Editing Solvang, California (section)

===Beginnings===
[[File:Mission StInes.jpg|thumb|Mission Santa Inés in Solvang]]

The [[Santa Ynez Valley]], in which Solvang lies, was originally inhabited by the [[Chumash Indians|Chumash]], identified by Father Pedro Font, chaplain of the 1776 [[Anza Expedition]], and were described as an ingenious and industrious people who are good fishermen and hunters, with an excellent astronomical system.<ref name="mission1">[http://www.missionsantaines.org/home.html "Mission History"], ''Old Mission Santa Inés''. Retrieved July 12, 2010.</ref>{{sfn|Dittmer|Bates|2020|pp=16}}

As part of the expansion of the mission system established in California by Spanish missionaries, Father Estévan Tapís founded Mission Santa Inés, now located near the center of Solvang, in order to relieve overcrowding at [[Mission Santa Barbara]] and [[Mission La Purísima Concepción]] since it was located midway between the two. It also served as a gateway to the Chumash Indians living east of the Coast Range.<ref name="mission2">[http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/American_Latino_Heritage/Mission_Santa_Ines.html National Park Service], "Mission Santa Inés California". Retrieved September 16, 2014.</ref>

After the [[Mexican War of Independence]], the Mexican Assembly passed the Secularization Laws which confiscated Mission lands, along with other property, and transferred them to the control of local ranchers, with Solvang being later founded on what became known as the [[Rancho San Carlos de Jonata]]. With secularization, Mission Santa Inés began to decline and the Chumash Indian population in the area along with it.<ref name="mission2"/> For a time, the mission was a [[seminary]] but soon began to deteriorate; it was repaired by the Donahue family in 1884 and renovated by Fr. Alexander Buckler in 1904.<ref name="mission1"/>