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Napa Valley | Calistoga
| History
 Sharpsteen
Museum Rich in history Calistoga has worked diligently to
incorporate the new with the old, and has successfully melded the
historical concept of Americana-small-town with the currency of
the computer and the information age. Side-by-side with million
year old geysers are the spas offering mineral soaks or mud baths,
Aromatherapy and masseuses trained to soothe the sore muscles of
a rush-rush world. Also found are the shops offering herbal and
natural products from green-grocers to mineral soaps, natural cottons
and silks to rayon and polyesters. And, of course, Calistoga is
the home of Calistoga Mineral Water and Crystal Geyser Water, those
bottled natural compounds that refresh and sustain life.
Sam
Brannan - After visiting the hot springs in Napa County,
Brannan bought a huge tract of land and founded the village of Calistoga,
(a combination of the words California and Saratoga) planning a
resort. Failing at that, he became a brewer, then an alcoholic.
Foresaking the city he helped found, he drifted to San Diego, remarried
and set up a small ranch near the Mexican border. At the age of
sixty-nine, he was paid the sum of forty-nine thousand dollars in
interest from the government of Mexico. He quit drinking, paid all
his debts and died penniless at the age of seventy.
The Legend of the Geysers - Long, long ago, the peaceful
Ashochimi Indian tribe inhabited a rich and luxuriant valley on
both sides of a river, now known as the Russian River north of San
Francisco.
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