You think you are walking in a park,
but you are strolling in a history book
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By Miguel Pérez
As you walk through the Sonoma State Historic Park, an area of just a few blocks in downtown Sonoma, California, you feel like you are strolling in a history book. With every step you take, you can’t help being amazed at how much California history has taken place in this small area. And most of it happened just about two centuries ago! There is so much heritage to absorb here that sometimes it can be overwhelming. You have to run a timeline in your mind to keep the events that occurred here in sensical order. |
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After all, this is the northern end of the 1523-1823 mission trail that “marked three hundred years of Spanish-Mexican settlement,” according to a plaque here. “It travelled as far south as Guatemala and traversed Mexico to advance through . . . our present-day United States."
This is the spot where Father José Altimira chose to build Mission San Francisco Solano, the 21st, northernmost and last California Franciscan mission in 1823, and the only one established after Mexico became independent from Spain. But this is also the area where Californio General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, born in Monterey, built and lost an empire that influenced life in northern California for a good part of the 19th century. |
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This is the spot where Altimira planted the first Sonoma vineyard and Vallejo later became the first commercial wine maker in today’s “wine country.”
My last article explored Mission San Francisco Solano and its short life from 1823 to 1834. But the Sonoma Historic State Park, established when the Mission became state property in 1906, has much more history on display. There is a monument here marking the spot where “a band of rebellious settlers raised the first flag for the California Republic,” removed Vallejo from power and declared the region as independent from Mexico, “which lead, in part, to California becoming part of the United States,” according to historical markers here. The rebels' "Bear Flag," featuring a single star and a grizzly bear, was raised and the short-lived California Republic was proclaimed on June 14, 1846. (See photo). |
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And when you find General Vallejo sitting on a park bench and clutching a book, you feel may tempted to sit next to him. He is extending his left arm across the back of the bench, as if inviting you to sit down for a history lesson. (See photo).
If you follow this website, you know that I have taken selfies with many monuments all over this country, yet none were as unique and accommodating as this one! You don't have to look up to this monumental figure. You can sit next to him! His statue makes you feel like he is a regular guy who is still around and listening to what you have to say. But when you read the plaque near his bench, listing his many titles, you see that Vallejo was no regular guy, he was one of the most powerful men in California: "Founder of the Pueblo of Sonoma on June 24, 1835, Commissioner of the Sonoma Mission, Commandant General of California, Director of Colonization for the Northern Frontier, California State Senator, Mayor of Sonoma, Soldier, Statesman, Diplomat, Historian, Rancher, Winemaker, Horticulturist." |
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Needless to say, he earned his place on that bench in a state park that now encompasses some of his huge estate.
After the Mexican government issued a decree secularizing the California Franciscan missions, Vallejo, the military leader of northern California, was sent from the San Francisco Presidio to Sonoma in to oversee and protect this Mexican pueblo in 1834. His job was twofold: To administer the process of dissolving Mission Solano and caring for its people, and to dissuade Russian settlements, further north, from intruding on Mexican land. He succeeded on both assignments and became very rich in the process. |
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There are people here who believe that, because of Vallejo, northern California Indians experienced a much more humane secularization process than in other parts of the state. And there are people who believe this entire area would be Russian now, had it not been for Vallejo. One of them wrote me a note saying just that on Facebook last week!
The Mexican soldiers who came with Vallejo from the Presidio of San Francisco lived at the mission temporarily. They later settled in the newly built Sonora Barracks "to serve as protection against Russian expansion from Fort Ross," according to a very revealing sign in the barracks about the soldiers' lives in 1834. It notes that "each soldier was meant to receive two reales each day with which to maintain himself and his family." Yet it also notes that "the majority of his salary was held back to purchase his uniforms and equipment," including six horses, one mule, a musket, two pistols and much more the required attire. (See image). |
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Aside from his soldiers in the Barracks and his hundreds of field workers, Vallejo had “a small army of employees” in his Casa Grande home, mostly Native Americans, “who did everything from caring for his many children to grooming his horses . . . . In return, in return the Vallejos looked after their basic needs, health, and education,” a marker says. “Native Americans and others built many adobe buildings here under Vallejo's leadership . . . Many descendants of the Native Americans who worked here still live in the area today.
