in 1771, under the command of
Saint Junípero Serra. Before European contact, the
Salinan people lived in the region.
Mission San Antonio de Padua was established two years later in 1771, under the direction of
Junípero Serra, head of the
mission system in California. in 1890. It was originally built in 1849 by Antonio Ramírez, the founder of Jolon. When the mission lands were
secularized, the lands of the Mission San Antonio de Padua were by law intended to be granted to the indigenous people. In practice, that rarely occurred. The mission lands were divided into several land grants in the Jolon area: •
Rancho Milpitas — (Little Gardens) •
Rancho San Miguelito — (Little St. Michael) •
Rancho El Piojo — (The Louse) •
Rancho Posa de los Ositos — (Pool of the Little Bears) •
Rancho San Miguelito de Trinidad — •
Rancho Los Ojitos Mexican period The
Mexican secularization act of 1833 was devastating to Mission San Antonio de Padua, reducing its population from 1,300 in 1805 to under 150 in 1834. Following the mass exodus of
Mission Indians from the mission, the small community was practically deserted, making Mission San Antonio de Padua the only mission not to grow into a town during the Spanish or Mexican periods. In 1845, Governor
Pío Pico declared all mission buildings in
Alta California for sale, but no one bid for Mission San Antonio.
American period was built in 1930 as a country estate for
William Randolph Hearst and designed by famed architect
Julia Morgan. in 2020 The town was founded by Antonio Ramírez, who built an inn at the place in 1850. The Jolon post office was founded in 1872. In 1890, Captain
Thomas Theodore Tidball, a friend of Dutton, established the
Tidball Store, also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In the early 1920s
William Randolph Hearst bought up thousands of acres in the rolling foothills of the Santa Lucia mountains east of Hearst Castle near San Simeon on California's Central Coast. He sent his architect, Julia Morgan, to the eastern side of the range, near Mission San Antonio, to design and oversee the building of a
hacienda-style headquarters for the expansion of his ranching operation. The building was called the
Hacienda Milpitas Ranchhouse, or simply the Hacienda. Hearst sold his rancho to the U.S. Army in 1940. In preparation for World War II, the army established
Fort Hunter Liggett as an important training center for the
West Coast, still in operation today. ==Geography==