ORANGE COUNTY ALMANAC : The Missing Mission
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Mission San Juan Capistrano was founded Nov. 1, 1776, but was not the first in the area.
The site of the earlier structure, mentioned in mission records, is not entirely clear.
Modern historians speculate that it might have been off Ortega Highway five miles east of the later mission, on a site where large adobe ruins have been discovered.
Source: “Dos Cientos Anos en San Juan Capistrano,” by Pamela Hallan-Gibson
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