Valley Oak Sanctuary – The Land
Welcome to Valley Oak Sanctuary.
Since you will be spending some time here, I thought you might like to know a little about where you are and how this place came to be what it is.
The first thing you should know is that while I have legal title to this property, I don’t believe that this land belongs to anyone. I would argue that no land can be “owned” by another human being, even though it can be ruined, exploited, and enslaved. While this land hasn’t been abused like much of the area, its history is stained with blood and greed — several times over.
The first human inhabitants of this valley for whom there is any record were the South Pomo Indians who lived peacefully here for hundreds of years. I don’t know much about them other than that they got on well with their neighbors – 6 other Pomo “triblets” who spoke different languages but with whom the South Pomo traded occasionally and helped out when called upon. I know that the territory of the 7 Pomo tribes extended west to Bodega Bay, North from there to Ft Bragg, across the mountains to Clear Lake, and then South into Sonoma. I also know the tribe sustained themselves by hunting deer and fishing for the salmon that still swim in the Creek. They also pounded flour from the acorns that fell from the Oaks and made the beautiful baskets that their culture is famous for. It is still possible to find evidence of their time here, though they lived pretty lightly on the land. My neighbor across the creek has a collection of Pomo arrowheads that he has found over the years while building the four houses that he now has scattered across his property
Before the Pomo arrived, Valley Oak trees ruled the valley. In a very real sense, I think it is the Oaks who are the rightful owners of the land, and they are the ones we should give thanks to for the beauty, the life, and the spirit that still inhabits the land. If you walk on some of the trails I have cut into the hillside, you will find some very special and particularly old ones to visit. If time permits, you may want to sit under their branches and listen carefully for the sounds they make. If you are quiet enough inside, you may be able to absorb some of their wisdom. They have lived in California valleys like this for millions of years, while many individual trees have been around for hundreds of years.
Some of the Oaks you see on this land are that old and were here to see the full human drama that unfolded on this land beginning when the Pomo’s were “converted” by Spanish missionaries in the early 1800s.
For the next 200 years, this land was fought over, bought, sold, and stolen, but fortunately, it was never fully “developed” or exploited for the rocks, minerals, water, and native animals, trees, and plants that still make up all that you see around you. Today I and my neighbors find ourselves as caretakers of the land that sits on both sides of this tiny stretch of the Santa Rosa Creek – a creek that flows year round from a Spring buried in Hood Mountain. It is a place that remains largely untamed and “unincorporated.” While nominally under Sonoma County jurisdiction, it is looked after and cared for by those of us who live here.
I believe that there are fewer and fewer places like this in our modern world, and because of that, I have tried to make this property a sanctuary for the Oaks and those who choose to come here and honor its spirit and beauty. My mission is to keep it that way — safe from those who would consume, exploit, and/or transform this land in ways that don’t honor its timelessness and our impermanence.
Please enjoy your time here and take whatever inspiration it has to give you. All I ask in return is that you respect and honor its spirit and help preserve it for those who come after.
For some of you, that may be enough to know. For the rest who want to know who else lived here and how I will tell you what I know.
Valley Oak Sanctuary – The People
Very little is written about the South Pomos, and I wish I knew more about how they lived because then I would know better how to treat this land. The lessons provided by most of those who came after are of a more cautionary nature.
This land was first claimed by the Catholic Church in 1823, shortly after the mission in Sonoma was built. The Mission was“secularized” (i.e., seized) less than 20 years later by the Mexican government in 1837, but even though the Church’s tenure was short, it was devastating for the Pomo, whose way of life was destroyed very quickly and effectively by the missionaries who converted, co-opted and enslaved the Pomo’s all in the name of God. After the Mexican government took possession of the land, they created “rancho,” which they promptly gave away to politicians and generals. This property became part of “Rancho Los Guilicos” and was granted to Captain John Wilson, a Scottish-born trader who had married the widow of a Mexican officer and, by doing so, became the brother-in-law of General Vallejo who himself was given vast tracks of land to the south and east of here
The Mexicans themselves only held the land for a decade or so before the US decided to take it, as well as the rest of California, from them. The Mexican-American War ended in 1848, and California became a state in 1850. That gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in January of 1848 is probably not a coincidence.
Presumably, because of his European lineage and because there was no gold within 100 miles, the US government accepted John Wilson’s title, and he continued to own this property even after Mexico lost the war. However, it wasn’t long afterward that Captain Wilson sold the ranch to William Hood (for whom Hood Mountain is named). After Hood died, Rancho Los Guilicos was broken up and sold in pieces by those who (legitimately and otherwise) obtained possession. Surveys were inexact, politicians were corrupt, and property rights were enforced by guns as much as by the courts in the next few decades. Eventually, the US government stepped in and declared itself the rightful owner of all the land whose provenance could not be clearly and cleanly documented.
In 1862, the Homestead Act was passed, under which well over a million (almost exclusively white male) citizens were given plots of land with the understanding that they would build a home on it. In accordance with the Act, most of the disputed titles (including this land) were given away to the “homesteaders.” While many may dispute the fairness or the efficacy of the law, in this part of the country, it did as it was intended. Throughout the 1870s and 1880s, ranches all throughout Sonoma County were developed, and the homesteaders did what they were obligated to do – improve the land and cut the roads.
By the 1920s, aggregators and real estate investors had arrived. They bought the land from the homesteaders, divided, combined, and repackaged the lots to be sold to the growing number of families who had immigrated to San Francisco from Europe and who wanted to move back to the land. This property, as well as the neighboring lots and those on the other side of the Creek, were packaged and sold to 4 different families – the Stayshak’s ( the meadow next door), the Cervidio’s (across the creek), the Capezi’s (the woods at the end of the road) and the Romeo’s (this property).
The patriarchs of these families(and they were all men) married, raised their children, and lived off the land with little need to participate in the growing commerce and “modernization” taking place in Santa Rosa and the rest of the County. They ranched, they hunted, and they fished. They built the roads that, until the 1970s, still bore their names. George Soler, who married into the Romeo clan, expanded the one-room cabin that the elder Romeo had built in the 20s and lived in the house you see by the creek until he died well into his 90s. His nephew built the main house, and I bought both houses along with the surrounding 8.5 acres from the couple to whom he sold it in 2005.
While I am an interloper, my neighbors are by and large, descendants of those who bought their land from homesteaders. Ted Stayshak Jr. still lives on the ranch next door, and Ralph Cervidio’s granddaughter lives across the creek. The elder Capezi (who used to hold “deer bar-b-q’s” for his neighbors) passed his property on to his son, who died a few years ago, leaving the property to the son of a childhood friend who still lives there.
Like the Valley Oaks, the families who live here have deep roots, a long history, and no plans on moving. Let’s hope it stays that way.