Sonoma Valley
Encyclopedia
Sonoma Valley is the birthplace of the California
wine
industry and often called The Valley of the Moon. Sonoma Valley is home to some of the earliest vineyards and wineries in the state, some of which survived the phylloxera
epidemic of the 1870s and the impact of Prohibition
. Its wineries are generally well prepared for receiving tourists, and Sonoma Valley offers a wide range of year-round festivals and events, including the prestigious Sonoma International Film Festival
. Today, this small valley's wines are protected by the US Federal Government's Sonoma Valley
and Carneros AVAs (or American Viticultural Area
s).
. It stretches from San Pablo Bay
in the south to the city of Santa Rosa
in the north. Sonoma Creek
flows down the valley to the bay. The area includes the incorporated city of Sonoma
and part of the City of Santa Rosa, as well as numerous unincorporated communities, including Kenwood
and Glen Ellen
near Santa Rosa and, near Sonoma, El Verano
, Boyes Hot Springs, Fetters Hot Springs, and Agua Caliente
.
, Pomo and Wintun
peoples, called the Valley of the Moon
in their legends, the valley was selected by the Franciscan order of Spain
as the site to build the Mission San Francisco Solano
, the northernmost mission in their chain of twenty-one mission
s built in Alta California
. Established in 1823 and named to honor St. Francis Solanus
, Mission Solano was the sole California mission established under the rule of a newly-independent Mexico
. Within two generations of the Spaniards' arrival, however, the indigenous societies of the region were dispossessed of their land and decimated by diseases to which Europeans were resistant. Soon after the Sonoma mission was built, it was secularized by the Mexican government, and, under the orders of Lieutenant, later General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo
, el Pueblo de Sonoma (the town of Sonoma
) was laid out in the standard form of a Mexican town, centered around the historic plaza, which is still the town's focal point. The raising of the first California Bear Flag
and Vallejo's arrest in 1846 by a band of Americans claiming to act on the orders of Col. John C. Fremont
was the initial act that founded the Bear Flag Republic
. Vallejo later transferred his allegiance with US statehood (1850), and with his amassed land holdings guided the development of the town and dispensed large ranches throughout the valley. California's first wineries were established here, including Buena Vista Winery (1857) and Gundlach Bundschu
(1858).
The other communities in the valley, such as Kenwood
, Glen Ellen
, Schellville
, and Boyes Hot Springs
, were founded later in the 19th century, some as resorts centered on the geothermic hot springs that still well up from deep within the earth. Boyes Hot Springs and Agua Caliente were popular health retreats for tourists from San Francisco
and points beyond until the middle of the 20th century. Today the Sonoma Mission Inn in Boyes Hot Springs remains as a main destination resort, and the wineries, the historic sites, and the area's natural beauty are the main tourist attractions.
to the California Legislature.
According to Jack London
, who had a ranch there, the Native American word Sonoma means Valley of the Moon. He used it for his book of the same name. But there are several other possible translations for Sonoma (see Sonoma County, California
). According to the Miwok
tribes that lived in the valley, and the Pomo
, it meant "valley of the moon" or "many moons". White settlers may have accidentally translated the words "many moons" into "valley of moons". Miwok legends say that the moon seemingly rose from this valley, or was "nestled" in the valley, or may have even sprung up multiple times in one night.
s that have resulted from the subduction
of the former oceanic Farallon Plate
under the North American continent. During late Miocene-Pliocene time (~10 to ~4 million years) the area was attended by volcanism
(Late Miocene Tolay Volcanics and Late Miocene - Pliocene Sonoma Volcanics) which are interbedded with the late Miocene-Pliocene Petaluma Formation. The (~9 to 4 million year old) Petaluma Formation was a fresh-water river system flowing from east to west and through the volcanics. At that time, volcanic lava flows and river sands and gravels were actively deposited together, hence "interbedded lavas and gravels". The volcanoes may have been similar to island arc
s. The Petaluma Formation is found in outcrop from Sears Point to Santa Rosa (through Sonoma Mountain) and as far west as Cotati where it interfingers with a marine sandstone called the Wilson Grove Formation. Gravels in the Petaluma Formation did not come from rocks located in Napa, but have been sourced to mountains east of San Jose, California. This does not mean rivers flowed northward from San Jose to Sonoma; rather, strike-slip movement along the Hayward-Sonoma Valley-Carneros fault system has dislocated present-day Sonoma County north and away from the mountains in San Jose where the basin formed.
