Editing Napa County, California (section)

===Late 19th century===
Napa County was formed and became one of the original California counties when the state became part of the [[United States]] in 1850.

Descendants of George Yount and Captain Edward Bale played key roles in the early development of Napa County. Yount's granddaughter Elizabeth Yount married Thomas Rutherford in 1864. The couple received as a wedding gift from George Yount, land in the area of the valley now known as Rutherford. Rutherford established himself as a serious grower and producer of fine wines in the following years. Bale's oldest daughter Lolita married the seaman Louis Bruck. When Bale died in 1848, Bruck became the executor of the will for the family. He was elected the first mayor of Napa City when incorporated in 1872. Charles Krug, a fellow Prussian compatriot and pioneer viticulturalist at Sonoma, married Lolita's younger sister Caroline with a dowry that included land near the Bale mill. Krug then moved north of St. Helena to establish the valley's first commercial winery.

[[John Patchett]] opened the first commercial winery in the county in 1859. The vineyard and wine cellar were in an area now in the city limits of Napa. After working as a winemaker for Patchett, [[Charles Krug]] founded his own winery in St. Helena 1861.<ref name="AutoZC-7"/>

The county's population began to grow in the mid-century as pioneers, prospectors, and entrepreneurs moved in and set up residence. During this period, settlers primarily raised cattle and farmed grain and fruit crops. Mineral mining also played a role in the economics of the county. In 1858 the great silver rush began in Napa Valley, and miners flocked to the eastern hills. While gold was being prospected in other areas of the state in the 1850s, Napa County became a center for [[silver]] and [[Mercury (element)|quicksilver]] mining. In the 1860s, mining carried on, on a large scale, with quicksilver mines operating in many areas of Napa County.

In 1866 John Lawley established a toll road from Calistoga over Mount Saint Helena to Lake County.

[[File:Mount Saint Helena, viewed from Napa Valley.JPG|right|thumb|Young vineyard in the valley with [[Mount Saint Helena]] in the background]]

[[Robert Louis Stevenson]]'s book ''[[The Silverado Squatters]]'' provides a snapshot of life and insight into some of the characters that lived around the valley during the later part of the 19th century. Stevenson, accompanied by his new bride [[Fanny Vandegrift]] and her 12-year-old son from a previous marriage, [[Lloyd Osbourne]], spent the late spring and early summer of 1880 honeymooning in an abandoned bunk house at a played-out mine near the summit of Mount Saint Helena. In the book, Stevenson's descriptive writing style documented his ventures in the area and profiled several of the early pioneers who played a role in shaping the region's commerce and society. Stevenson's book also brought attention to the various spas and hot springs in the county. From Calistoga to Æetna Springs in Pope Valley to Soda Springs Resort a few miles east of Napa, tourists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries made the county their destination much the same as modern day tourists. The resorts became very popular with San Franciscans anxious to escape the cold and foggy weather that often plagues the city to enjoy the warmer climate Napa County offered.

In the mid-1860s, entrepreneur [[Samuel Brannan]] purchased land in the northern end of the valley at the foot of Mount Saint Helena and founded Calistoga. He began developing it as a resort town taking advantage of or the area's numerous mineral hot springs. He also founded the Napa Valley Railroad Company in 1864 to bring tourists to Calistoga from [[Ferries of San Francisco Bay|San Francisco ferry boats]] that docked in [[Vallejo, California|Vallejo]]. Brannan's railroad venture failed and was sold at a foreclosure sale in 1869. The railroad eventually came under the ownership of [[Southern Pacific Railroad]] late in the 19th century.

The [[Veterans Home of California Yountville]] was established in Yountville in 1884 by the San Francisco chapter of the [[Grand Army of the Republic]]. The State of California assumed administration of the Home in 1897.<ref name="AutoZC-8"/>