Mystery Behind El Camino Mission Bell in Center Park...Solved!

In  I inquired into the background behind the mission bell in downtown's Center Park. 

According to a researcher at the Petaluma Historical Museum, in 1906 the California Mission Studies Association commemorated El Camino Real by placing cast iron replicas of mission bells along the route traveled between the missions by the padres. 

Much later a close reading of the diary of Fr. Jose Altimira by Ed Mannion established Petaluma’s location on El Camino Real. Altimira described that the walk from the mission at San Rafael to that in Sonoma entailed traveling north, beyond where the city of Petaluma is today, before crossing the marshes of Petaluma Creek. 

Acquisition of a bell became a Petaluma Bicentennial Committee project and two original cast bells were the gift of the Redwood Empire Association. One is in the Petaluma Historical Museum and the other now hangs on the traditional curved top standard at the north end of Center Park on Petaluma Boulevard South.

While no dates are given, the bells appear to be a fairly recent set of acquisitions as well as a demonstration of planning ahead as the bells were a project of Petaluma's Bicentennial Committee for 2058.

So while there is no Mission Petaluma, the padres' passage through our town is commemorated with the bells. Mystery solved!