An Eccentric History of Sonoma & Napa from Amicis Tours

The Pre-Colombian history of California is misty because the hundreds of tribes that lived in this region left no written record and barely shared a language. With our Euro-Centric approach it is easy to ignore the powerful Pacific Rim influence on the history here.

When the Spanish arrived in Alta California they reported seeing Chinese Junks sailing along the coast. When they traveled up the Sacramento River they found that the native peoples there were growing rice. That region is still an important rice growing region.

Seventy years before Columbus set foot in the Caribbean huge fleets from China roamed the seas looking for cultures to trade with. The ships carried men and women, and you know what happens when you put them together, babies. Also, ships suffer damage over time, and when you put the two realities together there were more people than there were berths. So, communities were left behind and it included ship builders.

The Spanish saw so many Chinese Junks that they were convinced there was a Chinese city along the coast and called it Quivera, which one of the mythical cities of Gold. All through California there are Quivera streets and avenues. When they encountered the native people they described some of the tribes as being dressed like the Chinese, the women had long straight black hair, and the tribes had a very detailed knowledge of the local plants.

It is amazing that the Chinese settlements in California were forgotten. Of course the sailors were probably told that ships would come back for them, but when the ships returned to China the Emperor who had dispatched them had died and his son was xenophobic (afraid of the outside world). He beached the ships and closed the borders, actually cutting down a fifty mile wide swath of trees along the Chinese coast to prevent people from coming or going. The borders stayed close for the next four hundred years.

The Chinese communities merged with the local peoples over time. When the Spanish arrived California was one of the most populated places on the continent with over 300,000 people making their home there. Their style of agriculture worked in harmony with nature, so much so that the Spanish thought that the beautiful growing areas they saw were totally natural.  

In 1850 the first ship of China immigrants arrived in San Francisco harbor. Three of those immigrants headed to the North Beach area and founded China town. This was the home of the labor contractors who provided workers for the train tunnels, the mines, the wine caves and planting the vineyards. Today the Asian community is the largest ethnic group in the Bay Area.

Many of the oldest drawings from wine country show Chinese workers crushing the grapes. The oldest caves in the region at Buena Vista, Beringer and Schramsberg were dug by these early Chinese immigrants. In the northern Napa Valley the Chinese workers made their camps along the Silverado Trail. After they had finished their work the locals torched their camp to drive them out. Not Napa’s finest moment.

In Sonoma the planting and cave digging was in the southern part of the Sonoma Valley. At that time the fancy region was just up valley by Aqua Caliente where the hot springs drew visitors to the inns there. The historic Sonoma plaza was considered a backwater and one half of the Plaza was inhabited by the Chinese workers. Even though they were needed in the region the prejudice they dealt with made them hide their temples and meeting places in caves in the nearby hillsides.