C. 1915 Promotional Pamphlet NAPA COUNTY California WINE COUNTRY Grape Growing

Description

CIRCA 1915
Promotional Pamphlet
NAPA COUNTY
California
WINE COUNTRY
Grape Growing
DESCRIPTION:
Circa 1915
promotional booklet [pamphlet] for
Napa Country, California
;
stapled wrappers; 24 unnumbered pages;
11 photographic images [including ‘Jackson’s Napa Soda Springs’ and “The Largest Winery in the World at St. Helena, Napa County”]; Issued by authority of THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, Napa County, California; Printed by Francis & Francis, Napa California
DATE:
Circa 1915
:
There is an article reprinted in this pamphlet from the Pacific Rural Press, dated February 27, 1915 called, “Orcharding Profitable in Napa County” by John J. Fox, Horticultural Commissioner of Napa County. As nearly every County and significant sized City produced a promotional pamphlet for the
Panama Pacific International Exposition [PPIE] 1915
this is most likely the date.
CONDITION:
Near fine (if not fine)
[see scans].
SECURITY:
ARGUS BOOKS
[or other wording] in
PINK
may have been super-imposed over the images for security and are not on the actual item.
HISTORY:
Napa County
was formed and became one of the original California counties when the state became part of the United States in 1850.
Descendants of George Yount and Captain Edward Bale played key roles in the early development of Napa County. Yount's granddaughter Elizabeth Yount married Thomas Rutherford in 1864. The couple received as a wedding gift from George Yount, land in the area of the valley now known as Rutherford. Rutherford established himself as a serious grower and producer of fine wines in the following years. Bale's oldest daughter Lolita married the seaman, Louis Bruck. When Bale died in 1848, Bruck became the executor of the will for the family. He was elected the first mayor of Napa City when incorporated in 1872. Charles Krug, a fellow Prussian compatriot and pioneer viticulturalist at Sonoma, married Lolita's younger sister Caroline with a dowry that included land near the Bale mill. Krug then moved north of St. Helena to establish the valley's first commercial winery.
John Patchett opened the first commercial winery in the county in 1859. The vineyard and wine cellar were in an area now in the city limits of Napa. After working as a winemaker for Patchett, Charles Krug founded his own winery in St. Helena 1861. While gold was being prospected in other areas of the state in the 1850s, Napa County became a center for silver and quicksilver mining. In the 1860s, mining carried on, on a large scale, with quicksilver mines operating in many areas of Napa County.
Robert Louis Stevenson's book The Silverado Squatters provides a snapshot of life and insight into some of the characters that lived around the valley during the latter part of the 19th century. Stevenson, accompanied by his new bride Fanny Vandegrift and her 12-year-old son from a previous marriage, Lloyd Osbourne, spent the late spring and early summer of 1880 honeymooning in an abandoned bunk house at a played-out mine near the summit of Mount Saint Helena. In the book, Stevenson's descriptive writing style documented his ventures in the area and profiled several of the early pioneers who played a role in shaping the region's commerce and society. Stevenson's book also brought attention to the various spas and hot springs in the county. From Calistoga to Æetna Springs in Pope Valley to Soda Springs Resort a few miles east of Napa, tourists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries made the county their destination much the same as modern day tourists. The resorts became very popular with San Franciscans anxious to escape the cold and foggy weather that often plagues the city to enjoy the warmer climate Napa County offered.
In the mid-1880s, entrepreneur Samuel Brannan purchased land in the northern end of the valley at the foot of Mount Saint Helena and founded Calistoga. He began developing it as a resort town taking advantage of or the area's numerous mineral hot springs. He also founded the Napa Valley Railroad Company in 1864 to bring tourists to Calistoga from San Francisco ferry boats that docked in Vallejo. Brannan's railroad venture failed and was sold at a foreclosure sale in 1869. The railroad eventually came under the ownership of Southern Pacific Railroad late in the 19th century.
SHIPPING:
All paper items [broadsides, labels, pamphlets, brochures, photos, etc.] that are 1/4 of an inch thick or less are shipped between two double-walled pieces of cardboard [equal to 4 sheets of cardboard and are virtually impossible to bend] by USPS Media mail and at actual cost [unless other arrangements have been made with seller].
[PR – B2 – S4
(code to locate the item)
]