The valley is drained by Sonoma Creek
, whose headwaters rise in Sugarloaf Mountain State Park and discharge into the San Pablo Bay
at the Napa Sonoma Marsh
. Some of the principal tributaries to Sonoma Creek are Yulupa Creek
, Graham Creek
, Calabazas Creek
, Bear Creek, Schell Creek and Carriger Creek.
completed a comprehensive basin-wide groundwater study to characterize groundwater resources in the Sonoma Valley. The report can be obtained on the USGS publications website. Currently, a Basin Advisory Panel, composed of stakeholders from agriculture, environmental groups, domestic well owners, municipalities and government is working to develop a groundwater management plan to protect groundwater resources in the valley.
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
industry and often called The Valley of the Moon. Sonoma Valley is home to some of the earliest vineyards and wineries in the state, some of which survived the phylloxera
Phylloxera
Grape phylloxera ; originally described in France as Phylloxera vastatrix; equated to the previously described Daktulosphaira vitifoliae, Phylloxera vitifoliae; commonly just called phylloxera is a pest of commercial grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America...
epidemic of the 1870s and the impact of Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
. Its wineries are generally well prepared for receiving tourists, and Sonoma Valley offers a wide range of year-round festivals and events, including the prestigious Sonoma International Film Festival
Sonoma International Film Festival
The Sonoma International Film Festival takes place every April in the Sonoma Valley and is hosted by the Sonoma International Film Society, a 501c3 non-profit organization. The festival is in its 14th season and has become a film festival destination location hosting the best in film, food and wine...
. Today, this small valley's wines are protected by the US Federal Government's Sonoma Valley
Sonoma Valley AVA
The Sonoma Valley AVA is an American Viticultural Area in Sonoma County, California, USA which centers on the Sonoma Valley in the southern portion of the county...
and Carneros AVAs (or American Viticultural Area
American Viticultural Area
An American Viticultural Area is a designated wine grape-growing region in the United States distinguishable by geographic features, with boundaries defined by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau , United States Department of the Treasury....
s).
Geography
The valley is located in southeastern Sonoma County between the Mayacamas Mountains and Sonoma MountainsSonoma Mountains
The Sonoma Mountains are a northwest-southeast trending formation of California Coast Ranges in Sonoma County, California, USA. The range is approximately fourteen miles long and separates the Sonoma Creek watershed from the Petaluma River and Tolay Creek watersheds...
. It stretches from San Pablo Bay
San Pablo Bay
San Pablo Bay is a tidal estuary that forms the northern extension of San Francisco Bay in northern California in the United States. Most of the Bay is shallow; however, there is a deep water channel approximately in mid bay, which allows access to Sacramento, Stockton, Benicia, Martinez, and...
in the south to the city of Santa Rosa
Santa Rosa, California
Santa Rosa is the county seat of Sonoma County, California, United States. The 2010 census reported a population of 167,815. Santa Rosa is the largest city in California's Wine Country and fifth largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area, after San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, and Fremont and 26th...
in the north. Sonoma Creek
Sonoma Creek
Sonoma Creek is a stream in northern California. It is one of two principal drainages of southern Sonoma County, California, with headwaters rising in the rugged hills of Sugarloaf Ridge State Park and discharging to San Pablo Bay, the northern arm of San Francisco Bay. The watershed drained by...
flows down the valley to the bay. The area includes the incorporated city of Sonoma
Sonoma, California
Sonoma is a historically significant city in Sonoma Valley, Sonoma County, California, USA, surrounding its historic town plaza, a remnant of the town's Mexican colonial past. It was the capital of the short-lived California Republic...
and part of the City of Santa Rosa, as well as numerous unincorporated communities, including Kenwood
Kenwood, California
Kenwood, California is an unincorporated town and census-designated place in Sonoma County, California, United States, located on Sonoma Highway between the cities Santa Rosa and Sonoma. It lies east of Sonoma Creek in the upper part of Sonoma Valley, a region sometimes called the Valley of the...
and Glen Ellen
Glen Ellen, California
Glen Ellen is a census-designated place in Sonoma Valley, Sonoma County, California, USA. The population was 784 at the 2010 census, down from 992 at the 2000 census. Glen Ellen is the location of Jack London State Historic Park , Sonoma Valley Regional Park, and a former home of Hunter S....
near Santa Rosa and, near Sonoma, El Verano
El Verano, California
El Verano is a census-designated place in Sonoma Valley, Sonoma County, California, United States. The population was 4,123 at the 2010 census....
