History



Our story begins when Juan Pio Valdez and his wife Maria Nestora started their trip to the San Luis Valley in 1870, finally arriving and settling in 1881, in a spot where they bought land, where Seven Mile Plaza or Plaza of Los Valdeses (also spelled "Los Valdezes") now sits. That same year, Juan and Maria donated the land for a church, a cemetery which is still used today, and a school which no longer stands.







When the mission church first opened it was standing room only. The parishioners were asked to bring a wooden log with them to mass to put in the little wood stove to keep everyone warm. They couldn’t afford pews at that time so they were happy with wooden benches. One of the most important changes to the church was in the 1940s: a new main altar was delivered from Spain (the priest who was serving the mission was from Spain). But the new altar was too tall for the existing roof and ceiling in the apse, a new roofline behind the apse was needed.

Juan Pio and Maria are both buried near the altar in the floor of the St Francis of Assisi Church. This was a privilege granted by the bishop because of the gift of land for the church, cemetery, and school. Coffins were commonly made of wood as late as the mid-1900’s. It is recalled that people in the area took lumber to a man in the neighborhood, who made the simple coffins. The earliest existing marker is dated 1889. Records of burials were either not kept or they disappeared.