If you don’t love maps, read no further. This short aside from our regular articles concerns four maps of Rancho Huichica over forty years time, from 1844 (or earlier) to 1885, that I came across while researching the Padre Trail (link).

The destination of the Padre Trail from Sonoma for the ranchos was the adobe “bunkhouse” and ranch headquarters for Rancho de Napa and Salvador Vallejo. Above is an image, taken in 1887, from the front, from the east side, looking up at the adobe to show us what it looked like.

From the start of my interest in this area, neighbors and other history buffs had told me about what they called the Padre Trail. In the late 1820s and then 1830s, this trail had gained use by the Spanish and Mexicans at the mission in Sonoma.

Thanks to the Archer Taylor Preserve, we are able to walk old logging roads along Redwood Creek and get up to the top of Maggie’s Peak to see the view, and thus gain an affection for the land as we explore it. So it is a shock to find information that this area was one of trauma for some.