Lachryma Montis: Sonoma, California

Thursday, November 13,  2014 

A drive to Sonoma to visit General Vallejo's Sonoma home, Mission San Francisco Solano and Sonoma Barracks. 

                            http://www.sonomavalley.com/sonoma-bear-flag-republic.html

Lachryma Montis:

                                                      Water at a premium in 1874

                                  Statue between front of Vallejo home and Swiss Chalet

                                                                       Parlor/Sala

                                                      Above and Below:  Dining Room

                                                              Above and Below:  General's Study

Upstairs bedrooms: 

                                                         Bed is Italian Renaissance Revival Style            

                                                                 Eastlake style child's bed

                                          Statue between rear of Vallejo home and grounds

 Mission San Francisco Solano http://www.sonomaparks.org/pub/place/1

http://missiontour.org/sonoma/tour02.htm

          
 

Some photos of the mission courtyard:

Opposite the mission walls 

                                                   Close up of California Buckeye: "the chestnut tree"

*Memorial plaque between the mission and the barracks* The plaque recognizes and honors those California Indians who died and were buried in the mission cemetery during the mission's 11 year existence.  (Mission San Francisco Solano)

                    http://www.monitor.net/monitor/mission/default.html

Sonoma Barracks http://missiontour.org/sonoma/tour06.htm

My observations from four museum visits revealed that some facts were inconsistently reported (e.g. the General's date of birth) and Spanish words and English words were used interchangeably, not always with an explanation. I also noticed that the General's biographical details were not fully presented in one museum. The Sonoma Barracks, the fourth and last museum we visited, the information was presented on tall boards, free standing and double sided, in a dimly lit room. For the purposes of this blog, I rearranged the information chronologically, rather than by theme which seemed to be the style of the Barracks Museum.  For instance, the Bear Flag Story was not with the information about the proclamation describing the new flag and Lieutenant Revere replacing the Bear Flag with the Star and Stripes. The  information in my blog may lack "flow" as I did not retype, instead I performed a kind of cut and paste with my photos.  I also pasted some of the Barracks Museum photos in the Lachryma Montis section. For example,  the information in green about the General's vineyards and the later years of his life I originally read in the Barracks Museum. That info will repeat some of the information from the Lachryma Montis museum. My presentation is not perfect but my hope is, from the details I've "sussed out",  that you will know more about Northern California history ;-D

 Like Canada, museums in the States have a very limited budget and limited staff. My Lachryma Montis blog comments are a reflection of park finances, not the employees. At the General's Rancho, the guide was very knowledgable of California history. She welcomed our questions and shared her perspective on the impact of colonialism on Native culture.  At the General's Sonoma home, a ranger, from her park vehicle, welcomed us, told us about a tour that had started and pointed to the admission area.  We met this ranger again at the Missions!