Skaggs Island Naval Communication Station

The 1898 Mare Island earthquake occurred in Northern California on March 30 at 23:43 local time with a moment magnitude of 5.8–6.4 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII–IX (Severe–Violent). Its area of perceptibility included much of northern and central California and western Nevada. Damage amounted to $350,000 (about $10,700,000 inflation adjusted to 2018) and was most pronounced on Mare Island, a peninsula in northern San Francisco Bay. While relatively strong effects there were attributed to vulnerable buildings, moderate effects elsewhere in the San Francisco Bay Area consisted of damaged or partially collapsed structures, and there were media reports of a small tsunami and mostly mild aftershocks that followed. The mechanism of the shock is unknown, but several independent investigations focused on different aspects to gain a better understanding of the intensity, magnitude, source fault, and epicenter of this pre-instrumental event. Most investigators placed it under or to the north of San Pablo Bay, though two earthquake catalogs gave specific coordinates that place it within the confines of the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge. One of the numerous strike-slip faults of the San Andreas Fault System in the North Bay are most often named as the source fault, but one seismologist's paper detailed how an unnamed dip-slip fault may have been responsible. Several more recent studies gave alternate perspectives that named specific faults as the origin.

Rancho Suscol was an 84,000-acre (340 km2) Mexican land grant in present day Sonoma County, California, Napa County, California, and Solano County, California, given in 1843 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo. In a significant land law decision, the land claim was rejected by the US Supreme Court in 1862. Rancho Suscol extended from Rancho Petaluma on the west, south down to the San Francisco Bay and Mare Island and Carquinez Strait, and then to Rancho Suisun on the east. It included present day cities of Vallejo and Benicia.

Wingo is a ghost town located in Sonoma County, California in the United States. It can be found on older maps as a dot along the sloughs of Sonoma Creek, south of Sonoma and Schellville, and west of Buchli.

Sonoma Creek is a 33.4-mile-long (53.8 km) stream in northern California. It is one of two principal drainages of southern Sonoma County, California, with headwaters rising in the rugged hills of Sugarloaf Ridge State Park and discharging to San Pablo Bay, the northern arm of San Francisco Bay. The watershed drained by Sonoma Creek is roughly equivalent to the wine region of Sonoma Valley, an area of about 170 square miles (440 km2). The State of California has designated the Sonoma Creek watershed as a “Critical Coastal Water Resource”. To the east of this generally rectangular watershed is the Napa River watershed, and to the west are the Petaluma River and Tolay Creek watersheds. This south flowing river drains the western slopes of the Mayacamas Range, the southern slopes of Annadel State Park and the eastern slopes of the Sonoma Mountains with intermittent winter flows in the higher tributary reaches. As the tributaries and headwaters reach the valley floor, a perennial stream cuts through scenic and valuable vineyards of Kenwood. Sonoma Creek veers west at Kenwood and cuts a gorge running parallel to Warm Springs Road, where it turns south to historic Glen Ellen, passing within one mile (1.6 kilometers) of Jack London State Historic Park and the Wolf House and thence southward paralleling Arnold Drive. In the city of Sonoma it is an urban creek which emerges into agricultural areas to the south. Finally, Sonoma Creek discharges to the vast Napa-Sonoma Marsh at the northern tip of San Pablo Bay. Principal tributaries to the creek include Yulupa Creek, Graham Creek, Calabazas Creek, Bear Creek, Schell Creek, and Fowler Creek.

On October 25, 1991, a Bell 206 carrying rock music concert promoter Bill Graham, his girlfriend Melissa Gold, and pilot Steve Kahn crashed into a transmission tower west of Vallejo, California, killing everyone on board. The cause of the accident was determined to be the pilot's intentional flight into known adverse weather conditions.

Little Island is a partially submerged marsh island in the Napa Slough, branching off from the Napa River upstream of San Pablo Bay (an embayment of San Francisco Bay). It is almost entirely in Napa County, California, although part of its southern tip is in Solano County; it is managed as part of the Napa-Sonoma Marshes Wildlife Area. Its coordinates are 38°10′48″N 122°21′05″W, and the United States Geological Survey measured its elevation as 3 ft (0.91 m) in 1981.

San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge is a 13,190-acre (53.4 km2) National Wildlife Refuge in California established in 1970. It extends along the northern shore of San Pablo Bay, from the mouth of the Petaluma River, to Tolay Creek, Sonoma Creek, and ending at Mare Island.