, Boyes Hot Springs, Fetters Hot Springs, and Agua Caliente
Fetters Hot Springs-Agua Caliente, California
Fetters Hot Springs-Agua Caliente is a census-designated place in Sonoma Valley, Sonoma County, California, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the CDP population was 4,144....
.
History
Once a valley of the coastal MiwokMiwok
Miwok can refer to any one of four linguistically related groups of Native Americans, native to Northern California, who spoke one of the Miwokan languages in the Utian family...
, Pomo and Wintun
Wintun
Wintun is the name generally given to a group of related Native American tribes who live in Northern California, including the Wintu , Nomlaki , and Patwin tribes. Their range is from approximately present-day Lake Shasta to San Francisco Bay, along the western side of the Sacramento River to the...
peoples, called the Valley of the Moon
The Valley of the Moon
The Valley of the Moon is a novel by American writer Jack London...
in their legends, the valley was selected by the Franciscan order of Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
as the site to build the Mission San Francisco Solano
Mission San Francisco Solano
Mission San Francisco Solano was founded on July 4, 1823, and named for Francis Solanus, a missionary to the Indians of Peru born in Montilla, Spain, known as the "Wonder Worker of the New World." Originally planned as an asistencia to Mission San Rafael Arcángel, it is the northernmost Alta...
, the northernmost mission in their chain of twenty-one mission
Mission (Christian)
Christian missionary activities often involve sending individuals and groups , to foreign countries and to places in their own homeland. This has frequently involved not only evangelization , but also humanitarian work, especially among the poor and disadvantaged...
s built in Alta California
Alta California
Alta California was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California,...
. Established in 1823 and named to honor St. Francis Solanus
Francis Solanus
Saint Francis Solanus, O.F.M., was a Spanish friar and missionary in South America, belonging to the Order of Friars Minor , who is honored as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church.-Early life:...
, Mission Solano was the sole California mission established under the rule of a newly-independent Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. Within two generations of the Spaniards' arrival, however, the indigenous societies of the region were dispossessed of their land and decimated by diseases to which Europeans were resistant. Soon after the Sonoma mission was built, it was secularized by the Mexican government, and, under the orders of Lieutenant, later General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo
Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo
Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo was a Californian military commander, politician, and rancher. He was born a subject of Spain, performed his military duties as an officer of Mexico, and shaped the transition of California from a Mexican district to an American state...
, el Pueblo de Sonoma (the town of Sonoma
Sonoma, California
Sonoma is a historically significant city in Sonoma Valley, Sonoma County, California, USA, surrounding its historic town plaza, a remnant of the town's Mexican colonial past. It was the capital of the short-lived California Republic...
) was laid out in the standard form of a Mexican town, centered around the historic plaza, which is still the town's focal point. The raising of the first California Bear Flag
California Republic
The California Republic, also called the Bear Flag Republic, is the name used for a period of revolt against Mexico initially proclaimed by a handful of American settlers in Mexican California on June 14, 1846, in Sonoma. This was shortly before news of the Mexican–American War had reached the area...
and Vallejo's arrest in 1846 by a band of Americans claiming to act on the orders of Col. John C. Fremont
John C. Frémont
John Charles Frémont , was an American military officer, explorer, and the first candidate of the anti-slavery Republican Party for the office of President of the United States. During the 1840s, that era's penny press accorded Frémont the sobriquet The Pathfinder...
was the initial act that founded the Bear Flag Republic
California Republic
The California Republic, also called the Bear Flag Republic, is the name used for a period of revolt against Mexico initially proclaimed by a handful of American settlers in Mexican California on June 14, 1846, in Sonoma. This was shortly before news of the Mexican–American War had reached the area...
. Vallejo later transferred his allegiance with US statehood (1850), and with his amassed land holdings guided the development of the town and dispensed large ranches throughout the valley. California's first wineries were established here, including Buena Vista Winery (1857) and Gundlach Bundschu
Gundlach Bundschu
Gundlach Bundschu is often credited to be California's oldest family-owned winery: it is still owned and operated by the founder's heirs and today led by the sixth generation, Jeff Bundschu...
