Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
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BOOKS
10am-5:30pm Mon-Sat, 11am-3pm Sun)
Good used books.
Information
St Helena Welcome Center
VISITORS CENTER
707-963-4456;
www.sthelena.com
; 657 Main St;
9am-5pm Mon-Fri, plus
10am-4pm Sat-Sun May-Nov)
The visitor center has information and lodging assistance.
Calistoga & Around
The least gentrified town in Napa Valley feels refreshingly simple, with an old-fashioned
main street lined with shops, not boutiques, and diverse characters wandering the side-
walks. Bad hair? No problem. Fancy-pants St Helena couldn't feel farther away. Many
don't go this far north. You should.
Famed 19th-century author Robert Louis Stevenson said of Calistoga: 'the whole neigh-
borhood of Mt St Helena is full of sulfur and boiling springs…Calistoga itself seems to re-
pose on a mere film above a boiling, subterranean lake.'
Indeed, it does. Calistoga is synonymous with mineral water bearing its name, bottled
here since 1924. Its springs and geysers have earned it the nickname the 'hot springs of the
West.' Plan to visit a spa to indulge in the local specialty: hot-mud baths, made with vol-
canic ash from nearby Mt St Helena.
The town's odd name comes from Sam Brannan, who founded Calistoga in 1859, be-
lieving it would develop like the New York spa town of Saratoga. Apparently Sam liked
his drink and at the founding ceremony tripped on his tongue, proclaiming it the 'Cali-
stoga' of 'Sara-fornia.' The name stuck.
