Spring 2026

There are a few bells mounted on roadsides around the Monterey Peninsula as well, notably on the Rio Road median in front of the Carmel Mission, and on the lawn in front of Colton Hall and outside the Cooper Molera Adobe, both in Monterey. They’re popularly known as the Mission Bells. They’re a long-time fixture of the scenery and most people assume they are somehow tied into the Spanish Franciscans who founded the chain of 21 missions along the spine of the state between 1769 and 1823. But the story of their origin is a much newer one. True, following the bells will lead a traveler to the general locations of the missions—El Camino Real roughly follows the route the Spaniards used to travel between the missions and diverges from U.S. 101 several times, as evidenced by their peninsula locations—but it wasn’t a roadway pio- neered by the Spanish to accommodate travel between those settlements.The Europeans main- ly followed foot paths established by Indigenous 128 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 2 6 There are a few bells mounted on roadsides around the Monterey Peninsula as well, notably on the Rio Road median in front of the Carmel Mission, and on the lawn in front of Colton Hall and outside the Cooper Molera Adobe, both in Monterey. The early 20th century advent of the automobile age gave Americans unprecedented freedom to explore. The Mission Bell project was supported in part by the Automobile Club of Southern California to promote tourism. Photo: Courtesy of CaliforniaBell.com