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But everything changed when a band of American horsemen rode into Sonoma. “As U.S. settlers arrived from the east, the Mexicans in power here were slowly outnumbered’” an exhibit explains. “Finally, a band of men drew up their own flag, captured Casa Grande, and took Vallejo prisoner. They raised their Bear Flag here in 1846 and declared California an independent republic. Four years later, California joined the United States.”
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According to literature on display here, Vallejo and many other Mexican citizens “took these events and various related personal losses with as much grace as possible. They looked forward with hope and optimism to becoming U.S. citizens.” Vallejo went on to become a California state senator once California joined the United States in 1850.
“On the other hand,” the literature also notes, “some Californios never forgot nor forgave the insults and injuries they and their families suffered at the hands of the people they called ‘Los Osos’ – ‘the Bears.’” But this was California’s “Golden Age,” the post-mission era (after 1834) when Mexican ranchers acquired part of the mission lands and considerable wealth and power. In fact, Vallejo was so wealthy that he offered to build an entirely new capital city, to be known as “Eureka,” as a gift to California. |
General Vallejo
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“The legislature voted to accept Vallejo's generous gift to the people of California,” a marker explains. “But insisted that the new city be known as ‘Vallejo'".
Nevertheless, Vallejo's grandiose plans fell apart once the 1848-50 Gold Rush brought runaway inflation and disrupted California’s economy, especially his financial capabilities, according to museum exhibits here. Many Sonoma residents, including Vallejo’s workers, dropped everything to rush to the northeast mountains in Sutter’s Mill in search of gold. Field workers abandoned their crops, vaqueros abandoned their herds allowing them to be stolen, squatters moved into his land, and long-litigation over Mexican-period land grants (expected to be respected by the U.S. government) lowered the value of his properties. The Gold Rush made some people instantly rich and rich people lose their wealth! “As time would tell, his hopes and dreams – like the hopes and dreams of many other native Californios – were doomed to gradual failure amid the fast-changing conditions of life in California during and after the gold rush,” another marker notes. Casa Grande, a two-story mansion with a three-story tower built in 1836, was lost to a fire in 1867. All that is left there is the mansion’s foundation. “It was one of the finest homes in California,” a marker says. Vallejo built another home, three block northwest of Casa Grande, which is now a museum. But in the center of town, next door to Mission Solano, several buildings from Vallejo’s empire are still standing, including the two-story Casa Grande “Servants Quarters,” portions of the Toscano Hotel, and the Sonoma Barracks, which are now a museum, a gift shop and a “Soldier’s Room” displaying their living quarters starting in 1836. (See photos). |
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Vallejo “continued to dominate the Sonoma wine industry for the next twenty-five years,” a marker explains, until “a deadly vine louse, phylloxera, destroyed most of California's vineyards during the 1870s and '80s,” forcing Vallejo out of the wine business. “General Vallejo nevertheless preserved his gallant manner and generous spirit,” the marker says. “He took an active interest in horticulture, and during the 1870s wrote a five-volume history of California . . . Vallejo's death in 1890 at the age of 82 was widely noted and lamented.”
Of course, California’s wine industry eventually survived, even after Prohibition, 1919-33, becoming one of the state’s leading industries. "Today, more than 50,000 acres of prime vineyards and some 140 bonded wineries make the hills and valleys north of San Francisco Bay," another marker explains. "One of the most famous and important wine-producing regions in the world." |
Original Bear Flag and current Flag of California
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The California or "Bear Flag" Republic, as it was commonly known, lasted only 22 days. After the start of the Mexican-American War, the U.S. Army peacefully took charge of Sonoma and replaced the Bear Flag with the American flag on July 9, 1846 – almost two years before the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo officially ended the war as of February 2, 1848.
California became the 31st American state in 1850 and the grizzly bear was officially added to the state flag in 1911. From his park bench, however, General Vallejo seems to be ready to tell you the whole story. |
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Follow my: California Road Trip 2025
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