People came to the Napa Valley for its hot springs long before they came for its wine. This exhibit, on loan from the Napa County Historical Society, follows that history from the valley’s first people through the resort era. The Napa County Historical Society calls wellness the valley’s oldest commercial industry. Between 1852 and the 1920s, more than 240 resorts and hotels operated in the valley, according to the society. On view now at the Heritage Center.
The first springs
The Wappo people used the valley’s geothermal hot springs long before any resort was built. At Aetna Springs in Pope Valley, a National Register of Historic Places nomination notes that local Indians had camped near the springs “for generations.” Settlers began seeking out the springs and mineral waters in the 1840s.
White Sulphur Springs
One of the first resorts, and by many accounts the oldest in California, sat about two miles west of St. Helena. Leonard Lillie and Edward Evey opened White Sulphur Springs in 1852 with two hotels, cottages, a dining room and a bowling alley. They named it for the spa town in West Virginia.
Nine springs on the property ran from 64 to 97 degrees. The warm water fed the baths, and guests drank the cooler water for their health. Sven Alstrom bought the resort in 1861 and built the two-story Oriental Hotel. Guests over the years included Leland Stanford, Ambrose Bierce and Lillie Hitchcock Coit. The 2020 Glass Fire destroyed most of its buildings.
Resorts across the valley
Sam Brannan bought land at the hot springs to the north in 1859 and opened his Calistoga resort in 1862. He modeled it on the spa town of Saratoga, New York. Napa Soda Springs, north of Napa, grew from a small hotel built in 1856. Chancellor Hartson opened Aetna Springs in 1877, and it ran until 1972. Bottled sparkling water from Aetna, Calistoga and Napa was sold throughout the West.
Before the railroad, guests from San Francisco and Sacramento came by steamer, then by stagecoach, a trip of one to two days. The railroad reached St. Helena and Calistoga in 1868. Once there, guests took mineral and mud baths, walked the trails, played croquet and billiards, and went to evening dances and musicales.
Not every destination was a resort. In 1878, Seventh-day Adventist Dr. Merritt Kellogg and two partners built the Rural Health Retreat just east of St. Helena. It was renamed the St. Helena Sanitarium in 1898.
The Heritage Center is open the first Saturday of each month, noon to 4 p.m., at 1255 Oak Avenue, St. Helena.