The cross -- along with a cow, a tuna fish, a Spanish galleon, the Hollywood Bowl and the Goddess Pomona cradling an armful of fruit -- has adorned the county seal since 1957.

The mission is the ninth in a series of 21 missions erected by Spanish friars across California and is the last built by Serra. California at that time was untamed land with few roads.

“At Mission San Francisco, the captain of a trading ship came upon Franciscan friars using a red hot iron to burn a cross into the faces of a group of men, women and children who had tried to escape ...