Thoughts on Baja

What guidebooks were you carrying for your Baja adventure? From my modest shelves, four books explain the presence of Mr. Eiffel’s church in Santa Rosalia: AAA’s “Baja California,” Bantam’s “Travel Guide to Mexico,” Birnbaum’s “Mexico” and Baedeker’s “Mexico.” You do a disservice to all travelers when you minimize the joy that knowledge bestows upon the voyager.

EMILY FERRY

Los Angeles

Christopher Reynolds responds: Drawing on a slightly different set of resources than Ms. Ferry’s, I wrote that my guidebooks were not “exactly clear” on how Eiffel’s church ended up in Santa Rosalia. They remain so. The Automobile Club of Southern California’s “Baja California” says Eiffel’s church was designed for the 1898 Paris World’s Fair and shipped around Cape Horn, but doesn’t suggest why. The same with the British-published “Cadogan Guide to Mexico . “ Tom Miller and Carol Hoffman’s “The Baja Book III” says the church was prefabricated for the 1892 St. Louis World’s Fair. Lonely Planet’s “Baja California,” says Eiffel designed the church for the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris, as does Prentice Hall Travel’s 1993 “Mexico and Central American Handbook.” The Michelin Guide to Mexico says only that Eiffel designed the church and gives no year. Birnbaum’s “Mexico 1993” asserts that a director of El Boleo, the mining company that developed Santa Rosalia, visited a world exposition in Brussels, where he bought the Eiffel Church.