Tales of Sonoma County Past

 Some of these are wine stories, some not. Some seem to come right out of the Wild West. Most appeared in the local paper, so are likely to be true.  :)

  Wine Stories

1926 A Prohibition bust
During Prohibition, wineries were still allowed to ship grapes to home winemakers throughout the country, but you couldn't make commercial wine for the most part. One day the Feds raided Foppiano Winery and made them dump 100,000 gallons of wine. It ran into a nearby creek. When the locals found out, they rushed out to the roadside creek with their cups and buckets to scoop it up.

Foppiano giving away free wine

2000 Matanzas Creek Winery sale
Founded in 1977 by an heiress in the Sears Roebuck family and her husband. The owners went out to dinner in Santa Rosa one night with Jess Jackson (founder of Kendall-Jackson Winery). Jess had an ulterior motive as he asked if they'd like to sell their winery. They laughed, saying there isn't enough money to get them to sell their pride and joy. Jess wrote a figure on a cocktail napkin and passed it across the table. They replied, "Sold."

  Non-wine Stories

1854 Santa Rosa becomes the county seat
The town of Sonoma was the original permanent settlement in Sonoma County and became the county seat in 1850 when the county was established. A few of the town leaders in Santa Rosa decided to build their own county offices. How to get everything moved from Sonoma to Santa Rosa? Lawyers? Popular vote? Nah, they went to Sonoma's offices one night and took the county records.

1865 The Civil War almost comes to Sonoma County
The town of Santa Rosa was known as a hotbed of Confederate sympathizers, as was their newspaper, The Democrat. Nearby Petaluma and their paper, the Argus, were Union people. The two towns and their papers threw insults at each other during the war. It came to a head after the Lincoln assassination. The Union militia in Petaluma needed someone to blame and that was going to be Santa Rosa. It's not clear if they meant to storm the courthouse, or maybe burn down The Democrat's news office. The angry men got as far as the Washoe House, a stagecoach stop outside of Petaluma; it's still in business as a restaurant & bar. They were thirsty. They got drunk. They went home. Sometimes alcohol saves lives.

Washoe House

1920 The last lynching in California
Three bad men assaulted some young women in San Francisco and were traced to Santa Rosa. The perps were located, and the sheriff and two SF detectives were killed when they attempted to arrest them. The three were captured and put in the county jail. A disguised mob showed up and overpowered the deputies, or were maybe let in, and took the three hoodlums. They were strung up. Thousands lined up outside the morgue to see the bodies. The tree where they were hung was cut down as it became too much of a local tourist attraction.

Checking out the hanging tree

Early 1980s Charles Schulz at the fancy hotel restaurant
I don't remember the exact date, but a fancy corporate hotel opening in Santa Rosa at the site of the Hilton that burned in the Tubbs fire in 2017. Anyway, like I said, they were big city fancy and had a fancy restaurant. Problem is, Santa Rosa wasn't fancy. The restaurant had a dress code and maybe nobody would have said anything, but the town's superstar, Charles Schulz of Peanuts fame, went there for dinner and was turned away because he wasn't dressed fancy enough. There was an uproar. The Santa Rosa Press Democrat latched onto the story. The fancy hotel chain sold the property, and it became less fancy.