Editing Santa Rosa, California (section)

==History==
===Early history===
{{More citations needed|section|date=June 2024}}
Before the arrival of Europeans, what became known as the Santa Rosa Plain was home to a strong and populous tribe of [[Pomo]] people known as the Bitakomtara. The Bitakomtara controlled the area closely, barring passage to others until permission was arranged. Those who entered without permission were subject to harsh penalties. The tribe gathered at ceremonial times on Santa Rosa Creek near present-day [[Spring Lake Regional Park]].

Following the arrival of Europeans, initially Spanish explorers and colonists, the Pomos were decimated by violence, land theft, slavery, genocide and [[smallpox]] brought from Europe. Social displacement and disruption followed.  There are descendants of survivors still living in the region today.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Welcome |url=https://native-land.ca/ |access-date=2024-08-29 |website=Native-Land.ca |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=drycreek |title=Dry Creek Rancheria – Band of Pomo Indians |url=https://drycreekrancheria.com/ |access-date=2024-08-29 |website=Dry Creek Rancheria |language=en-US}}</ref>

===19th century===
[[File:María Ygnacia López de Carrillo (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|[[María Ygnacia López de Carrillo]], a [[Californios|Californio]] ranchera and founder of Santa Rosa]]
Santa Rosa was founded in 1833 and named by Mexican colonists after [[Saint Rose of Lima]]. The first known permanent European settlement here was the homestead of the [[Carrillo family of California]], in-laws to [[Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo]], who settled the [[Sonoma, California|Sonoma]] [[pueblo]] and [[Petaluma, California|Petaluma]] area. In the 1830s, during the Mexican period, the family of [[María López de Carrillo]] built an adobe house on their [[Rancho Cabeza de Santa Rosa]] land grant, just east of what later became downtown Santa Rosa. By the 1820s, before the Carrillos built their adobe in the 1830s, [[Spanish people|Spanish]] and Mexican settlers from nearby Sonoma and other settlements to the south were known to raise [[livestock]] in the area.

They slaughtered animals at the fork of the [[Santa Rosa Creek]] and [[Matanzas Creek]], near the intersection of modern-day Santa Rosa and Sonoma avenues. This is thought to have been the origin of the name of Matanzas Creek; because it was a slaughtering place, the confluence came to be called ''La Matanza.''

By the 1850s, after the United States annexed [[California]] following its victory in the [[Mexican-American War]], a [[History of Wells Fargo|Wells Fargo]] post and general store were established in what is now downtown Santa Rosa. In the mid-1850s, several prominent locals, including Julio Carrillo, son of Maria Carrillo, laid out the grid street pattern for Santa Rosa with a [[public square]] in the center. This pattern has been largely maintained in downtown to this day, despite changes to the central square, now called Old Courthouse Square.

[[File:Bird's eye view of Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, Cal., 1876. LOC 76693083.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|Panoramic map of Santa Rosa in 1876]]

In 1867, the county recognized Santa Rosa as an [[municipal corporation|incorporated]] city; in 1868, the state officially confirmed the incorporation, making it the third incorporated city in Sonoma County after [[Petaluma]], incorporated in 1858, and [[Healdsburg]], incorporated in 1867.

[[United States Census Bureau]] records show that after California became a state, Santa Rosa grew steadily, though it lagged behind nearby Petaluma in the 1850s and early 1860s. In the [[1870 United States census|1870 census]], Santa Rosa was the eighth-largest city in California, and county seat of one of the most populous counties in the state. Growth and development after that was steady but never rapid. The city continued to grow when other early population centers declined or stagnated, but by 1900 it was being overtaken by many other newer population centers in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California.

===20th century===
[[File:Sixteenth Annual Convention, California State Federation of Labor, Santa Rosa, October 4 to 8, 1915 Trim.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.5|Members of the [[California State Federation of Labor]] assemble for their sixteenth annual convention in Santa Rosa, October 1915]]
By 1900, the Pomo population had decreased by 95%.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lfPfAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA90 |page=90 |title=Sacred Sonoma: Sacred Sites and Alignments in Sonoma County, California |edition=Revised |first=Beth |last=Winegarner |publisher=Lulu |year=2007 |isbn=9781430320678}}</ref>

According to a 1905 article in the ''[[Press Democrat]]'' reporting on the "Battle of the Trains", the city had just over 10,000 people at the time.

[[File:P&SR Railway station, 4th & Wilson, Downtown Santa Rosa, July 08.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|The former [[Petaluma and Santa Rosa Railroad]] station]]

The [[1906 San Francisco earthquake]] essentially destroyed the entire downtown, but the city's population did not greatly suffer. However, after that period the population growth of Santa Rosa, as with most of the area, was very slow.

Santa Rosa grew following [[World War II]] because it was the location for [[Naval Auxiliary Landing Field Santa Rosa]], the remnants of which are now located in southwest Santa Rosa. The city was a convenient location for San Francisco travelers bound for the [[Russian River (California)|Russian River]].

