Solano County

The County was formed in 1850. The County seat is Fairfield. The total county population is 411,925. Nearly half of Solano is bordered by water. The County is located mid-way between San Francisco and Sacramento off Highway 80. It is made up of the following cities:

Benicia, Dixon, Fairfield, Rio Vista, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo, Travis AFB

Travis is Federal and is not part of our "County", but our children go to school there, we are required to develop affordable housing and many residents, civilian and military, in our cities work there, so I am asking you to include them.

HISTORY:

There is quite a tainted history of deceitful deeds and promises and much loss of what started as towns, such as Rockville, Cordelia, Green Valley, Birds Landing, Denverton, Collinsville, Tolenas, Elmira and Allendale. American Canyon is a landfill area on the outskirts of Vallejo. These other areas are outlying areas from our cities. Most of them were once thriving but have become parts or small groups of homes by the other cities that ended up surpassing them because of change in roads or water-ways or other transportation paths bringing healthy economy.

Solano County originally marketed wheat and grains which were found throughout this county growing over the head of the horses. They were marketed through the ports but by the 1880's the market changed and they were producing some of the choicest fruits, raised wholly without irrigation. The farmers of Solano made very good money on small amounts of land due to the very high yield.

In Solano County, the indigenous peoples mostly belonged to the group of Patwin Indians, a tribal subgroup of the larger Wintun culture. The term Patwin was the native word for "people." The Patwin villages Malacas, Suisun and Tolenas were located in the Fairfield-Suisun region. In the Vacaville area, a large number lived near Ulatis Creek. A few thousand Patwin Indians lived in Solano County area at any time prior to the Spanish arrival. While the Patwin territory covers most of the Solano County area, two Plains Miwok villages were located near Rio Vista area. These Natives were hunters in the midst of the grass but had a tragic clash with the missionaries which led to the disappearance of the natives in this area all together. Putah Creek had a large presence in the upper part of our county. Putah Creek's name comes from the Patwin village named Putato that was located in Berryessa Valley, at a site now hidden by the waters of Lake Berryessa. In 1833, several members of the Hudson Bay Co. trappers, composed of camped along Putah Creek consisting of trappers, Indians and women with 60 children. The party began suffering from what was believed to have been malaria, which was transmitted to the Indians by clouds of mosquitoes that existed there within only 2 months time. Except for those who fled to higher elevations, entire villages were wiped out by malaria and smallpox. Census reports indicated that only about 200 Southern Patwin were still alive. Solano County was named after Chief Solano, by the request of General Vallejo, over 150 years ago.
 

This is a statue of Chief Solano. He was a good friend of General Vallejo; they considered each other allies. General Vallejo made Solano a "chief" and had him go to war against his own people to move them from the land and control them. General Vallejo met Solano in Mission Delores where he was named Francisco Solano and baptized at Mission Solano. Chief Solano was also knows as Sem Yeto to his tribe. Sena was another name he was known by. He was given the name Sem Yeto after he battled a grizzly bear. He once ruled over most of the tribes between the Petaluma River and Sacramento River. He is buried in the Rockville cemetery. White Heron, or her Christian name, Isadora Filomena, was one of his wives, known by Solano and many others as "Princess". She said Solano had stolen her from her father. "...tribe of Chuructos, ... My father, together with many of the Satiyomi, pursued him, but he could not overcome him....Afterwards I married the great Solano, prince of the Suisunes, Topaytos, Yolotoys, and Chuructos...During his life he made the whole world tremble, both whites and Indians, with the exception of his friend Gen. Guadulupe Mariano Vallejo."

Gen. Vallejo owned most of the land and sold 156 acres for the founding of Vallejo. He wanted it named Eureka but the people named it after him. It was the first location of our California State Capitol, although it was only there one month and then went to Sacramento, but quickly returned to Vallejo. Then it moved to Benicia for one year and then permanently back to Sacramento. Vallejo was established because of its port that brought many people from San Francisco. Then railroad was built from Vallejo to Sacramento. But the Navy actually rescued Vallejo from becoming a ghost town when they bought Mare Island and this became the first military arsenal on the West coast. Benicia was the 2nd city to be incorporated in all of California. Benicia is named after General Vallejo's wife and he had owned that land also. The oldest building is the Masonic Temple which has housed our State Capitol, public schools, libraries and a museum. Benicia started several California schools/colleges and was nicknamed "Athens of California". Benicia contributed to the US Military before the Civil War in housing Camels for their experiments as pack animals. They also became the first ordinance supply on the West coast, the Benicia Arsenal from 1849-1964.

