Sonoma county has a wide diversity of communities ranging from hamlets like Graton, Freestone, and Kenwood to the big towns along the 101 corridor; Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa, and Windsor. In the middle are the big small towns like Sebastopol, Healdsburg, Cloverdale, and Sonoma and the small, small towns like Forestville, Guerneville, Geyserville, and Occidental. Surrounding each town is a cluster of small acreage properties with varying degrees of grape-ness, horse-ness, forest-ness, and estate-ness. Each of the towns and cities with their suburban fringes has developed a unique character in the relatively short time they have been in existence.
Outside of this band of towns with their clusters of small acreage properties is the realm of ranches ranging from the tens to thousands of acres. Falling into this large property category are huge vineyards as well as vast forest lands, particularly in the west county. In addition to the larger sizes, many of these properties are also long distances from the more urban center of the county, and can be inaccessible in rainy weather due to high water levels in creeks and rivers.
Our
oldest settlement, Sonoma, was founded by Spanish
missionaries in 1823 and is known as the birthplace of American California,
for it was in this town plaza that the Bear Flag Revolt took place and a Bear
Flag was first raised on June 14, 1846. The rebelling men claimed to act on
the orders of Col. John C. Fremont proclaiming independence from Mexican rule
and a free country called the California Republic here. Sonoma served as the
capital of the short-lived California Republic until the United States Stars
and Stripes flag was raised during the Mexican-American war. These days Sonoma
is known for great food, great wine, a wonderful town square, and the still
existing historic structures that line the square and dot the countryside
around it. This is one of the tourist magnet towns of Sonoma county.
Rohnert
Park: In the year 1956, only four adult residents lived within the district
boundaries, but in 1957 with the 101 Freeway newly completed at the Cotati
bypass, Rohnert Park began to be built and laid out as a planned city. In
a summer election of 1962, Rohnert Park was incorporated, comprised of 1,325
acres, housing an estimated 2,775 persons, the first town to incorporate since
1905. The historic neighboring town of Cotati, California voted to incorporate
the following year. Rohnert Park is a planned city, much like Levittown, the
first real subdivision in the United States. As befits a planned community,
Rohnert Park has plenty of parks, well laid out streets and medians, well-located
schools, and a community of residents who like lawn care, kids soccer, and
fitting in. Radicals, curmudgeons, and iconoclasts probably look elsewhere,
but if you're raising a family, this is a great choice.. Rohnert
Park official website
Sebastopol
is an agriculturally based town in Sonoma County. The population was 7,774
at the 2000 census, but its businesses also serve surrounding rural portions
of Sonoma County, totalling about 50,000 people. It is about a 20 minute drive
from the Pacific Ocean, between Santa Rosa and Bodega Bay, and is known for
its progressive politics and small-town charm. It was once primarily a plum-
and apple-growing region; wine grapes are now predominant, and almost all
ex-orchards are now vineyards. World-famous horticulturist Luther Burbank
had gardens in this fertile region. The city hosts an annual Apple Blossom
Festival and Gravenstein Apple Fair, and is the home of publisher O'Reilly
Media, which publishes books on open-source software. Sebastopol is the most
politically progressive town in Sonoma County and was the second town in the
United States to elect an unofficially "Green party" city council.
It's a declared nuclear free zone and is friendly to vegans, artists, and
musicians. The schools are superb and the parents chasing good schools for
their kids have made home values here among the highest in the County. Sebatopol
official website
Petaluma
is a city with a well preserved historic center in Sonoma County. As of the
2000 census, the city had a total population of 54,548. As of 2006, Petaluma's
population is 56,727. Petaluma Adobe State Historic Park contains the Rancho
Petaluma Adobe, a National Historic Landmark. It was built beginning in 1836
by General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, then Commandant of the San Francisco
Presidio. It was the center of a vast 66,000 acre (270 km²) ranch stretching
from Petaluma Creek to Sonoma Creek. The adobe is considered one of the best
preserved buildings of its era in Northern California. Petaluma is a transliteration
of the Coast Miwok phrase péta lúuma which means hill backside and probably
refers to Petaluma's proximity to Sonoma Mountain. During the dot.com boom,
Petaluma became widely known as the heart of the broadband industry and many
of the world's leading networking companies have facilities here. Petaluma
is also one of the most popular movie sites in the North Bay. Commuters to
Marin and San Francisco make up a big portion of Petaluma's population. Petaluma
official website
Santa
Rosa is the county seat of Sonoma County, California, USA. As of July
1, 2005, the population of Santa Rosa was approximately 156,200 residents.
Santa Rosa is the largest city in California's wine country and fifth largest
city in the San Francisco Bay Area, after San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland,
and Fremont. Santa Rosa's Metropolitan Statistical Area is approximately 466,477
residents, making it the 12th largest in California and the 102nd largest
in the United States. In addition to being the largest city in the county,
Santa Rosa has the most diversity of ethnic groups, neighborhoods, and shopping.
Santa Rosa official website
Windsor
was a languishing small town just north of Santa Rosa until the 1980's. A
surge of construction followed for the next several decades, and the town
has grown to over 25,000 people vaulting past neighboring Healdsburg. New
construction of shopping including a Home Depot and WalMart has made Windsor
a shopping destination as well as a residential community. The center of town
has undergone a transformation with the construction of Windsor Town Green,
a new development based on residential units over retail shops. Windsor
official website
The
Russian River communites include Forestville,
Rio Nido, Guerneville, and Monte Rio. After early development as lumber and
farming areas, these towns had their most rapid growth as resort towns in
the early 1900's. Train service from San Francisco provided easy access and
the hills and valleys were filled with summer cabins. There was a peak of
activity during the Big Band era when there were as many as three big bands
playing in famed venues from Rio Nido to Guerneville. Since then, the towns
have had surges of gays, bikers, back to the land people, gays again, and
the bohemian and libertarian residents that make this the most eclectic part
of the county. A listen to the playlist of low power KGGV-FM gives you a hint
of just how diverse this town can be. Safeway in Guerneville is the shopping
anchor for the residents of this redwood filled resort area. Big events here
include the blues and jazz festivals that bring more than 5,000 fans to Johnson's
Beach every summer.
Coastal
Sonoma is spectacular, wind-swept, foggy, and exhilirating. The junction
of land, water, and air is almost always energetic, but the rugged Sonoma
coast rarely fails to excite the senses. The coastal community stretches from
Bodega and Bodega Bay in the south to Jenner and up the coast to Sea Ranch,
Elk and Timber Cove and eventually Fort Bragg in Mendocino. It's tied together
by Highway 1 and a shared sense of the ocean. Jenner has the added advantage
of being not only on the coast, but on the Russian River as well. The interplay
of the wild life at the ocean mouth with the pelicans, seals, and teaming
flocks of shore birds is always fascinating.
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