1812 earthquake, and had restored four times before the 1971 Sylmar earthquake.  The Sylmar quake damaged it beyond repair, so an exact replica was built during 1970s. The church was damaged again in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, it was repaired, and is now in good condition, although substantially reconstructed.

The Mission was used for scenes in several early Western movies prior to the 1971 earthquake:

Over Silent Paths (1910) [D.W. Griffith Short] starring Marion Leonard, Dell Henderson and W. Chrystie Miller - Biograph Co.

Two Men of the Desert (1913) [D.W. Griffith Short] starring Blanche Sweet, Henry B. Walthall and Walter Miller - Biograph Co.

Four Horsemen of Apocalypse (1921) starring Pomeroy Cannon, Josef Swickard and Rudolph Valentino - Metro Pictures Corp.

In Old Arizona (1928) starring Warner Baxter, Edmund Lowe and Dorothy Burgess (Iverson Ranch) Fox

Frontiers of '49 (1939) starring Bill Elliott, Luana Alcañiz and Charles King (Iverson Ranch) Columbia

Cisco Kid in Old New Mexico, The (1945) starring Duncan Renaldo, Martin Garralaga and Gwen Kenyon - Monogram 

Mysterious Desperado, The (1949) - Tim Holt, Richard Martin, Edward Norris - RKO

If you know of others please let me hear from you.