Entry No. 38 — the Santa Barbara file — filed under: reconstructed mission

La Purisima Mission

California's only fully reconstructed mission complex — you can walk into every room, no ropes — sits where, in 1824, unpaid soldiers beat a Chumash man at a neighboring mission and triggered a month-long armed takeover of La Purisima itself. The mission logged 2,609 burials before it was secularized, and paranormal investigators (it made TV's Scariest Places on Earth) report a lone "Spirit Soldier" still working the grounds.

The move: Walk the fully furnished soldiers' barracks and workshops near closing time on a foggy Lompoc afternoon, then find the unmarked burial ground behind the church where most of the 2,609 recorded dead were never individually named.

• 📍 Lompoc
• 💸 $$
• ⚡ Up for anything
• 🌗 Indoors

Where: 2295 Purisima Road, Lompoc, CA 93436

Hours: Added 2026-07-20 — confirm current hours before you go.

Plan a visit & invite your people →

Further reading: Wikipedia

last checked: 2026-07-20