Life and adventures of Col. L.A. Norton By Lewis Adelbert Norton

Check out this commentary on Healdsburg written after L.A. Norton's move to Healdsburg in 1856:

Life and adventures of Col. L.A. Norton By Lewis Adelbert Norton: "The town is also about two miles above the confluence of the two streams. No more lovely spot was ever selected for a town site. The soil in the valleys surrounding Healdsburg is probably the finest in the world. The banks of the Nile not excepted. And the best feature in the case is the fact that artificial fertilization is not needed as nature has provided a fertilizer in the flood that visits us in our winter season. Sometimes it is much greater than it is at others owing to the canon some twelve miles below Healdsburg which in a very heavy flood backs the water over our valleys to a depth of from three to four feet. There is then but little current and the rich vegetable deposits washed from the surrounding hills are allowed to settle on the surface of the ground. These floods run off very soon and never overflow the land more than from twenty four to thirty six hours, and though the grain crops may be sowed and all green, they are not injured but frequently improved by their inundation"