A look back: Summer fun in Sonoma County

For nearly all of human history, there was no air conditioning or electric fans. When summer temperatures heated up, jumping into water was a fun way to keep cool. In Sonoma County, it wasn’t difficult to find a good swimming hole.

This was true even a century ago, when locals and tourists went to some of the same places we still go to today, like Russian River beaches and local pools.

And some no longer exist, like the once popular Lake Jonive at the Laguna de Santa Rosa, just outside of Sebastopol. Photos at the turn of the 20th century show women in long dresses and floral hats sitting in rowboats, couples picnicking and young people swimming.

Lake Jonive was a glittering body of water about a mile long, surrounded by oak and willow trees and hop fields, according to the Sonoma Historian, a publication of the Sonoma County Historical Society. In 1913, The Press Democrat reported nearly all the bass, catfish and carp fish died in the lake from pollution.

In photos of the Russian River during the early 1900s, sunbathers and swimmers enjoy leisurely summer days, much like now. But there were some differences, including the way steamboats, or “paddle steamers” regularly transported travelers along the river to beach or resort destinations.

Whether it was a private creek or a public pool, summertime swimming happened all over the county. There are photos of a rocky swimming hole in Glen Ellen in 1910, a small pool at Los Guilicos Warm Springs during the 1930s, friends dipping their toes into a Boyes Hot Springs pool during the 1910s, and more.

A place to swim was so important to Santa Rosa youth that in May 1927, The Press Democrat reported 2,000 school children “paraded the down-town streets carrying banners” urging voters to approve the city’s purchase of a swimming pool (which they called a “swimming tank”) for public use.

The municipal pool at 500 King Street in Santa Rosa lasted until 1958, when it was declared “decrepit” and outdated in Press Democrat reports. It was demolished and replaced by the Ridgway Swim Center, formerly known as the Santa Rosa Swim Center.

See the gallery above for photos of summertime fun in 20th century Sonoma County.