Photograph of Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo — Photograph by Burkhard Mücke, CC BY-SA 4.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Carmel Mission

A National Historic Landmark. Built in 1770. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. 13 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1913.

From the record

“Misión San Carlos Borromeo del Río Carmelo, first built in 1771, is one of the most authentically restored Spanish missions in California in California. Located at the mouth of the Carmel River in Carmel, California, it is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a National Historic Landmark.”
Wikipedia article Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 64 National Register listings published here for Monterey County · listed in 1966 · category: Building · built in 1770 · a National Historic Landmark.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. Rio Rd., Carmel, 93923
When was it listed? October 1966
Category. building
Census division. Carmel-by-the-Sea
When was it built? 1770
National Register reference number. 66000214 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1913 to 1997

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 84 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Carmel Mission, surveyed 1997

Topographic sheet covering Carmel Mission, surveyed 1913

Fires near this property

367 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 367 fires within 5 miles of Carmel Mission between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,987 acres in total. 5 started naturally. 22 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	196
Equipment and vehicle use	60
Smoking	24
Arson/incendiarism	22
Misuse of fire by a minor	22
Recreation and ceremony	17
Power generation/transmission/distribution	11
Debris and open burning	10
Natural	5

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 September 2017	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	MORSE
9 September 2012	Misuse of fire by a minor	under an acre	San Benito-Monterey Unit	MAJELLA RD / SLOAT RD
8 September 1999	Natural	under an acre	Central California District	EQUESTRIAN
7 September 2007	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Central California District	UNNAMED FIRE 1835
7 September 1994	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	San Benito-Monterey Unit	SAN CARLOS
6 September 2013	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	San Benito-Monterey Unit	17 MILE DR / BIRD ROCK RD
6 September 2012	Power generation/transmission/distribution	1.0 acres	San Benito-Monterey Unit	MEADOWS
5 September 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	San Benito-Monterey Unit	BIRD

Every fire recorded in Monterey County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 38 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 38 workings within 5 miles of Carmel Mission: 23 past producers, 12 producers, 3 prospects. 12 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Stone, Dimension. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
Del Monte Prop. Co-Fan Shell Beach	Silica	Past Producer
Del Monte Prop. Co. - Fanshell Beah	Sand and Gravel, Construction, Feldspar	Past Producer
Sawmill Gulch	Clay	Past Producer
Machado	Slate, Dimension	Past Producer
Santa Lucia Quarries, Ltd.	Flagstone	Past Producer
Sierra	Flagstone	Past Producer
Stewart Quarry	Slate, Dimension	Past Producer
Carmel Stone Quarry-Anthony	Stone, Dimension	Past Producer
Carmel Stone Quarry-Passadori	Stone, Dimension	Past Producer
Whaler's Cove	Stone, Dimension	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Monterey County

Maps showing this location

13 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the middle of the area the National Park Service maps for this listing, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1913 USGS Monterey quadrangle1:62500 - 8 printings
1941 USGS Monterey quadrangle1:62500
1947 USGS Monterey quadrangle1:24000 - 5 printings
1947 USGS Monterey quadrangle1:62500 - 4 printings
1948 USGS Monterey quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1948 USGS Santa Cruz quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1955 USGS Santa Cruz quadrangle1:250000
1957 USGS Santa Cruz quadrangle1:250000
1958 USGS Santa Cruz quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1965 USGS Santa Cruz quadrangle1:250000
1974 USGS Monterey quadrangle1:250000
1983 USGS Monterey quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings
1997 USGS Monterey quadrangle1:24000

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Outlands in the Eighty Acres	0.4 miles	1989
Sunset Center	0.4 miles	1998
Mrs. Clinton Walker House	0.7 miles	2016
Robinson Jeffers House	0.8 miles
Whalers Cabin	1.8 miles	2007
Arthur and Kathleen Connell House	3.8 miles	2014

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 66000214 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Monterey County	All 64 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.