Finding General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo

Adventures happen in two ways, they are either planned or spontaneous. Sometimes though, both can be true, and this is what happened to me a couple weeks ago. 

I am a planner. I have a calendar and on it is an itinerary for the month. Everything I do is on that calendar. The who, what, when, where’s all have to be answered. Also planned is the cost. I need to know everything down to the fine details. Some would call it OCD, but my wife just says I’m just crazy. 

Just north of San Francisco, about an hour out of the city, on highway 101 is a city called Petaluma. Just east of the city is a road that runs parallel with the highway called Old Adobe Road. Along this road sits a building made of wood, mud and straw. It’s an exceptionally large building on a vast plot of land. It is surrounded by a brown timbered fence like you would see in a civil war battlefield photo.

I have driven past this building many times but was never very curious about it. On Google Maps it just says Adobe State Park. Well, that’s not very interesting, is it? What is interesting is that this was the ranch of a very important resident of the state of California, General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo. You won’t find this name in many history books. Maybe if you are raised in California or come from a Spanish or Mexican family, you may know the name General Vallejo. I know that I didn’t before I started doing my research.

I had planned for this trip for several months. I was looking forward to a weekend away from work and it was my first trip of the summer. A nice getaway from the fog and cool breeze of the coastal region and into some warmth and sunshine. Today we planned to venture out to the adobe and see what it was all about. We were just going to pop in, take some video for our social media sites, and then off to our next site in Santa Rosa. What we found out was just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Vallejo and Northern California.

At the entrance there is a sign that simply reads “Petaluma Adobe” in good size letters and then “State Historical Park: in small letters under that. With the flow of traffic, it is very easy to miss and the sign really isn’t that interesting. Nothing really jumps out at you and says ‘Hey, check out some neat historical stuff here.

After parking, we walked up the path from the lot to the Adobe. We crossed a nice bridge that goes over a small creek. It was very tranquil and as if you were not just a couple miles outside of a large city. Further along the path on both sides were prickly pear cactus, which I can only guess range in age to over a century old, which created a type of natural fence. Walking into the building you can feel the age of the buildings. The layout of the building is in a C shape with two levels. On the bottom level, you will see the workshops for the day to day operations of the ranch. From raising cattle to tanning hides, most of the family business was accomplished here. On the top level were the living and dining quarters for the employees of the ranch. Outside of the buildings in the center was an area with outdoor ovens where meals were prepared. It was interesting to see how they used the resources available in the area to create a vast ranch.

Though there is admittedly not much to see, the walk through only takes about 20-30 minutes. Our adventure was about to spontaneously change. When you walk through the first door you are greeted by a state park employee who will gladly take your $3 per person and give you a receipt. This receipt allows you entrance to a couple other state parks for that day. I asked what other State Parks are in the area that we could visit and was told that there were three not too far from where we were. The odd thing that I learned was this wasn’t the house as I had first thought it to be. The house was 11 miles away by car in the town of Sonoma, so off we went. Remember, we had a full day scheduled full of things to do, but this just changed everything.

I had no idea where we were going. Stupidly, I had pulled up on my phone the Sonoma State Park, not the house, just the state park. Once we arrived we noticed something was not quite the same as back in Petaluma. The people here were better dressed and the cars driving around were a bit more pricey than what I was driving. We found a spot to park across from the State Park, thinking that this was Vallejo’s House, it wasn’t. Unbeknownst to me, I had parked across from the most northern of the Spanish Missions in California.

The 21 Spanish missions in California are staggered across the state at approximately 30 miles apart, Mission San Francisco de Solano was the last to be built. This was an unexpected surprise. I had recently been to Texas and, of course, went to the Alamo, probably the most famous Spanish Mission. While in Texas, I also visited four other Spanish missions in San Antonio. You’ll read more about that adventure in another article. Having one of the 21 missions in California on my list to check off was a real unexpected pleasure.

