About Napa, CA

Napa name was derived from a southern Nappan Indian Village that means Fairy valley, with the community who shared their area with various animals like deer, grizzlies, elk as well as painters for centuries. Way back time from the earliest settlers who lived in Napa Valley, there are only hundreds of Indians who started the community in the year 1823. The founder of the mission at Sonoma is Padre Jose Altamura who is in charge in leading the expedition. Mexican and Spanish control stayed until the Bear Flag Revolt. The Napa City is the first to be settled by American farmers in California who began arriving in the mid-1830s.

In the year 1849 when California was granted statehood, Napa Valley is part of California’s territory District of Sonoma. When countries were initially organized in the year 1850, Napa turned into one of the original countries based in California and the first courthouse was erected in the year 1851. Because of various diseases like smallpox, in the year 1870, most of the Indians who settled in the area were wiped out. Only a few remained and were taken into the Valley of Alexander, wherein the present time, several descendants reside on government reservations.

In the year 1847, Napa City was established by Nathan Coombs. James M. Hudspeth is the one who surveyed the town site on property Coombs had acknowledged from the holder of the original Spanish Grant named Nicolas Hihuerra. A saloon was initially established in the valley by a former miller at the Bale Grist Mill named Harrison Pierce. A year later, in 1848, Napa’s first general store was established and opened by Joseph P. Thompson. The Dolphine in the year 1850 turned to be the first steamship to cruise the river of Napa for opening another passage of commerce.

Napa Main Street in the mid-1850’s rivaled that of a lot of larger cities with plenty of saddle horses tied to the fenced in the middle of the afternoon. Cash slugs, hotels were crowded and California coinage were really a lot. Gambling emporiums as well as saloons were plenty, as well as a debut for their culture was made. A facility for the Lyceum movement was built as well as a reading room and an agricultural society had started. In the mid-1850s, 2 newspapers company started their publication and the debut of the Napa Valley Register was made in the year 1853 as Alexander J. Cox broadcasted the great Napa Country Reporter on July 4, 1856 for the first time.

Once a severe winter in the gold fields, miners desired refuge in the city from snow in the late mid-1850s, it was the gold rush that really started the Napa City, from cold, disease, snow and floods. Along the Main Street, a tent city was elevated. There were a lot of jobs in the valley offered to the broken miners. A lot of ranches were preserved and the lumber industry was developed. Team Napa City continued to progress, Sawmills in the valley were in the process of cutting up timber performed by the citizen, then delivered to the river to San Francisco and Benica.

The great and amazing silver rush in the year 1858 started in Napa Valley. Miners eagerly gather to the eastern hills. In the mid-1860s, mining last in a vast scale with quicksilver mines serving in different areas of Napa County. The most famous mine was the one near the summit of Mt. St. Helena called Silverado. The mine was canonized in a classic by Robert Louis Stevenson called The Silverado Squatters. F. A. Sawyer in the year 1869 built Sawyer Tanning Company and was linked in the business in Napa by his good father B. F. Sawyer after a year.