Tubbs Island is an island in San Pablo Bay (an embayment of San Francisco Bay). It is in Sonoma County, California, and parts of it are managed as part of the Napa-Sonoma Marshes Wildlife Area. Its coordinates are 38°08′59″N 122°25′27″W, and the United States Geological Survey measured its elevation as 0 ft (0 m) in 1981. It, long with Island No. 1, Island No. 2 and Green Island, are labeled on a 1902 USGS map of the area.

The Napa Sonoma Marsh is a wetland at the northern edge of San Pablo Bay, which is a northern arm of the San Francisco Bay in California, United States. This marsh has an area of 48,000 acres (194 km2), of which 13,000 acres (53 km2) are abandoned salt evaporation ponds. The United States Government has designated 13,000 acres (53 km2) in the Napa Sonoma Marsh as the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge.The marsh is fed by Sonoma Creek (which drains the Sonoma Valley), Tolay Creek (originating in the Tolay Lake basin), and the Napa River (which drains the Napa Valley). Although the marsh extends north as far as State Route 12, as a practical matter, most of the marsh is only accessible by boat. The marsh is a productive estuarine ecosystem providing habitat for a wide diversity of flora and fauna, including numerous rare and endangered species such as the California clapper rail and California freshwater shrimp. Because of its rich avafaunal content, the Napa Sonoma Marsh is one of only seven marshes selected for intensive study by the Point Reyes Bird Observatory (based on a total of 50 discrete marshes appurtenant to the San Francisco Bay).Around 1860, the Napa Sonoma Marsh was one of the most productive wetlands of the Pacific Coast, providing habitat for millions of birds. By the mid-1980s, the San Francisco Bay perimeter had lost over 91 percent of its wetlands. The Napa Sonoma Marsh represents one of the few sizeable expanses where restoration is feasible.During the Vietnam War, the Navy utilized the marsh as a training ground for crews of the Navy's new Swift boats and patrol boats, operating out of Mare Island Naval Shipyard at the marsh's southern terminus.An extensive research literature base exists for the Napa Sonoma Marsh.

Bliss, originally titled Bucolic Green Hills, is the default computer wallpaper of Microsoft's Windows XP operating system. It is a virtually unedited photograph of a green hill and blue sky with white clouds in the Los Carneros American Viticultural Area of California's Wine Country. Charles O'Rear took the photo in January 1996 and Microsoft bought the rights in 2000. It is estimated that billions of people have seen the picture, possibly making it the most viewed photograph in history.

Sonoma Valley Airport (FAA LID: 0Q3) is a public-use airstrip founded in 1946 by Wally Reichelt in Sonoma, California, United States. Its first California-certificated runway opened in August 1959. Located 4.14 nmi (7.67 km) south of central district of Sonoma (4.76 mi, 7.67 km) and 26.9 nmi (49.8 km) north of San Francisco (30.94 mi, 49.8 km), the airfield offers two asphalt runways, of which the 17/35 is restricted, needing prior permission to use. Open to public use for light aircraft, Sonoma Valley Airport does not allow ultralight and rotorcraft operations, except for MEDEVAC or law enforcement helicopters. There are no night operations. Flying hours begin at morning civil twilight and end at evening civil twilight. Fuel is self-serve. Among other fixed-wing aircraft, vintage planes can be seen on Sonoma Valley's apron, such as a fully restored, flying Curtiss P-40, a North American SNJ-4, three Boeing-Stearman PT-17 biplanes, a Globe Swift, a Cessna 195, a Douglas DC-3, a Dornier Do 27 or a Seabee amphibious. Others are being restored, like a Howard DGA-15. On the airfield are the Vintage Aircraft Company, air tour operator, and the North Bay Air Museum, a flying museum. Vintage Aircraft offers flights in restored WWII open cockpit Stearmans and AT6 Texan.

Los Carneros AVA (also known as Carneros AVA) is an American Viticultural Area which includes parts of both Sonoma and Napa counties in California, U.S.A. It is located north of San Pablo Bay. The proximity to the cool fog and breezes from the bay makes the climate in Los Carneros cooler and more moderate than the wine regions farther north in Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley. The cooler climate has made Los Carneros attractive for the cultivation of cooler climate varietals like Pinot noir and Chardonnay. Many of the grapes grown in Los Carneros are used for sparkling wine production. Receiving its AVA status in 1983, the Carneros area was the first wine region in California to be defined by its climate characteristics rather than political boundaries.