San Miguel Mission

Mission San Miguel Arcángel was founded in 1797. After secularization it was sold, and by 1848 William Reed was running it as an inn and store with his family. On the night of December 5, 1848, six men who believed Reed kept a fortune in gold on the property killed everyone in the household: ten people, among them his wife, two other women, four children, a cook and a servant. They found no gold. About a week later a posse caught up with them at Ortega Hill, near present-day Summerland. One was killed in the gunfight and another drowned trying to escape into the sea. The remaining three were executed by firing squad in Santa Barbara on December 28. Visitors have described a man in a heavy coat seen near the rooms where the killings took place, a woman in a white dress walking the grounds and corridors at night, and the sound of people moving from room to room. The mission is still an active parish.