Calistoga (Wappo: Nilektsonoma) is a city in Napa County, in the Wine Country of California. Located in the North Bay region of the Bay Area, the city had a population of 5,228 as of the 2020 census.

Calistoga was founded in 1868 in the same way as the California Pacific Railroad was built, establishing the town as a tourist destination for its Calistoga Hot Springs. Today, Calistoga continues as a popular tourist destination in Wine Country, owing to its vineyards and historic landmarks.

The Upper Napa Valley was as soon as the house of a significant population of Indigenous People, called the Wappo during the Spanish colonial get older of the late 18th century. With abundant oak trees providing acorns as a food staple and the natural warm springs as a healing sports ground Calistoga (Wappo: Nilektsonoma, meaning “Chicken Hawk Place”) was the site of several villages. Following Mexican Independence, mission properties were secularized and disposed of by the Mexican government with much of the Napa Valley swine partitioned into large ranchos in the 1830s and 1840s. The first Anglo settlers began arriving in the 1840s, with several taking taking place lands in the Calistoga area.

Samuel Brannan was the leader of a Mormon pact expedition upon the boat Brooklyn landing in Yerba Buena (San Francisco) in 1846. He published San Francisco’s first English language newspaper, the California Star. Following the discovery of gold in Coloma, Brannan became California’s first millionaire. Fascinated by Calistoga’s natural hot springs, Brannan purchased exceeding 2,000 acres (8 km) with the intent to produce a spa reminiscent of Saratoga Springs in New York.