Rockville had a great influx of Chinese who worked the fruit farms and Vacaville had a very large Japanese population. Although the Chinese were unable to be land owners, the Japanese owned many homes. They however, were relocated to Turlock during WW2. The first farm owned by Chinese in Solano was the large ranch which eventually sold to Anheuser Busch Company.

Vacaville was established by a sale of land owner Mr. Vaca, who only spoke Spanish and this case ended up in court from the deceitful dealings of Lansing Mizner, the surveyor-attorney who wrote the contract only in English. Sadly, Mr. Vaca again was deceived and lost the court case. At one time Vacaville was the fresh fruit capitol of California and the home of the Nut Tree, a famous Nut farm, now it is the home of several large scale biology companies.

Dixon started from a little roadhouse located along a well-traveled route to the Sierra foothills and California Gold Rush country. It came into existence when the California Pacific Railroad reached it on 28 August 1868. Thomas Dickson, a prosperous rancher, donated 10 acres of land near the California Pacific Railroad line for a town site and train station. In his honor, the depot was first called Dickson Station. When the first consignment of goods arrived by rail, the address erroneously read "Dixon," and so the town's name has remained ever since. It was incorporated in 1878. In its early years, Dixon was known for grain and, later, for alfalfa and dairy farming. Dixon is still a town rich in its agricultural roots. Dixon has a national reputation as a sheep industry leader. Dixon is also the home of the May Fair the oldest state affiliated fair in California.

Rio Vista is located on the Sacramento River and was flooded out in 1861 but moved a little upstream to relocate in 1862. On the way to Rio Vista is a place called Collinsville. It was founded by Lansford Warren Hastings as Montezuma. He helped blaze the Oregon Trail, was a Mormon that some presume was sent to bring settlement to the West, but misled many western settlers, like the Donner party, on his shortcut. (He authored The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California.)

Travis AFB, originally on Indian trading route land, was purchased from Fairfield-Suisun and named Fairfield-Suisun AFB. It opened up in 1943. It is now 6,383 acres. It is known as the "Gateway to the Pacific" and handles more cargo and passenger traffic than any other military base in the US. The base was renamed in 1951 after the tragic crash of Brigadier General Robert F. Travis in a B-59 in 1950. 

Prayer Focus for Solano County:

1. Mark 4:8 The richness of the land's soil causes me to ask you to pray that the good news of the Gospel would take root in all of the people in Solano County yielding revival in the market place and in the schools. "Other seeds fell into good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty and a hundredfold."

2. Galatians 5:16 The conquest of the many tribes and the temptations of worldly success that this county has experienced in its ports and soil lend to a competitive spirit, individualism and territorialism. This keeps us from the unity that God desires we have. Please pray that we "... walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh."

3. Galatians 5: 22-23 Our history of being very "fruitful" begs me to ask you to pray that the will of God would fall into our county in the heart of the residents here as we walk in the Spirit and replace the divisions from one another with the yield of His Spirit. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

4. Genesis 11:6 During Nimrod's day, unity was a bad thing. God wanted us to spread out and fill the earth, so He divided us. Today, we stand divided in a negative sense, but Jesus prayed that we would be one, so that the world would know that the Father sent Him. If we can be one as Jesus desires, then, "The Lord said, 'Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them (withheld from)." PLEASE PRAY FOR THIS! Let oneness come to our families and our churches and in our government, not through tolerance, but love. (Vice Mayor of Vallejo has said that Vallejo will be known as "The City of God" and Vacaville has been declared by the City Council for several years now as the "Place of Peace".) Let Your will be done in Solano County Lord as it is in Heaven!

5. Romans 8:11 & 12:12 Pray we reap life and not death. Solano and Travis AFB both suffer from many suicides, and cancer at young ages. There is murder in our relatively small communities, but let it be NO MORE! "But the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you....rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer".

6. Acts 17:27-28 Our communities have a love of knowledge. Paul addressed the intellects on Mars Hill with these words: "that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, For we also are His children." Please pray that our searching for knowledge and educating our children would reach beyond the earth and into Heaven to find our purpose and Father of creation.
 

CSAC Snapshot Info

Official County Website