San Miguel Chapel Site, Archaeological site in Ventura, California.

San Miguel Chapel Site is an archaeological location in Ventura containing stone foundations and water channel fragments from the early mission period. Excavations have revealed multiple layers showing how this place was used and rebuilt over generations.

The chapel stood just outside the southwest corner of the walled mission garden, at the first outpost built while Mission San Buenaventura was under construction. Moorpark College students excavated the site from 1974, uncovering rock foundations, the mission aqueduct and parts of a painted wall. The city began acquiring the land in 1975 and the site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

The site lies near Shisholop, a Chumash village settled around 1000 A.D. and believed to have been a provincial capital, whose people launched plank-built tomols to the Channel Islands. Shell beads found in later digs trace that long settlement. A mission bell marker stands here along El Camino Real, the route linking the California missions.

The site is open to the public with informational signs explaining what you are looking at. Visit in good daylight to properly see the stone remains and modern art installations throughout the grounds.

The 2007 dig before new apartments went up found artifacts from several periods, among them Ventura County's first courthouse and jail and its first hospital. It also turned up shell beads made from ocean shells gathered nearby, evidence of long human settlement around the mission.