CALISTOGA

city, Napa county, western California, U.S., just northeast of Santa Rosa, near the head of Napa Valley. Located in an area of natural hot water geysers and mineral and mud springs, it was founded in 1859 as a health spa by Sam Brannan. It supposedly received its name through a promotional twist of its founder's tongue (Calistoga of Sarifornia instead of Saratoga of California!). The city's Old Faithful Geyser of California regularly erupts every 40 minutes. In the vicinity of Mount St. Helena, which lies 8 mi (13 km) northeast, author Robert Louis Stevenson honeymooned by an abandoned silver mine with Fanny Vandegrift Osbourne in the summer of 1880; there he prepared notes for The Silverado Squatters (1883). His sojourn is commemorated by a monument, and the area is now a state memorial park. A petrified forest containing giant redwood fossils is located 5 mi west. Calistoga has flourished as a popular resort and acquired important wine industries centred on the Sterling vineyards. Inc. town, 1886; city, 1937. Pop. (1990) 4,468.