Tolay Lake Regional Park

Cultural & Natural History

Located between the Petaluma River and Sonoma Valley in the San Francisco North Bay region, this unique 1,737-acre property contains pristine farm and grasslands, ridges, a freshwater lake, wetlands, and many other natural resources. It provides habitat for several species of special status including the burrowing owl, California red-legged frog, northwestern pond turtle, golden eagle, white tailed kite, horned lark, northern harrier, and the tricolor blackbird.

The exceptional cultural and historical value of the Tolay Lake Ranch is well documented. California State Parks Archeologist E. Breck Parkman noted, "Lake Tolay has a unique and perhaps nationally significant prehistoric archaeological history...” The stewardship of the property, ranging from Native Americans to pioneers to enterprising immigrants, is known to span over 8,000 years, and has preserved a unique natural and historical resource. A report prepared for California State Parks notes, "...the Ranch in its entirety possesses a high degree of integrity as a rural historic landscape because of the wide variety of landscape elements that are present." These natural history resources also provide the setting for a site that many consider unparalleled in the state of California for research and public educational activities in relation to Native American archeology, history, and culture.

The Tolay Lake site has been identified as an historic spiritual center for Native Americans from across California. Greg Sarris, Tribal Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, tells of the rich tradition among his people, "the lake and surrounding area was highly sacred and was considered one of three areas in all of northern California where Indian doctors from different tribes convened for sacred ceremonies and the exchange of ritual objects and songs for the purpose of healing.'' Many of the charmstones found at Tolay Lake were made from rock materials not found in the immediate region, including rocks from Yosemite Valley and northeastern California. Tolay Lake has also been called "Charmstone Lake," because of the abundance of the charmstone artifacts found there. Greg Sarris further notes, "The charmstones collected at Tolay Lake, over 1,000 and still counting, some dating back 4,000 years, mark not only the most significant discovery of cultural material for my people, but no doubt for all native people in California. Nowhere in North America is there such a collection of charmstones."

In addition to an unparalleled glimpse at the pre-European history of California, Tolay Lake Ranch also tells the story of the settling and populating of this region and of California. It provides the opportunity to both study and exhibit the history of immigrant populations that played key roles in local and state history. The artifacts and buildings present on the property document the days of the Spanish settlers and Vaqueros, and the successive waves of Chinese, Irish, Portuguese, Italian, and Mexican immigrants. Over the past forty years, the site had been used for an annual pumpkin festival, drawing crowds of nearly 30,000 each year.