Santa Rosa, CA
| Santa Rosa, California | |
|---|---|
| Charter city, county seat | |
| City of Santa Rosa | |
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Old Courthouse Square, Downtown Santa Rosa
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 Location in Sonoma County and the state of California |
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 Santa Rosa, California
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| Coordinates: 38°26′55″N 122°42′17″W / 38.44861°N 122.70472°WCoordinates: 38°26′55″N 122°42′17″W / 38.44861°N 122.70472°W | |
| Country |
 United States
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| State |
 California
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| County | Sonoma |
| Incorporated | March 26, 1868 |
| Government | |
| • Type | Council-Manager |
| • Mayor | Chris Coursey |
| • City manager | Sean McGlynn |
| Area | |
| • City | 41.499 sq mi (107.481 km2) |
| • Land | 41.294 sq mi (106.95 km2) |
| • Water | 0.205 sq mi (0.531 km2) 0.49% |
| Elevation | 164 ft (50 m) |
| Population (April 1, 2010) | |
| • City | 167,815 |
| • Estimate (2014) | 174,170 |
| • Rank | 1st in Sonoma County |
| • Density | 4,000/sq mi (1,600/km2) |
| Time zone | Pacific (UTC-8) |
| • Summer (DST) | PDT (UTC-7) |
| ZIP codes | 95401–95407, 95409 |
| Area code | 707 |
| FIPS code | 06-70098 |
| GNIS feature IDs | 249105, 1659601 |
| Website | ci |
Santa Rosa is a city in and the county seat of Sonoma County, California, United States. Its estimated 2014 population was 174,170. Santa Rosa is the largest city in California's Redwood Empire, Wine Country and the North Bay; the fifth most populous city in the San Francisco Bay Area after San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, and Fremont; and the 28th most populous city in California.
Before the arrival of Europeans, the wide valley containing Santa Rosa was home to a strong and populous tribe of Pomo natives known as the Bitakomtara. The Bitakomtara controlled the valley closely, barring passage to others until permission was arranged. Those who entered without permission were subject to harsh penalties. The tribe gathered at ceremonial times on Santa Rosa Creek near present-day Spring Lake Regional Park. Upon the arrival of Europeans, the Pomos were decimated by smallpox brought from Europe, and by the eradication efforts of Anglo settlers. By 1900 the Pomo population had decreased by 95%.
The first known permanent European settlement of Santa Rosa was the homestead of the Carrillo family, in-laws to Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, who settled the Sonoma pueblo and Petaluma area. In the 1830s, during the Mexican period, the family of María López de Carrillo built an adobe house on their Rancho Cabeza de Santa Rosa land grant, just east of what later became downtown Santa Rosa. Allegedly, however, by the 1820s, before the Carrillos built their adobe in the 1830s, Spanish and Mexican settlers from nearby Sonoma and other settlements to the south raised in the area and slaughtered animals at the fork of the Santa Rosa Creek and Matanzas Creek, near the intersection of modern-day Santa Rosa Avenue and Sonoma Avenue. This is supposedly the origin of the name of Matanzas Creek as, because of its use as a slaughtering place, the confluence came to be called La Matanza.
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