Petalumas past is uniquely reflected in its historic architecture. The towns earliest commercial buildings tightly lined the waterfront of the Petaluma River, at one time the busiest transportation corridor in the North Bay. After the railroad arrived, an already thriving dairy and manufacturing city became the nations largest poultry and egg producer. A vital economy brought factories like the impressive Sunset Line & Twine plant, hatcheries, vast warehouses, and grain elevators that have become defining Petaluma landmarks. Its handsome downtown, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is noted for its Italianate cast ironfront commercial buildings, and a variety of preWorld War II residential styles surround it in charming neighborhoods. A favorite of moviemakers, its classic main streets played a central role in the film American Graffiti.
Native Americans who populated the various ranchos of Mexican California as laborers are people frequently lost to history. The "rancho period" was a critical time for California Indians, as many were drawn into labor pools for the flourishing ranchos following the 1834 dismantlement of the mission system, but they are practically absent from the documentary record and from popular histories. This study focuses on Rancho Petaluma north of San Francisco Bay, a large livestock, agricultural, and manufacturing operation on which several hundredÑperhaps as many as two thousandÑNative Americans worked as field hands, cowboys, artisans, cooks, and servants. One of the largest ranchos in the region, it was owned from 1834 to 1857 by Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, one of the most prominent political figures of Mexican California. While historians have studied Vallejo, few have considered the Native Americans he controlled, so we know little of what their lives were like or how they adjusted to the colonial labor regime. Because VallejoÕs Petaluma Adobe is now a state historic park and one of the most well-protected rancho sites in California, this site offers unparalleled opportunities to investigate nineteenth-century rancho life via archaeology. Using the Vallejo rancho as a case study, Stephen Silliman examines this California rancho with a particular eye toward Native American participation. Through the archaeological recordÑtools and implements, containers, beads, bone and shell artifacts, food remainsÑhe reconstructs the daily practices of Native peoples at Rancho Petaluma and the labor relations that structured indigenous participation in and experience of rancho life. This research enables him to expose the multi-ethnic nature of colonialism, counterbalancing popular misconceptions of Native Americans as either non-participants in the ranchos or passive workers with little to contribute to history. Lost Laborers in Colonial California draws on archaeological data, material studies, and archival research, and meshes them with theoretical issues of labor, gender, and social practice to examine not only how colonial worlds controlled indigenous peoples and practices but also how Native Americans lived through and often resisted those impositions. The book fills a gap in the regional archaeological and historical literature as it makes a unique contribution to colonial and contact-period studies in the Spanish/Mexican borderlands and beyond.
This book is a portrait of the Petaluma Jewish community from the early years of the century to the present day. Kenneth L. Kann interviewed more than two hundred residents, representing three generations of Jewish Americans. The picture that emerges from their testimony is of a wonderfully animated and fractious community. Its history blends many of the familiar themes of American Jewish life into a richly individual tapestry. In the first few decades of this century, many Jewish immigrants from Russia and Eastern Europe wound up in Petaluma. This first generation of chicken farmers consisted largely of educated, often professional men and women; many were drawn to chicken farming as much by Marxist or Zionist beliefs in the dignity of labor as by economic necessity. They helped establish the particular character of a community, with its combination of arduous work and cultural aspiration.
"Why do some places affect us mysteriously and yet so forcefully? On a River Winding Home pursues this question in a one-of-a-kind book about a one-of-a-kind place -- Northern California's Petaluma River Watershed. Through the use of stunning photography and intimate storytelling, artist Scott Hess and writer John Sheehy provide a riveting testament to the power of place, showcasing the watershed's stunning landscapes, diverse cultural history, and shifting identity. Scott Hess, a professional Bay Area photographer and longtime Petaluma resident, provides a distinctive melding of the artist as both interpreter and chronicler. His exquisite photographs reveal the beauty and spiritual grace of the watershed's natural landscape, the bucolic nature of its working farms and ranches, and the historic charm of its river city, Petaluma. John Sheehy, an award-winning historian and Petaluma native, seamlessly blends Hess's photographic journey with stories that celebrate the watershed's colorful history, showcasing an eclectic cast of characters, ranging from the native Coast Miwok to Mexican rancheros, Gold Rush settlers, railroad barons, Swiss-Italian dairymen, Socialist egg ranchers, bootleggers, slow growth pioneers, winemakers, and farm-to-table artisans. Part rambling walking tour, part voyage to the past, On a River Winding Home is a rich paring photos and stories for place-loving people."--Back cover.
Where the World Begins invites you to explore our natural treasure at the heart of southern Sonoma County. Approaching the Sonoma Mountain as a living presence, as a refuge for wildlife and natural systems, and as a source of inspiration, the book weaves together diverse local voices.
