The Early Year of Pope Valley

The area now known as Pope Valley was originally named for the Indians who lived there, the Wappos. The first white settler in Pope Valley was Julian Pope, from whom the valley derived its name. Born in Kentucky, as a young man he moved to Mexico where he lived as a hunter and trapper.

In 1830, he visited the Mexican town of San Diego for the purpose of procuring supplies and was arrested because he had violated the Mexican law by entering their county without a passport. He was confined for about a year, when the captain of an American merchant ship which had entered the port, heard of Pope's plight and prevailed upon the Mexican officials to release him.

In 1836, he emigrated with his family to Los Angeles and in 1841 he obtained a land grant (The Locallome land grant) to what is now Pope Valley from the Mexican government, and brought his family to Napa County. The grant was approximately six miles long and three miles wide. Julian and his family built an adobe homestead and named it Rancho Locallome. The governor signed his grant, affixed the government seal, Julian Pope paid the twenty-five cent fee and became the owner of Pope Valley.

The earliest recorded settler to arrive in Pope Valley was in 1843. The main industry in Pope Valley was raising stock, cattle, horses, sheep & hogs being the principal sources of income. Grizzly bears were the worst pest to which the stockmen had to contend. The bears would come into the fields and corrals and kill the young livestock. They were numerous till the 1870's.