Northern California A History and Guide - From Napa to Eureka [Paperback]

“The landscape of monotony is elsewhere,” Jack Newcombe writes, and the routes he traces through the vineyards, towns, and parkland of northern California—along with the variegated pleasures to be explored en route—bear the proof:

• Mud baths and wine tasting in Calistoga
• A view from the top at Mt. St. Helena
• Wine touring, the slow and selective way, in the Napa and Sonoma valleys
• “A Beer Experience” in Petaluma, and a dining treat at the New Boonvile Hotel
• Whale watching on the Sonoma and Mendocino coasts
• Walking the redwood forest trails
• Finishing fleets and Victorian mansions in Eureka

These attractions and more—and the colorful past that gave rise to them—are presented inNorthern California: A History & Guide, an exciting, indispensable travel companion for a most spectacular region.Jack Newcombewas the author of several works of fiction and nonfiction. A native of Vermont, he attended the University of Missouri, Pomona College and the American University at Biarritz before graduating from Brown University. He worked atLife magazine from 1955 to 1972 as a writer, editor, and bureau chief in London and Washington, and enjoyed a four-year tenure as executive editor of Book-of-the-Month Club. Jack Newcombe died in 1990.INTRODUCTION
 
The geographic appeal of California’s North Coast and its related ridges and valleys can come directly and easily enough from a map of the region: the river-broadened valleys point as vividly as fingers in north-south directions; the ranges pose a challenging barrier to the ocean front; and the coast itself marks a sharp, if irregular, definition between land and sea. There are not the outer banks, penetrating bays or estuaries one encounters along the East Coast. Northern California’s western border takes an abrupt stand againstl³.