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Napa Valley | Napa
| History
 History
of Napa Valley Winegrowing - To the Wappo Indians who
first inhabited the valley, "Napa" meant a land of plenty.
Spawning salmon filled the waterways, clouds of migrating waterfowl
darkened the skies and the valley floor served as home to wildcats,
elk, black bear and grizzlies. Wild grapes also grew in abundance,
but it took early settlers such as George Calvert Yount to recognize
the valley's potential for cultivating winegrapes. Establishing
the first local homestead in what is now Yountville in 1836, Yount
was the first to plant vineyards in the valley. Other early pioneers
included John Patchett, who planted the first commercial vineyard;
Dr. George Crane, who promoted the planting of grapevines through
a series of newspaper articles; and Hamilton Walker Crabb, who experimented
with more than 400 grape varieties.
 The
Napa County Historical Society was established to study
the history of California and especially of Napa Valley. Its projects
include the collection, preservation, organization, and sharing
of information and artifacts of historical value, in an effort to
bring the rich heritage of this fascinating region to the awareness
of the public. The beautiful Napa Valley has an unusually high number
of historical sites, structures and buildings. The Napa County Historical
Society has preserved documents and photographs to create a living
textbook of local history. Conceived on May 8, 1948, at a pioneer
picnic at the Old Bale Mill, the Napa County Historical Society
was incorporated on May 14th of the same year. The picturesque mill,
built in 1846 by the English settler of the Rancho Carne Humana,
Dr. E. Bale, was an appropriate setting for the inauguration of
the Society.
Napa
History.com
- This site has been created to celebrate the fantastic history
of the Napa Valley. From the early days, when the Wappo Indians
lived in the Napa Valley to the present, the history of the Napa
Valley has represented a way of life in many small California towns.
It's earliest settlers, the Wappo Indians lived with both hardship,
and beauty. They hunted, fished, and were inspired by the beauty
of this valley. When the first white settlers came to the valley,
they saw both opportunity and freedom. The wild west was still very
much alive in those days. Life was never easy in any sense of the
word. To own land, one had to become a Mexican citizen, and the
lands were ruled by an outdated system of governors by the Mexican
government. There was rebellion, fighting, bloodshed, and death
along the way. When the "Bear Flag Rebellion" finally occurred in
Sonoma, the men fighting for freedom were a rag tag bunch, but they
won, and today, that Bear Flag is now the California State Flag.
Wikipedia
- Napa County - Napa County, once the producer of many
different crops is known today for its wine industry, rising in
the 1960s to the first rank of wine regions with France and Italy.
The combination of natural beauty, pleasant Mediterranean climate,
and proximity to San Francisco, Oakland, and Sacramento has made
it into one of the United States' most desirable areas in which
to live. However, its citizens are famous for their resistance to
suburban development, with the result that 33 of California's 58
counties--including many that are far from major urban areas--are
more populous.
Napa
County Genealogy
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