Mount Saint Helena (

Wappo The Wappo (endonym: ''Micewal'') are an Indigenous people of northern California. Their traditional homelands are in Napa Valley, the south shore of Clear Lake, Alexander Valley, and Russian River valley. They are distantly related to the Yu ...

: Kanamota, "Human Mountain") is a peak in the

Mayacamas Mountains The Mayacamas Mountains are located in northwestern California in the United States. The mountain range is part of the Northern Inner Coast Ranges, of the California Coast Ranges System. Geography The Mayacamas Mountains are located south of th ...

with flanks in Napa, Sonoma, and

Lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

counties of

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. Composed of uplifted volcanic rocks from the Clear Lake Volcanic Field, it is one of the few

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

s in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

to receive any

snowfall Snow consists of individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water througho ...

during the winter. The mountain has five peaks, arranged in a rough "M" shape. Its highest point, North Peak, is in Sonoma County. The second-tallest, immediately east of the main summit, is the highest point in Napa County. The headwaters of the

Napa River The Napa River is a river approximately long in the U.S. state of California. It drains a famous wine-growing region called the Napa Valley, in the mountains north of the San Francisco Bay. Milliken Creek and Mt. Veeder watersheds are a f ...

arise on the southeast slope of Mount Saint Helena.

History

Mount Saint Helena has had an explosive history of pyroclastic flows that resulted in California's Petrified Forest. Mount Saint Helena, originally named Kanamota ("Human Mountain") by the Wappo, and later Mount Mayacamas by Spanish colonists, was renamed by a

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

survey party who ascended the peak in 1841. They left a copper plate on the

summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...

inscribed with the date of their visit and the name of Princess Helena de Gagarin, wife of Alexander G. Rotchev, the commanding officer of

Fort Ross Fort Ross (, , Kashaya: ) is a former Russian establishment on the west coast of North America in what is now Sonoma County, California. Owned and operated by the Russian-American Company, it was the hub of the southernmost Russian settlemen ...

. The peak is accessible by hiking trails leading from Robert Louis Stevenson State Park. The trails are approximately long. Scottish writer

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...

and his wife Fanny Vandegrift Osbourne spent the summer of 1880

honeymoon A honeymoon is a vacation taken by newlyweds after their wedding to celebrate their marriage. Today, honeymoons are often celebrated in destinations considered exotic or romantic. In a similar context, it may also refer to the phase in a couple ...

ing in an abandoned mining camp on Mount Saint Helena. Stevenson's book '' The Silverado Squatters'' describes his experiences while living there. A state park was named after him near here.

Representation in other media

The mount is described by

Ambrose Bierce Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 – ) was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and American Civil War veteran. His book '' The Devil's Dictionary'' was named one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by the ...

in his

ghost story A ghost story is any piece of fiction, or drama, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them."Ghost Stories" in Margaret Drabble (ed.), ''Oxford Companion to English Literature''. ...

The Death of Halpin Frayser "The Death of Halpin Frayser" is a Gothic ghost story by Ambrose Bierce. It was first published in the San Francisco periodical ''The Wave'' on December 19, 1891 before appearing in the 1893 collection '' Can Such Things Be?'' Plot summary ...

''.

Ursula K. Le Guin Ursula Kroeber Le Guin ( ; Kroeber; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author. She is best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the ''Earthsea'' fantas ...

's novel '' Always Coming Home'' is about a

post-apocalyptic Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction are genres of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astronom ...

society that considers Mount Saint Helena sacred. File:Mount Saint Helena (2007-10-08).JPG, Mount Saint Helena File:Mount Saint Helena 2.JPG, Another view of the mountain File:Monument on the site of Robert Louis Stevenson's cabin in Robert Louis Stevenson State Park.JPG, Robert Louis Stevenson monument in Robert Louis Stevenson State Park

Views from the summit

File:Calistoga from mt st helena.jpg, Calistoga viewed from Mount Saint Helena File:Northern Napa Valley viewed from Mount Saint Helena.JPG, Northern Napa Valley viewed from Mount Saint Helena File:View from Mount Saint Helena, California 2.JPG, A view from the mountain File:View from Mount Saint Helena 5.JPG, Another view File:View from Mount Saint Helena.JPG, Another view File:MtStHelenaTreeFrame.jpg, View after 2017 fire File:MtStHelenaSnow.jpg, Snow view

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Helena, Mount Mayacamas Mountains Mountains of Lake County, California Mountains of Napa County, California Mountains of Sonoma County, California Mountains of the San Francisco Bay Area Mountains of Northern California

History

Representation in other media

Views from the summit

See also

References

External links