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About PetalumaThe City of Petaluma, California, was founded in 1850. It's name is rumored to mean "flat back hills" in the language of the Miwok Indians, who once inhabited the region. Petaluma was incorporated in 1858, making it the oldest city between San Francisco and Eureka. Hundreds of small chicken ranches were established in the Petaluma valley from the late 1800s through the 1940s, creating the largest center for poultry in the country. In 1879, Lyman Byce, a Canadian who had relocated here, invented the first successful incubator for hatching eggs and a new and profitable industry found it's beginnings in Petaluma. Hundreds of chicken farms dotted the landscape around town. By 1917 Petaluma was the undisputed world leader of the chicken and egg industry.Petaluma was proclaimed "The Egg Basket of the World," and "The Chicken Center of the Universe," sparking such nicknames as "Chickaluma". Historic egg production reached a volume of over 50 million dozen eggs annually at it's peak in 1917, most of which were shipped all over the world via Petaluma Creek, which is actually a tidal slough leading to San Francisco bay. The town helped launch National Egg Day on Aug. 13, 1918. Petaluma celebrates to this day with the Butter and Eggs Day parade led by the Egg Queen and her court of attendant chicks. The enormous prosperity in Petaluma sparked a spectacular Victorian building boom throughout the city which can be seen and enjoyed to this day. Hundreds of vintage buildings still exist in the town from before the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, and the downtown area has an extraordinary mix of architecture from the 1870's to the present. Petaluma's historical architectural has drawn the motion picture industry to Petaluma where numerous movies and more than 100 commercials have been filmed over the past 25 years. Films of note include American Graffiti, Peggy Sue Got Married, Inventing the Abbotts, and many others. |
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