Selecting this site because of the great number of Salinan Indians that living hereabout, Fray Fermín Francisco de Lasuén, O.F.M., second president of the California missions, founded San Miguel Arcángel on July 25, 1797. The sixteenth in a chain of twenty-one Franciscan missions, its influence has played not only upon the native population, but the history of California as a whole.

California Registered Historical Landmark No. 326

Plaque placed by the California State Park Commission in cooperation with the San Luis Obispo County Historical Society and the Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West, Parlors No. 150 and 94, March 26, 1966.