(1858).
The other communities in the valley, such as Kenwood
Kenwood, California
Kenwood, California is an unincorporated town and census-designated place in Sonoma County, California, United States, located on Sonoma Highway between the cities Santa Rosa and Sonoma. It lies east of Sonoma Creek in the upper part of Sonoma Valley, a region sometimes called the Valley of the...
, Glen Ellen
Glen Ellen, California
Glen Ellen is a census-designated place in Sonoma Valley, Sonoma County, California, USA. The population was 784 at the 2010 census, down from 992 at the 2000 census. Glen Ellen is the location of Jack London State Historic Park , Sonoma Valley Regional Park, and a former home of Hunter S....
, Schellville
Schellville, California
Schellville is an unincorporated community in Sonoma County, California, United States. Schellville is located at the junction of California State Route 12 and California State Route 121 south of Sonoma...
, and Boyes Hot Springs
Boyes Hot Springs, California
Boyes Hot Springs is a census-designated place in Sonoma Valley, Sonoma County, California, United States. The population was 6,656 people at the 2010 census...
, were founded later in the 19th century, some as resorts centered on the geothermic hot springs that still well up from deep within the earth. Boyes Hot Springs and Agua Caliente were popular health retreats for tourists from San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
and points beyond until the middle of the 20th century. Today the Sonoma Mission Inn in Boyes Hot Springs remains as a main destination resort, and the wineries, the historic sites, and the area's natural beauty are the main tourist attractions.
The Valley of the Moon (legend)
The phrase Valley of the Moon was first recorded in an 1850 report by General Mariano Guadalupe VallejoMariano Guadalupe Vallejo
Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo was a Californian military commander, politician, and rancher. He was born a subject of Spain, performed his military duties as an officer of Mexico, and shaped the transition of California from a Mexican district to an American state...
to the California Legislature.
According to Jack London
Jack London
John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
, who had a ranch there, the Native American word Sonoma means Valley of the Moon. He used it for his book of the same name. But there are several other possible translations for Sonoma (see Sonoma County, California
Sonoma County, California
Sonoma County, located on the northern coast of the U.S. state of California, is the largest and northernmost of the nine San Francisco Bay Area counties. Its population at the 2010 census was 483,878. Its largest city and county seat is Santa Rosa....
). According to the Miwok
Miwok
Miwok can refer to any one of four linguistically related groups of Native Americans, native to Northern California, who spoke one of the Miwokan languages in the Utian family...
tribes that lived in the valley, and the Pomo
Pomo people
The Pomo people are an indigenous peoples of California. The historic Pomo territory in northern California was large, bordered by the Pacific Coast to the west, extending inland to Clear Lake, and mainly between Cleone and Duncans Point...
, it meant "valley of the moon" or "many moons". White settlers may have accidentally translated the words "many moons" into "valley of moons". Miwok legends say that the moon seemingly rose from this valley, or was "nestled" in the valley, or may have even sprung up multiple times in one night.
Geology
The Sonoma Valley is part of the Coast Range Physiographic provence. Basement rocks that make up the valley at great depth are the Great Valley Sequence shale, sandstone and conglomerate deposited in a continental slope- to abysal plain environment via turbidite flows. The Cretaceous Great Valley Sequence overlies and contacts the Franciscan Complex along the Coast Range Thrust. The Jurassic-Cretaceous Franciscan Complex includes crumpled, uplifted terraneTerrane
A terrane in geology is short-hand term for a tectonostratigraphic terrane, which is a fragment of crustal material formed on, or broken off from, one tectonic plate and accreted or "sutured" to crust lying on another plate...
s that have resulted from the subduction
Subduction
In geology, subduction is the process that takes place at convergent boundaries by which one tectonic plate moves under another tectonic plate, sinking into the Earth's mantle, as the plates converge. These 3D regions of mantle downwellings are known as "Subduction Zones"...
of the former oceanic Farallon Plate
Farallon Plate
The Farallon Plate was an ancient oceanic plate, which began subducting under the west coast of the North American Plate— then located in modern Utah— as Pangaea broke apart during the Jurassic Period...
under the North American continent. During late Miocene-Pliocene time (~10 to ~4 million years) the area was attended by volcanism
Volcanism
Volcanism is the phenomenon connected with volcanoes and volcanic activity. It includes all phenomena resulting from and causing magma within the crust or mantle of a planet to rise through the crust and form volcanic rocks on the surface....
