Columns

The Healdsburg Regional Library has become a place where the community gathers to share information, assistance and good cheer, and has become an "information ground" and "third place" for its users.

The joys of camping are many. Open space. Fresh air. Preparing food outdoors. Sitting around a campfire. Falling asleep to peaceful sounds of birds and wildlife, feeling a gentle breeze at night, gazing up at the heavens’ stars on full display. If lucky, light pollution...

A bas-relief sculpture in Healdsburg along University Avenue harkens back to the days of manual labor when steel and iron workers built skyscrapers that changed America’s city skylines. The subject matter and style reflects Depression Era art coming from the Federal Emergency Relief Act, which...

Epic conditions in Sonoma County this past week. Snow warnings for one to two feet possible at elevations above 1,500 feet. Healdsburg’s elevation is 100 feet, Cloverdale’s about 350 and Hopland’s 500.  Snow the prior week fell to about the 300 foot elevation, and four...

This Week in H’burg is a weekly column featuring photos and fun facts from local photographer Pierre Ratté. Each week we’ll feature a new photo from Ratté along with a fact about the subject matter of the photo.

100 years ago – June 7, 1923 Old Stream Bed Found Under City  A subterranean river which flows through the heart of Healdsburg’s business district has been discovered through improvement work going on at the First National Bank. The old stream bed was reached during excavation...

Summer is officially here. Astrological summer occurs on the solstice, the longest day of the year, which was June 21, though it varies from year to year. For instance, the summer solstice is June 20 in 2024, and June 21 in 2025. Meteorological summer,...

Excerpts from back issues of the Healdsburg Tribune, as curated by the Healdsburg Museum and Historic Society, from 100, 75 and 50 years ago...

Of all the great imponderables of life, one keeps retuning to my thoughts like a poorly digested burrito. I speak not of the cosmic why of our existence, nor of the vastness of space and what lies beyond our increasingly expanding horizons. No, I refer to something far weightier: why do some pop songs have a definitive ending and some just fade out?

“How did Windsor get its name?” This question probably crosses the mind of most every inhabitant of our town at one point or another. However, the historical narrative of the town’s name is often unknown to Windsorites, and some people who think they know the story have some misconceptions. Most people are familiar with the name “Hiram Lewis” (think Hiram Lewis Park), but are in the dark regarding his history and the origins of our town’s name.