The mission bells set the rhythm of life for all who lived at the missions. All through the day the mission bells rang, announcing that it was time to go to church, time for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, time to work, or time to rest.
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Life was regulated by the sound of bells. They could be heard far up and down Mission Valley, calling the Indians to prayer and to work, and announcing the good or the bad tidings of the day.
The bell towers are perhaps the most beautiful and remarkable features of the missions in California. The bells were rung at mealtimes, to call residents to work and worship, during special events such as births and funerals, to signal the approach of a ship, or to sound an alarm.
In terms of collective memory, the bell was important as the voice of the community and a sign of its identity. Bell ringing played a major role in Portuguese culture. Bells ringing alarm warned of threats to the community, as well as announcing baptisms, weddings and deaths.
It was to be a bell denoting the early connection with the Franciscan friars' California missions – a bell mounted on a tall crook set in concrete and placed along the King's Highway. The bells were first created and paid for by the Camino Real Association in the early 1900s.
Bells range between San Diego County in the south to Sonoma County in the north. Source: California's El Camino Real and Its Historic Bells by Max Kurillo & Erline Tuttle and the California Department of Transportation.
It may be that the unusual bells at Mission San Buenaventura were made for those days. These two bells are carved from two-foot blocks of redwood, the only wooden bells known at the California missions.