Whenever locals went from Sonoma to Napa in the 1830-50s, whether by the trail or by the lower route around the end of the ridge, it was a commonplace occurrence, hardly worthy of mention. They basically wrote “Went to Napa and returned today.”

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.

A former stone schoolhouse: 1913 – 1932 I recently got the chance to look inside of the old stone Napa Redwoods schoolhouse on Redwood Road, past Hess Winery. Mary Montella, with her husband Jeff Newman, has owned the home built from the core of the school for almost 30 years now. She herself has done…

After Rudolph Jordan Jr. left Lotus Farm he began making wine with a former Napa Redwoods neighbor Ernest Streich at Castle Rock Vineyards.

After twelve years in Germany, the Jordans returned to San Francisco with three children. Jordan Sr., by then 64, went back to his properties and interests…

In 1884, Rudolph Jordan was 73 and a well-established businessman in San Francisco when he purchased land on Redwood Creek. But his route to that position was that of an ambitious gold seeker and pioneer.

On a hillside above Redwood Creek, surrounded by native Douglas fir and nearby coastal redwoods, a giant sequoia tree is shooting for the sky.

As we leave the line of houses on Redwood Road behind and round a curve he has regularly passed for over 100 years now, Bob Streich Sr. says dryly, “This all looks vaguely familiar.” Streich was born in 1906 in a farmhouse near the end of Redwood Road, on a hillside vineyard called Castle Rock….

Joe and I walk the last bit of the course of the Padre Trail that Joe had not been on.