VENTURA : History Museum to Reclaim Albinger

A rusty, corroded iron cannonball and two black pieces of grapeshot, on display at the Albinger Archaeological Museum in Ventura, are all that is left of the 1838 battle at the San Buenaventura Mission.

The lumpy, plum-size cannonball sits under glass next to the grapeshot at the museum, historical remnants of the battle between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara troops at the mission next door.

“It is amazing that they could have this battle, with all this grapeshot and cannonballs, and no one getting killed,” said John Whyman, a historical interpreter at the museum.

On Wednesday, the Ventura County Museum of History and Art will reclaim operation of the Albinger, which it managed for a year after the Albinger opened in 1980. Both museums are on Main Street near the mission.

The switch in management, prompted by budget problems in the Ventura Parks and Recreation Department, will save the city $4,000, said Recreation Supervisor Debbie Solomon. “The city is facing massive cuts, and we literally have to cut what fat is there,” said Richard Senate, the Albinger’s former manager.

The city of Ventura, which owns the Albinger, took over the day-to-day operation in 1981 after a docent was sexually assaulted and the county museum could no longer find volunteers to work there, Senate said.

One of the Albinger’s three part-time employees will lose his job, another will have his hours cut back to one day a month, and the third will be assigned to other department duties, Senate said.

The museum houses artifacts that were found during an archeological dig of about three acres around the mission in 1974 and 1975. Nearly 400 artifacts are on display at the museum, and the rest are in storage.

“They found so much stuff, they decided to turn it into a museum,” said Senate, who manages the Olivas Adobe.

The oldest artifact is a 2,500-year-old stone bowl, used by the predecessors of the Chumash Indians. The Chumash lived in the area from about 1500 to 1834, when most of them were killed by the Spanish colonialists or the diseases they brought, Whyman said.

The 1838 battle at the mission was prompted by a struggle between two men, Juan Alvarado and Juan Carillo, both of whom claimed to be governor of the Mexican state of Alta California. Each wanted the state capital in a different location.