What is the history of Sonoma, California?
The region of Sonoma was originally the home of Native American Coast Miwok tribes as well as the Pomo people and Wintuns. Many of the Native Americans still remain, even after seven changes in government since the Spanish first explored and took over the region (see Sonoma County for governments.) The town of Sonoma, El Pueblo de Sonoma, began with the Mission San Francisco Solano founded in 1823 by Father Joseph Altimira of Spain. This mission was the farthest north of all 21 Spanish Missions of CaliforniaCalifornia missions connected by a “Royal Road” called El Camino Real. The Mission San Francisco Solano was the sole California mission established under the rule of a newly-independent Mexico, and the last. Soon after it was built, it was secularized by the Mexican government, under the orders of Lieutenant, later General, Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo. Under Vallejo’s supervision, the Presidio of SonomaEl Presidio de Sonoma, or Sonoma Barracks (part of Spain’s Spanish missions in Cali
