From Boyes Hot Springs’ archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers
How Boyes Hot Springs began
When was Boyes Hot Springs founded?
1938
The Boyes Hot Springs post office opened in 1938, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Boyes Springs (1911), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 2,391 in 19502020 census: 6,21588 years
How historic is Boyes Hot Springs?
C−
More historic than 20% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Boyes Hot Springs post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Boyes Hot Springs’ History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Boyes Hot Springs is more historic than 20% of U.S. towns, #480 of 847 in California. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
C−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Boyes Hot Springs’ overall grade.
Few California towns list much on the Register (a typical California town has 0.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Boyes Hot Springs’ 0.0 sits below most of its state (31% of California towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to C. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.6 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Boyes Hot Springs’ past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The area was first occupied by Indigenous peoples, who discovered and used the hot springs that the area is named after. Under Mexican rule, in July 1840, Lazaro Piña was deeded 50,000 acres as Rancho Agua Caliente. Sometime in 1849 Thaddeus M. Leavenworth acquired 320 acres of the Rancho in what became present-day Agua Caliente, Fetters Hot Springs, Boyes Hot Springs, and part of Maxwell Farm. In 1889, property was being sold in the area as being near the "celebrated old Indian Medicine Spring." Henry Ernest Boyes discovered hot springs in 1895 in the central part of the area. He and his wife called the area Agua Rica. and started the Boyes Hot Springs Hotel, now the site of the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa. The area became popular with tourists, with over 70,000 visiting each year. A railroad serviced the area during this period.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Boyes Hot Springs. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1942Sonoma sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Boyes Hot Springs.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewH.E. Boyes discovers spring - Sonoma Index Tribune, 1885
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Boyes Hot Springs’ page.
The Boyes Hot Springs post office opened in 1938, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Boyes Hot Springs rank for history?
Boyes Hot Springs is more historic than 20% of U.S. towns, #480 of 847 in California. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Boyes Hot Springs?
11% of Boyes Hot Springs’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.6 points), against a typical 3.4% for a California town; the median home was built in 1973.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (5), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
c. 1917
2023
