Mike Hart and Father Steve Niskanen, Pastor of the San Gabriel Mission church dedicated two of the San Gabriel Mission Water Maps from the 1790’s to the 1830’s in the museum on January 7.

Mike Hart, a retired 40-year employee and manager of the Sunny Slope Water Company began his 17 years of research on the water history of the San Gabriel Mission. He stated one of the three dams in the mission’s water system sits on the Sunny Slope facilities. Since it was impossible to ignore he decided to do research on the water that was provided to the mission’s agriculture that flourished in the rich soil in the San Gabriel Valley.

He spent many hours in researching the mission’s old zanjas or ditches, gristmills, dams and land grants from local and national archives to provide the exact data for his water maps.

Mr. Hart used his employment experience of map-reading skills plus his passion for history and art to hand draw four maps and four illustrations that capture the early mission history. These works of art took him three years to complete.

The mission exhibit is opened to the public at the San Gabriel Mission Museum located at 427 S. Junipero Serra Drive in San Gabriel, CA.  For more information please call 626-457-3048 or their website: www.sangabrielmission.net

The complete exhibit is opened to the public at the Huntington Library Botanical Center’s Flora-Legium Gallery located at 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA on weekends from 10:30 AM to 4:30 PM until February 19.

This exhibit features a large map of the current San Gabriel Valley area that is laid over the top of Mr. Hart’s historical map.

Visitors can locate their own street and see their neighborhood 250 years in the past.

A limited edition of Mike Hart’s historical maps and illustrations are available for purchased by going online at his website: www.michaeljhart.com