(Late Miocene Tolay Volcanics and Late Miocene - Pliocene Sonoma Volcanics) which are interbedded with the late Miocene-Pliocene Petaluma Formation. The (~9 to 4 million year old) Petaluma Formation was a fresh-water river system flowing from east to west and through the volcanics. At that time, volcanic lava flows and river sands and gravels were actively deposited together, hence "interbedded lavas and gravels". The volcanoes may have been similar to island arc
Island arc
An island arc is a type of archipelago composed of a chain of volcanoes which alignment is arc-shaped, and which are situated parallel and close to a boundary between two converging tectonic plates....
s. The Petaluma Formation is found in outcrop from Sears Point to Santa Rosa (through Sonoma Mountain) and as far west as Cotati where it interfingers with a marine sandstone called the Wilson Grove Formation. Gravels in the Petaluma Formation did not come from rocks located in Napa, but have been sourced to mountains east of San Jose, California. This does not mean rivers flowed northward from San Jose to Sonoma; rather, strike-slip movement along the Hayward-Sonoma Valley-Carneros fault system has dislocated present-day Sonoma County north and away from the mountains in San Jose where the basin formed.
The valley is drained by Sonoma Creek
Sonoma Creek
Sonoma Creek is a stream in northern California. It is one of two principal drainages of southern Sonoma County, California, with headwaters rising in the rugged hills of Sugarloaf Ridge State Park and discharging to San Pablo Bay, the northern arm of San Francisco Bay. The watershed drained by...
, whose headwaters rise in Sugarloaf Mountain State Park and discharge into the San Pablo Bay
San Pablo Bay
San Pablo Bay is a tidal estuary that forms the northern extension of San Francisco Bay in northern California in the United States. Most of the Bay is shallow; however, there is a deep water channel approximately in mid bay, which allows access to Sacramento, Stockton, Benicia, Martinez, and...
at the Napa Sonoma Marsh
Napa Sonoma Marsh
The Napa Sonoma Marsh is a wetland at the northern edge of San Pablo Bay, which is a northern arm of the San Francisco Bay in California, USA. This marsh has an area of 48,000 acres , of which 13,000 acres are abandoned salt evaporation ponds...
. Some of the principal tributaries to Sonoma Creek are Yulupa Creek
Yulupa Creek
Yulupa Creek is a southeast-flowing perennial stream that rises on the southeastern flanks of the northern Sonoma Mountains in Sonoma County, California, United States...
, Graham Creek
Graham Creek
Graham Creek is a perennial stream in Sonoma County, California, tributary to Sonoma Creek. Graham Creek rises in the northern Sonoma Mountains and flows generally northeasterly down the northeastern flank of Sonoma Mountain. Historically this watercourse was called Wild Water Creek, a name used...
, Calabazas Creek
Calabazas Creek
Calabazas Creek is a stream in the Sonoma Valley, California, USA, that rises in the southern Mayacamas Mountains and empties into Sonoma Creek near Glen Ellen.-History:...
, Bear Creek, Schell Creek and Carriger Creek.
Hydrogeology
In the spring of 2006, the United States Geological Survey in conjunction with the Sonoma County Water AgencySonoma County Water Agency
The Sonoma County Water Agency is the government agency responsible for managing the water resources of Sonoma County, California...
completed a comprehensive basin-wide groundwater study to characterize groundwater resources in the Sonoma Valley. The report can be obtained on the USGS publications website. Currently, a Basin Advisory Panel, composed of stakeholders from agriculture, environmental groups, domestic well owners, municipalities and government is working to develop a groundwater management plan to protect groundwater resources in the valley.
Points of interest
- Quarryhill Botanic GardenQuarryhill Botanic GardenThe Quarryhill Botanical Garden is a research botanical garden housing one of the largest collections of temperate Asian plants in North America...
- Mission San Francisco SolanoMission San Francisco SolanoMission San Francisco Solano was founded on July 4, 1823, and named for Francis Solanus, a missionary to the Indians of Peru born in Montilla, Spain, known as the "Wonder Worker of the New World." Originally planned as an asistencia to Mission San Rafael Arcángel, it is the northernmost Alta...
