<P> The first Peruvian Pepper Tree (Schinus molle) in California was planted here in 1830, now iconic, widely planted, and renamed the California Pepper tree in the state . After the Mexican secularization act of 1833 much of Mission San Luis Rey de Francia land was sold off . During the Mexican--American War in Alta California (1846--1847), the Mission was utilized as a military outpost by the United States Army . </P> <P> In July 1847, U.S. military governor of California Richard Barnes Mason created an Indian sub-agency at Mission San Luis Rey, and his men took charge of the mission property in August, appointing Jesse Hunter from the recently arrived Mormon Battalion as sub-agent . Battalion guide Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, the Native American Shoshone child of Sacagawea who had traveled with the Lewis and Clark Expedition forty years earlier, was appointed by Mason as the Alcalde "within the District of San Diego, at or near San Luis Rey" in November 1847 . Charbonneau resigned from the post in August, 1898, claiming that "because of his Indian heritage others thought him biased when problems arose between the Indians and the other inhabitants of the district ." </P> <P> With secularization of the mission in 1834, no religious services were held and the Luiseño were left behind by the fleeing Franciscan padres . The Mission's religious services restarted in 1893, when two Mexican priests were given permission to restore the Mission as a Franciscan college . Father Joseph O'Keefe was assigned as an interpreter for the monks . It was he who began to restore the old Mission in 1895 . The cuadrángulo (quadrangle) and church were completed in 1905 . San Luis Rey College was opened as a seminary in 1950, but closed in 1969 . </P> <P> Episodes 2, 3, 4 and 12 of the Disney - produced Zorro TV series include scenes filmed in 1957 at San Luis Rey, which doubled for the Mission of San Gabriel; Disney added a skull and crossbones to the cemetery entrance . In 1998, Sir Gilbert Levine led members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and, with the special permission of Pope John Paul II, the ancient Cappella Giulia Choir of St. Peter's Basilica, in a series of concerts to commemorate the 900th anniversary of the founding of the mission . These festival concerts constituted the first - ever visit of this 500 - year - old choir to the Western Hemisphere . The concerts were broadcast on NPR's Performance Today . In February 2013, the seismic retrofiting was completed . </P>

California mission san luis rey de francia facts