[[File:Santa Rosa, Empire Building (2012).jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.8|The Empire Building, completed in 1910 and a Sonoma County landmark, seen in the film ''[[Shadow of a Doubt]]'' by [[Alfred Hitchcock]], in December 2021]]

The population increased by two-thirds between 1950 and 1970, with an average of 1,000 new residents a year over the 20-year period. Some of the increase was from annexation of portions of the surrounding area.

In 1958, the United States Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization designated Santa Rosa as one of its eight regional headquarters, with jurisdiction over Region 7, which included [[American Samoa]], [[Arizona]], [[California]], [[Guam]], [[Hawaii]], [[Nevada]], and [[Utah]]. Santa Rosa continued as a major center for [[United States civil defense|civil defense]] activity (under the Office of Emergency Planning and the Office of Emergency Preparedness) until 1979 when the [[Federal Emergency Management Agency]] (FEMA) was created in its place, ending the civil defense's 69-year history.<ref name="OEP">{{cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/396.html|title=Records of the office of Emergency Preparedness|access-date=August 30, 2008}}</ref>

When the City Council adopted the city's first modern General Plan in 1991, the population was about 113,000. In the 21 years following 1970, Santa Rosa grew by about 3,000 residents a year—triple the average growth during the previous twenty years.

''Santa Rosa 2010'', the 1991 General Plan, called for a population of 175,000 in 2010. The Council expanded the city's urban boundary to include all the land then planned for future annexation, and declared it would be Santa Rosa's "ultimate" boundary. The rapid growth that was being criticized as [[urban sprawl]] became routine [[infill]] development.

At the first five-year update of the plan, in 1996, the Council extended the planning period by ten years, renaming it ''Vision 2020'' (updated to ''Santa Rosa 2020'', and then again to ''Santa Rosa 2030 Vision''), and added more land and population.

Santa Rosa [[annexation|annexed]] the community of [[Roseland, California|Roseland]] in November 2017.<ref name="annex">{{cite web|url=https://www.srcity.org/371/Roseland-Area-Annexation|title=Roseland Area Annexation|access-date=March 14, 2018}}</ref>

===2017 firestorm===
{{main|October 2017 Northern California wildfires|Tubbs Fire}}
[[File:Fountaingrove_Round_Barn.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|The historic Fountaingrove Round Barn, previously found at the southwestern base of Fountaingrove, was [[Tubbs Fire|lost to fire]] in 2017.]]
Beginning on the night of October 8, 2017, five percent of the city's homes were destroyed in the [[Tubbs Fire]], a 45,000-acre [[wildfire]] that claimed the lives of at least 19 people in Sonoma County.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Sudek|first1=Julia Prodis|title=Santa Rosa fire: How a sudden firestorm devastated a city|url=http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/10/09/santa-rosa-fire-how-a-sudden-firestorm-obliterated-a-city/|access-date=October 9, 2017|work=The Mercury News|publisher=Digital First Media|date=October 9, 2017}}</ref> Named after its origin near Tubbs Lane and Highway 128 in adjacent Napa County, the fire became a major section of the most destructive and third deadliest firestorm in California history.<ref name="calfire-top20">{{cite web|url=http://www.fire.ca.gov/communications/downloads/fact_sheets/Top20_Destruction.pdf|title=Top 20 Most Destructive California Wildfires|website=CAL FIRE|access-date=October 20, 2017|archive-date=June 26, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190626025601/http://www.fire.ca.gov/communications/downloads/fact_sheets/Top20_Destruction.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://kansaspublicradio.org/npr-news/firefighters-gain-ground-california-wildfires|title=Firefighters Gain Ground On California Wildfires|date=October 16, 2017|work=Kansas Public Radio|access-date=October 16, 2017|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Tubbs-Fire-could-be-worst-in-California-history-12276628.php|title=It's now the deadliest wildfire disaster in California history|work=SFGate|access-date=October 16, 2017}}</ref> Most homes in the Coffey Park, [[Larkfield-Wikiup, California|Larkfield-Wikiup]], and [[Fountain Grove, California|Fountain Grove]] neighborhoods were destroyed.

A notable exception to the destruction in the area was the protection of more than 1,000 animals at the renowned [[Safari West]] Wildlife Preserve northeast of Santa Rosa. All of the preserve's animals were saved by owner Peter Lang. At age 76, he single-handedly and successfully fought back the flames for more than 10 hours using garden hoses.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/7512550-181/safari-west-owner-had-a|title=Safari West owner had 'a thousand souls' to save from Tubbs fire|last=Payne|first=Paul|date=October 10, 2017|work=[[The Press Democrat]]|access-date=October 13, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/How-Safari-West-s-giraffes-cheetahs-and-hippos-12276896.php|title=How Safari West's giraffes, cheetahs and rhinos survived the Tubbs Fire|last=Aleaziz|first=Hamed|date=October 13, 2017|work=San Francisco Chronicle|access-date=October 14, 2017}}</ref>