For centuries, the Upper Napa Valley was home to several villages of indigenous people, hunter-gatherers who recognized the beneficial qualities of the region’s natural hot springs. The first significant influx of Anglo settlers arrived in the 1840s, several of whom established farms and ranches in the Napa Valley for its agreeable weather and fertile soils. They, too, soon came to realize and appreciate the “healing powers” of the geothermal waters.
Enter Samuel Brannan, extolled by some as “the founding father” of today’s world-renown Calistoga hot springs resorts, although other entrepreneurs were there before him. W. P. Ewing, for example, opened the Geyser Hotel in June, 1856. By June 1859, when Edward Levey operated the facility, it boasted several bathing houses, riding trails for sightseers, and other amenities. Be that as it may, Brannan gets the credit, doubtless because he was an important, colorful, and controversial character in the overall development of California before and after statehood. Some say Sam was a visionary. Certainly, he was politically active and influential; a shrewd opportunist with diverse interests. Arriving in California in 1846, he was a self-made millionaire by 1856.
Brannan’s first known connection with the Napa Valley was in 1849, when he featured the region in an edition of the San Francisco newspaper he founded and published, the California Star. Fascinated with Napa’s natural beauty and its thermal springs and geysers, he bought a small farm in 1850, holding an all-day gala picnic there on May 11 for a multitude of invited guests. And now, he envisioned something grander: an opulent resort hotel complex to rival the famed Saratoga Springs spa in New York.
With this in mind, in 1859 he purchased 2,000 acres east of what later became downtown Calistoga—a name Brannan himself unintentionally created some three years later. Never one to leave a real estate investment idle, he stocked the property with hundreds of valuable Merino sheep while the resort was being constructed.
Brannan’s Hot Springs Resort, which he affectionally called “The Saratoga of the Pacific,” opened in 1862. Legend has it that Sam, a bit the worse for drink on opening day festivities, raised his glass to toast his lush vacation retreat . . . only, instead of saying “the Saratoga of California,” his slurred words came out as “Calistoga of Sarafornia.”
Guests stayed at an ornate hotel, or in 25 cottages scattered about the estate. Well-kept walkways curved through beautiful gardens filled with imported trees, flowers, and ornamental shrubbery. Other features included swimming pools, mud and sulphur baths, a race track, and extensive horse stables. Besides the Merino sheep that still grazed on the surrounding hills, Sam planted acres of vineyards and built a brandy distillery, lavishing a reported half-million dollars on development.
The town of Calistoga sprang up naturally, in response to the many business services the resort needed. Transportation to his resort complex by ship and stagecoach was poor, so Brannan was among the first to lobby for the construction of a Napa-Vallejo railroad into Calistoga, which finally happened in 1868.
Unfortunately for Brannan’s aspirations, his entire empire—largely built on credit—begin to collapse when his second wife sued for divorce in the early 1860s. In June, 1862, a notice in the prestigious California Farmer newspaper advertised the sale (or lease for a term of years), of 1,012 Merino sheep, 38 Durham bovines, work horses, saddle horses, and 28 Berkshire swine, all domiciled at Brannan’s Napa estate. In July, the Daily Alta published an ad offering Brannan’s Hot Springs House for a short-term lease to a family who would care for the premises for the summer; perhaps this one intended as a breather while Brannan attended to other issues elsewhere. Liza Brannan’s demand for a hefty cash settlement had forced Sam to liquidate a number of assets, and in November 1862 the axe fell on his Napa Valley holdings. Brannan placed his Calistoga estate on the market for sale or lease, to include: the Mansion House, vineyards, orchards, six new buildings in process of completion, and 517 acres of farm land.
But as things went sour for Sam, others prospered. From a 19th century economy based on farming, and the mining of silver and mercury in the Napa Valley, today it is based on vineyards, wineries, and tourism. Calistoga’s several health-promoting, modern hot springs spas are popular destinations in Napa’s wine country.
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