Mission San Francisco de Solano had a revenant charm about it. Even though it was at the center of a bustling town, once inside the noise went away and you were able to see, learn, and appreciate those who lived and worked at the mission. When you walk through the mission and finally enter the chapel on the left hand side you will see a metal plaque that reads ‘In Memory of Maria Ygancia Lopez Carrillo Buried here Feb 1849 Mother of Francisca Bencia Carillo who was the Wife of General M G Vallejo.’ It is easy to miss as it is just above the floor on the wall. The chapel was very simplistic, yet still had a holy feel to it that you get when entering a place of worship.

Founded on July 4th 1823, Padre Jose Altimira built this Franciscan Mission to Proselytize to the natives and to populate the areas with a vast Mexican population to counter the Russians who had established a settlement at Fort Ross on the coast from moving further inland. After only 11 years the mission was shut down and General Vallejo (Lieutenant at the time) was in charge of overseeing the closing of the mission.

Across the street, to the west of the mission, is the Presidio of Sonoma, the military barracks of General Vallejo. Troops first arrived at the barracks in 1834 and were under the command of Vallejo. This was to be the headquarters of the Commandant of the Frontera del Norte, the Mexican Provincial Frontier of the North.

On June 14, 1846, a group of 33 American immigrants took over the Presidio and all buildings in the area. Vallejo and three others were sent by horseback towards Sacramento. The barracks became the headquarters for the New California Republic and a flag with a bear, a red star, and red stripe at the bottom was raised that day. This was known as the Bear Flag Revolt. This is the same flag that California still uses today.

Walking around the two story barracks, going in and out of each room, was educational. In each room they had displays and artifacts showing what each room was used for and the overall use of the barracks. After spending some time at the barracks, it was time to venture onward. Using the gps on my phone, I located Vallejo’s home and we began to walk. We found a bike path and we walked about 20 minutes, a little over half a mile. The heat was starting to come out and we were glad that we finally made it to Vallejo’s house.

Having visited the ranch first and seeing the wood, straw and mud building, I expected to see something similar for the house. I was wrong. This was a house built for someone with high standing in the community. Even by today’s standards this is a very nice house. Along with the main house there is a large barn and housing for staff, even a separate living and cooking quarters for the cook. Just out back is a good size concrete pond with a walkway around it. I had fun playing with the turtles. There were so many that I tried to count but gave up on that idea.

We took out final pictures and videos and decided to head back to town as the heat was getting a bit worse. We took a different route, feeling a bit adventurous. Finally back onto the main street, we popped into a pizza place for a bite to eat. Apparently everyone else had the same idea, as the restaurant quickly filled with other people who were exploring the town or on a break from their jobs. 

After we had eaten and paid our bill, we were walking back to where we parked when we noticed that we hadn’t seen everything there was to be seen. Next to the barracks was a big lot full of buildings left over from that era, including a hotel. It looked like a scene from a Hollywood western set. You could expect gunslingers to start shooting out in the middle of the street. At the time we were not able to enter any of these buildings, I’m not sure if you are ever able to, it was nice to walk around and enjoy the fact that they have lasted all of these years.

We got back to our car and I had a hunch to look at the maps app on my phone. That hunch proved to be correct as not far from where we were was the local cemetery and I noticed on the app that there was an icon for the graved site for General Vallejo. We had to go.

Pulling up to the cemetery, we didn’t know exactly where we were going. So we just started walking as I zoomed in on the map app. The grave site was right in front of us, just up a slight incline. After spending a few minutes at the site, saying hello, it was time to go. We finally found General Vallejo.

We continued to walk, crossing the street to where we saw people walking around with ice cream. Oh my weakness on a hot, sunny day. We went inside, ordered up, grabbed our cone of cool deliciousness and sat outside at a table and people watched for a bit. Once full of sugary goodness, we decided we needed to walk around some more. We went and walked around city hall and the park. We ended up finding even more sugary goodness at a nice little chocolate shop, Wine Country Chocolates, selling handmade bonbons. We purchased a box and decided it was time to return to our hotel.

What started out as a simple, planned out adventure soon became an all day adventure to places we never knew existed. I’d like to think that the lesson I learned is don’t always be so rigid with your schedule, lighten up and be flexible. You never know what adventures are around the corner.

By the way… the bonbons were absolutely delectable. We will be going back for more.