Instructor: Bill Montgomery with special guest, Nick Tipon
Mondays, April 14, 21, 28 and May 5
3:00 to 5:00 PM – Berger Center
4-week session. Cost: $65
Course Description:
Santa Rosa has a vibrant history of brave explorers, colonists, missionaries, and heroes of many nationalities. Bill Montgomery and Nick Tipon, renowned Santa Rosa historians, weave a fascinating and colorful story of our city through the centuries of both turbulence and peace. Through a photographic narrative, experience earthquakes, uprisings, disease, immigration and gold with the people of those times, meeting scoundrels and saints along the way.
Course Details:
Week One:
During the first hour, Nick Tipon, an expert Native American historian, shares the rich culture and lives of the Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo people who were the first to settle here. Understanding their origins, spiritual and cultural beliefs and ways of governance, shows people that lived in harmony with the land, plants and animals of the Valley of the Moon. This lifestyle would be forever changed with the entrance of the colonists, missions and modern-day climate change and technology.
During the second hour of class, Bill Montgomery will tell the stories of Spanish and English explorers who named the state in 1543 and began the early colonization of Sonoma County. Later, settlers and missionaries, like Vallejo and Carrillo put their lasting imprint on the Valley.
Week Two:
The California that was mostly settled by Mexicans is invaded by settlers from the states and the war between Mexico and the US sets the stage for the Bear Flag Revolt and the Republic of California. Soon after, Sam Brannon was one of those who led 400,000 gold seekers into Sonoma County where many squatted on the land and spurred the growth and commerce of Santa Rosa. A well-planned picnic forces a coup that makes the city the county seat in 1854.
Week Three:
The Civil War and immigration have an enormous impact on the City’s next few decades of growth with Chinese and Italian immigrants establishing footholds in the railroad and building industries. Wheat, hops, and fruit are produced that are distributed to San Francisco and then comes wine! Meet the industrialists, millionaires, ‘hippies,’ crooks and heroes that shaped the late 1800’s.
Week Four:
At the turn of the century, Santa Rosa was a thriving community until the devastating earthquake of 1906 shown in shocking photographs of the time. Rapidly picking up the pieces, Santa Rosa gains the reputation of “The Pluckiest Little Town in California.” Later events like the Spanish flu, World War I, Prohibition, the Depression and World War II challenge the leaders of the city but new arrivals like Burbank, London, Ripley, Hitchcock and Schultz help bring well-deserved acclaim for the city and its people.
Instructor Biography:
Bill Montgomery is this year’s recipient of the Santa Rosa Merit Award for historic preservation. For over 20 years, his work as a volunteer work has enhanced our parks, trails, and open spaces. He is one of the founders of the Rural Cemetery Preservation Committee, dedicated to the conservation and preservation of this historical site. He has assisted in organizing fundraising tours and educational programs such as the highly popular Darkside Tours and Lamplight Tours. He is an avid supporter of the Friends of the Prince Memorial Greenway and Climate Crisis Volunteers
Nick Tipon was born and raised in Santa Rosa, where he currently resides. He was a teacher for 33 years with SR City Schools, then became an archeological monitor and museum consultant. He is a Board member of Point Blue Conservation Science and a member and elder of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria.
