Calistoga, California

Calistoga (Wappo: Nilektsonoma) is a city in Napa County, California, United States. Located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the city had a population of 5,228 as of the 2020 census.

Calistoga was founded in 1868 when the California Pacific Railroad was built, establishing the town as a tourist destination for its Calistoga Hot Springs. Today, Calistoga continues as a popular tourist destination in Wine Country, owing to its vineyards and historic landmarks.

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.

Samuel Brannan was the leader of a Mormon settlement expedition on the ship Brooklyn landing in Yerba Buena (San Francisco) in 1846. He published San Francisco's first English-language newspaper, the California Star. Following the discovery of gold in Coloma, Brannan became California's first millionaire. Fascinated by Calistoga's natural hot springs, Brannan purchased more than 2,000 acres (8 km²) with the intent to develop a spa reminiscent of Saratoga Springs in New York.

The name of Calistoga was given to the place in the fall of 1867, by Mr. Brannan, who has been reported and quoted as saying that the name came from a slip of the tongue that transformed "Saratoga of California" into "Calistoga of Sarafornia". The place had already been previously called Hot Springs by the few Americans, and Agua Caliente by the Spaniards and Indians.

Brannan's Hot Springs Resort surrounding Mt. Lincoln with the Spa/Hotel located at what is now Indian Springs Resort and Brannan Cottage Inn, opened to California's rich and famous in 1862. The Napa Valley Railroad Company's track was completed to Calistoga in 1868, providing an easier connection for ferry passengers traveling from San Francisco, as well as transforming Calistoga into a transportation hub for the upper Napa Valley and a gateway to Lake and Sonoma Counties.

Calistoga's economy was based on mining (silver and mercury) agriculture (grapes, prunes and walnuts) and tourism (the hot springs). One of the early visitors was Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote the Silverado Squatters while honeymooning with his wife Fanny Vandegrift at a cabin near Silverado Mine on Mount Saint Helena.

In 1920, Giuseppe Musante, a soda fountain and candy store owner in Calistoga, was drilling for a cold water well at the Railway Exchange when he tapped into a hot water source. In 1924 he set up a bottling line and began selling Calistoga Sparkling Mineral Water. The company became a major player in the bottled water business after Elwood Sprenger bought the small bottling plant in 1970 known today as Calistoga Water Company.