Napa County, California

Napa County is a county located north of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. As of 2000 the population is 124,279. The county seat is Napa.

Napa County, once the producer of many different crops is known today for its wine industry, rising in the 1960s to the first rank of wine regions with France and Italy. The combination of natural beauty, pleasant Mediterranean climate, and proximity to San Francisco, Oakland, and Sacramento has made it into one of the United States' most desirable areas in which to live. However, its citizens are famous for their resistance to suburban development, with the result that 33 of California's 58 counties--including many that are far from major urban areas--are more populous. The relative poverty of the city of Napa, which houses most of the Latino migrant workers who tend and harvest the county's vineyards, produces a significant downward bias on its apparent wealth: estates in the county, particularly those with views of San Pablo Bay, have been known to sell for nearly ten million dollars.

The Napa wine country was the inspiration for the fictional Tuscany Valley on the nighttime soap opera Falcon Crest.

History

Napa County was one of the original counties of California, created in 1850 at the time of statehood. Parts of the county's territory were given to Lake County in 1861.

The word napa is of Native American derivation and has been variously translated as "grizzly bear," "house," "motherland" or "fish." Of the many explanations of the name's origin, the most plausible seems to be that it is derived from the Patwin word napo meaning house.

A joke among local youth is that the word means "you will return," referring to the insular nature of the town, and the fact that many of them who try to "escape" to college and elsewhere often end up either coming back or never managing to truly leave at all.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 2,042 km² (788 mi²). 1,952 km² (754 mi²) of it is land and 89 km² (35 mi²) of it (4.38%) is water.

Napa is warmer in the summer than Sonoma County to the west or Santa Barbara to the south. Thus, the Napa wineries favor varietals such as Cabernet Sauvignon, while Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are more the specialty of Sonoma wineries and Santa Barbara wineries. At the north end of Napa County in the Mayacmas Mountains lies Mount St. Helena, the Bay Area's tallest peak at 4,344 feet and home to Robert Louis Stevenson State Park.

Adjacent Counties

Solano County, California - south, southeast
Sonoma County, California - west
Lake County, California - north
Yolo County, California - east

Demographics

As of the census ² of 2000, there were 124,279 people, 45,402 households, and 30,691 families residing in the county. The population density was 64/km² (165/mi²). There were 48,554 housing units at an average density of 25/km² (64/mi²). The racial makeup of the county was 79.98% White, 1.32% Black or African American, 0.84% Native American, 2.97% Asian, 0.23% Pacific Islander, 10.95% from other races, and 3.71% from two or more races. 23.67% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 45,402 households out of which 31.40% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.20% were married couples living together, 9.90% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.40% were non-families. 25.80% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.60% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.62 and the average family size was 3.16.

In the county the population was spread out with 24.10% under the age of 18, 8.50% from 18 to 24, 27.70% from 25 to 44, 24.30% from 45 to 64, and 15.40% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 99.60 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.40 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $51,738, and the median income for a family was $61,410. Males had a median income of $42,137 versus $31,781 for females. The per capita income for the county was $26,395. About 5.60% of families and 8.30% of the population were below the poverty line, including 10.60% of those under age 18 and 5.60% of those age 65 or over.

Politics

**Presidential elections results**
Year	GOP	Dems
2004	39.0% ''22,059	59.5% ''33,666
2000	39.9% ''20,633	54.3% ''28,097
1996	36.1% ''17,439	50.9% ''24,588
1992	29.3% ''15,662	45.3% ''24,415
1988	50.2% ''23,235	48.1% ''22,283
1984	57.8% ''26,322	40.8% ''18,599
1980	53.7% ''23,632	33.8% ''14,898
1976	51.8% ''20,839	44.9% ''18,048
1972	59.6% ''23,403	37.0% ''14,529
1968	43.8% ''14,270	45.3% ''14,762
1964	37.1% ''11,567	62.7% ''19,580
1960	52.6% ''33,428	43.4% ''25,805

Trivia

The default wallpaper for the Windows XP operating system is Bliss, a JPEG photograph of a landscape in the Napa Valley, with rolling green hills and a blue sky with stratocumulus and cirrus clouds. The photograph inspired Windows XP's 200-million USD advertising campaign Yes you can.

Cities and towns

Wine in Napa Valley

Napa is widely considered one of the top AVAs in California, and all of the United States with a history dating back to the early nineteenth century. By the end of the nineteenth century there were more than one hundred and forty wineries in the area. Of those original wineries several still exist in the valley today including Charles Krug Winery, Chateau Montelena and Beringer. Viticulture in Napa suffered a setback when prohibition was enacted across the country in 1920. Furthering the damage was caused by an infestation of the phylloxera root louse which killed many of the vines throught the valley. These two events caused many wineries to shut down and stalled the growth of the wine industry in Napa County for years. Following the Second World War, the wine industry in Napa begain to thrive again.

In 1965, Napa Valley icon Robert Mondavi broke away from his family's Charles Krug estate to found his own. It was the first new large scale winery to be established in the valley since before prohibition. Following the establishment of the Mondavi estate the number of wineries in the valley continued to grow, as did the region's reputation. In 1976 the region got an enormous boost from the results of the famous Paris Wine Tasting of 1976, which featured a Napa Valley Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon besting several famous French labels in a blind tasting format. The results of this tasting cemented the region's reputation as being able to produce world class wines.

Today Napa Valley features more than three hundred wineries and grows many different grape varieties including Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, Zinfandel, and other popular varietals. It is visited by as many as five million people each year, making it the second most popular tourist destination in the state, second only to Disneyland.