- Jack London State Historic ParkJack London State Historic ParkJack London State Historic Park, also known as Jack London Home and Ranch, is a California State Historic Park near Glen Ellen, California, United States, situated on the eastern slope of Sonoma Mountain...
- Sonoma State Historic ParkSonoma State Historic ParkSonoma State Historic Park is a state park located in the center of Sonoma, California. The park consists of six sites in Sonoma: the Mission San Francisco Solano, the Presidio of Sonoma or Sonoma Barracks, the Toscano Hotel, the Blue Wing Inn, and La Casa Grande and Lachryma Montis, the homes of...
- Sonoma CreekSonoma CreekSonoma Creek is a stream in northern California. It is one of two principal drainages of southern Sonoma County, California, with headwaters rising in the rugged hills of Sugarloaf Ridge State Park and discharging to San Pablo Bay, the northern arm of San Francisco Bay. The watershed drained by...
- Wine Country
- 'The Sonoma Plaza' (The Town Square) and on the Official National Registry of Historic Sites
- Blue Wing Inn of 1840, where such notable guests, according to local tradition, included John C. FrémontJohn C. FrémontJohn Charles Frémont , was an American military officer, explorer, and the first candidate of the anti-slavery Republican Party for the office of President of the United States. During the 1840s, that era's penny press accorded Frémont the sobriquet The Pathfinder...
, U. S. Grant, Governor Pío PicoPío PicoPío de Jesús Pico was the last Governor of Alta California under Mexican rule.-Origins:...
, Kit CarsonKit CarsonChristopher Houston "Kit" Carson was an American frontiersman and Indian fighter. Carson left home in rural present-day Missouri at age 16 and became a Mountain man and trapper in the West. Carson explored the west to California, and north through the Rocky Mountains. He lived among and married...
, Fighting Joe HookerJoe HookerJoe Hooker may refer to:* Joseph Hooker, U.S. Army officer and major general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.* Harve Pierre, also known as Joe Hooker, record producer, writer and singer & Vice-President of Bad Boy Records...
, William T. Sherman, Phil Sheridan, and members of the Bear Flag Party. - General Mariano Guadalupe VallejoMariano Guadalupe VallejoMariano Guadalupe Vallejo was a Californian military commander, politician, and rancher. He was born a subject of Spain, performed his military duties as an officer of Mexico, and shaped the transition of California from a Mexican district to an American state...
Home: Official residence of the last Spanish Governor. - Presidio of SonomaPresidio of SonomaEl Presidio de Sonoma, or Sonoma Barracks, was a military outpost established in Alta California in 1836. It was built to house troops under General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, the Commandant of the Northern Frontier, as part of Mexico's strategy to subdue the Native Americans of the Sonoma Valley...
adobe: - Toscono Hotel
- Mission San Francisco SolanoMission San Francisco SolanoMission San Francisco Solano was founded on July 4, 1823, and named for Francis Solanus, a missionary to the Indians of Peru born in Montilla, Spain, known as the "Wonder Worker of the New World." Originally planned as an asistencia to Mission San Rafael Arcángel, it is the northernmost Alta...
, California's last Spanish Mission - Swiss Hotel - Adobe structure and original home of Vallejo's brother, located on 'The Square' (see link below)
- Sebastiani Theatre - A historical theatre built in 1933 by Samuele Sebastiani as a movie house.
- Sonoma TrainTown Railroad - miniature amusement park
- Depot Park
- Cornerstone Sonoma
See also
:Category:Sonoma County wineries- Sonoma Valley Film FestivalSonoma Valley Film FestivalThe Sonoma Valley Film Festival traditionally takes place in April in Sonoma, California and is hosted by the Sonoma Valley Film Society. The 10th anniversary of the film festival in 2007 honored two-time Academy Award winning director John Lasseter of Pixar and Disney Animation studios.The 11th...
- Infineon RacewayInfineon RacewayInfineon Raceway, formerly Sears Point Raceway, is a road course and drag strip located on the landform known as Sears Point in the southern Sonoma Mountains near Sonoma, California, USA. The course is a complex series of twists and turns that go up and down the hills...
- The Valley of the Moon (novel)