Fetters Hot Springs-Agua Caliente is a census-designated place (CDP) in Sonoma Valley, Sonoma County, California, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the CDP population was 4,144. The name Agua Caliente translates into English, from Spanish, as hot water, referring to the hot springs historically found in the area. Generally considered separate from one another, Fetters Hot Springs and Agua Caliente are adjacent communities located along the Sonoma Highway (State Route 12), approximately 2.5 miles (4.0 km) northwest of Sonoma, California, and immediately north of Boyes Hot Springs and El Verano. Over time, the boundaries between these four communities became blurred and they are often grouped together and referred to collectively as "the Springs" area of Sonoma Valley. [1]
The Springs: Aqua Caliente, Boyes Hot Springs, El Verano, and Fetters Hot Springs
Roadside Thoughts: TOWN California . . .
Agua Caliente . . . Link
Fetters Hot Springs . . . Link
Fetters Hot Springs-Agua Caliente . . . Link
Sonoma County Genealogical Society . . . Link
The area was first occupied by Indigenous peoples who discovered and used the hot springs that the area is named after. The Mexican government deeded 50,000 acres to Lazaro Piña as Rancho Agua Caliente, a land grant 10 miles (16 km) long on the east side of Sonoma Creek, in 1840. In 1849 Thaddeus M. Leavenworth acquired 320 acres of the Rancho in what became present-day Agua Caliente, Fetters Hot Springs, Boyes Hot Springs, and part of Maxwell Farm. In 1889, property was being sold in the area as being near the "celebrated old Indian Medicine Spring." George and Emma Fetters opened the Fetters Hot Springs resort in 1908. Flamboyant restaurateur Juanita Musson opened her second Sonoma Valley restaurant in the old Fetters hotel around 1970, but it burned to the ground five years later. The land stood vacant for almost forty years until the Fetters Apartments, built as affordable housing for sixty families, opened in 2017. [1]
Both
Census Reporter: Fetters Hot Springs-Agua Caliente . . . Link
Fetters Hot Springs-Agua
Caliente Wikipedia Page . . . Link
LocalWiki: El Verano (includes both cities). . . Link
Mindat.org: Fetters Hot Springs-Agua Caliente . . . Link
Permit Sonoma: Both are mentioned
. . . Link
Springs Museum/Historical Society . . . Link
Agua Caliente: The Agua Caliente Grant was ten miles long and extended up the valley from Sonoma Creek on the west, to the hills on the east. Alcalde Lilburn Boggs was named Sonoma's first postmaster in 1849. The first newspaper in the county, the Sonoma Bulletin was started by A. J. Cox, in 1852. The communities of El Verano, Boyes Hot Springs, Agua Caliente, and Fetters Hot Springs, collectively known as The Springs have been popular since the turn of the century, when the railroads first began promoting the Sonoma Valley. The area's underground hot springs soon became a prime attraction. A San Francisco hotel owner bought Agua Caliente Hot Springs and transformed it into a first-class resort in 1901. [Archived Website. Link]
Check Sonoma Historian (SCHS) for articles about the towns. . . . Link (done)
WikiVoyage: Agua Caliente . . . Link
Fetters Hot Springs
Fetters Hot Springs: . . . . The area's underground hot springs soon became a prime attraction. In 1895, Captain H. E. Boyes struck 112-degree water at 70 feet while drilling a well; within five years, he had built the Boyes Hot Springs Hotel on the site of the current Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa. A San Francisco hotel owner bought Agua Caliente Hot Springs and transformed it into a first-class resort in 1901, and in 1908 George and Emma Fetters opened Fetters Hot Springs. [Archived Website. Link]
Check Sonoma Historian (SCHS) for articles about the towns. . . . Link
WikiVoyage: Fetters Hot Springs . . . Link
Andrew Hoeppner [or Heppner]. . . Article . . .
"... Mr. Vellejo obligates himself likewise to give Mr. Hoeppner a title to a tract of land of the Aqua Caliente boacht from Don Lorenzo Pina to the extent of two leagues and a half long by one-quarter of a league wide, as soon as Mr. Hoepphner shall have fullfilled religiously and entirely the stipulations contained in the foregoing article..."
"Aqua Caliente Villa" [Aqua Caliente Springs Hotel] . . . Article [p. 5] . . . Article [p.18] . . .
A recently rescued landmark building in Boyes Hot Springs, the Aqua Caliente Springs Hotel (1914) is now Aqua Caliente Villa (a residential care facility.
Juanita Musson [p. 19] & Article [p. 9]
Dr. Nordin . . . Link
The discovery [of the hot springs in 1895] spurred an influx of other entrepreneurial bathhouse owners to the area, including Dr. Nordin, who located a nearby spring and opened the Agua Caliente Springs Hotel, and Emma Fetter, who established Fetter’s Hot Springs.
Hooker Ranch . . . Article [p. 19]
Serres Ranch . . . Article [p. 15] . . . Article [p.15] . . . Article: Joseph Hooker, George Watriss, John Pierre Serres. [p.18-20]
Jim Shere . . . Article [p. 10-11] . . . Article [p. 19]
Watriss Family . . . Article [page 5]
"Soon afterwards, the Watriss family in Aqua Caliente employed twenty to thirty Chinese workers year-round on their large property."
"Clemente Inn" . . . Article [Sonoma Historian, p.15]
Emma Fetter . . . Link . . . Article [Sonoma Historian, p.12]
The discovery [of the hot springs in 1895] spurred an influx of other entrepreneurial bathhouse owners to the area, including Dr. Nordin, who located a nearby spring and opened the Agua Caliente Springs Hotel, and Emma Fetter, who established Fetter’s Hot Springs.
"Fetter's Hot Springs Hotel" . . . Article [Sonoma Historian, p. 5]
Where the Fetter's Hot Springs Hotel had been (until the 1970's) a condo complex is under construction.
Maps
3 top bike rides around Fetters Hot Springs-Agua Caliente . . . Link
Map of Fetters Hot Springs-Agua Caliente [MapQuest]. . . Link
View of Fetters Hot Springs, Hotel and Baths, Agua Caliente, Sonoma Company [1911] . . . Link
[1] Wikipedia contributors. "Fetters Hot Springs-Agua Caliente, California." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 27 Jul. 2022. Web. Viewed 4 Oct. 2022.. . . . Link
[2] "Historical and Descriptive Sketch Book of Napa, Sonoma, Lake, and Mendocino: Comprising Sketches of Their Topography, Productions, History, Scenery, and Peculiar Attractions", C.A. Menefee, 1873 . . . Link
[3] "Historical and Descriptive Sketch of Sonoma County, California" Robert Allan Thompson. L.H. Everts, 1877 - Sonoma County (Calif.) - 104 pages. [Bodega pp 100-101] . . . Link
[4]
"An Illustrated
History of Sonoma County, California: Containing a
History of the County of Sonoma from the Earliest
Period of Its Occupancy to the Present Time",
Lewis Publishing, 1889
. . . Link