A history of Calistoga,
then and now
Postcards, papers and photographs of Calistoga from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The Upper Napa Valley was once the home of a significant population of Indigenous People, called the Wappo, during the Spanish colonial era of the late 18th century. With abundant oak trees providing acorns as a food staple and the natural hot springs as a healing ground Calistoga (Wappo: Nilektsonoma, meaning "Chicken Hawk Place") was the site of several villages. Following Mexican Independence, mission properties were secularized and disposed of by the Mexican government with much of the Napa Valley being partitioned into large ranchos in the 1830s and 1840s. The first Anglo settlers began arriving in the 1840s, with several taking up lands in the Calistoga area.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Finish Calistoga’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewCalistoga Napa County, Cal. Mansi…, 1870: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Calistoga
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Calistoga, decade by decade
CommonsCalistoga Napa County, Cal. Mansion house and swimming bath1870
CommonsCalistoga Napa County, Cal. Mansion house and swimming bath1870
CommonsCalistoga Napa County, Cal. Mount St. Helena, from Mount Li…1870
CommonsCalistoga Napa County, Cal. Mount St. Helena, from Mount Li…1870
LOCCalistoga Napa County, Cal. Mount St. Helena, from Mount Li…18709 historic places in Calistoga
9 places in Calistoga are on the National Register of Historic Places, the country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
Where they are
When they were listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Calistoga Napa County, Cal. Mansion house and swimming bath (1870) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (4), the Library of Congress (1) and the National Register (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.