"Kino visited Ímuris as early as March 1 687, but it was the 1690’s before some kind of chapel was built here. Throughout virtually all of its life as a mission, Ímuris was a visita of San Ignacio, and only rarely did it have a resident priest. It is unclear how many chapels may have been built at Ímuris in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries." (Pimería Alta, The Southwestern Mission Research Society)
Father Antonio de los Reyes on 6 July 1772 submitted a report on the condition of the missions in the Upper and Lower Pimería Alta. This was his report on San José de Ímuris as translated by Father Kieran McCarty. Note the spelling he uses for Ímuris.
"The village of San José at Himuri is three leagues to the east of San Ignacio. It is bordered on the east and on the north by the mountains. It is blessed with good lands but the Indians work very little or not at all at farming them. The church and house of the Missionary are nearly in ruins. The ornaments for the altar and divine services have dwindled to one chalice, three chasubles, two albs, three amices, and other adornments, all very old and almost unserviceable. According to the Census Book, which I have here before me, there are seven married couples, six widowers, nine orphans, the number of souls in all thirty-nine."
When the village was visited by United States Boundary Commissioner J.R. Bartlett in 1851, he said the church appeared quite new, no doubt a post-Franciscan construction. Today's church at Ímuris is a twentieth-century building from foundation to ceiling." (Pimería Alta, SMRC)
