By David Kier
source: Baja Bound - updated: Nov 07, 2018
Lost Mission Bahía de los Ángeles
Time for us to examine again an unsolved mystery I first wrote about many years ago. The story begins even earlier: In 1966, an expedition led by Erle Stanley Gardner was exploring along an abandoned mine road south from Bahía de los Ángeles. They hoped to use it to get to El Barril and continue on south. A discovery of strange walls on a hillside overlooking a bay was made. A date-palm, indicating fresh water was close to the surface, was found at the base of a hill. Also, a ruined dam and reservoir were nearby. On the expedition was historian-author and then the editor of Desert Magazine, Choral Pepper. She was intrigued by these odd walls as to who built them and for what purpose. Pepper later wrote about that discovery in her magazine and included it in her popular 1970’s book, Baja California: Vanished Missions, Lost Treasures, Strange Stories, Tall and True.
