The Mayacamas Mountains are located in northwestern California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The mountains, part of the Inner Coast Ranges

Inner Coast Ranges

The Inner Coast Ranges are an extensive mountain range within California in the USA. In Northern California the ranges can be characterized as a mountainous landform from near Anderson, California south along the east slope of the North Coast Ranges, around the south end of the High North Coast...

 among the California Coast Ranges, are found south of the Mendocino Range

Mendocino Range

The Mendocino Range is one of several coastal mountain ranges which compose the Pacific Coast Range. This massive range of coastal mountains was formed during a period of coastal orogeny, millions of years ago. The Mendocino Range is a component of the California Coast Ranges of California...

, west of Clear Lake, and east of Ukiah

Ukiah, California

The average high temperature is 73.5 °F . Average low temperature is 46.1 °F . Temperatures reach 90 °F on an average of 65.6 days annually and 100 °F on an average of 14.4 days annually. Due to frequent low humidity, summer temperatures normally drop into the fifties at night. Freezing...

, and extend south into Napa and Sonoma counties. The range stretches for 52 mi (83.7 km) in a northwest-southeasterly direction, and reaches an elevation of 4724 ft (1,440 m) above sea level at Cobb Mountain in the central part of the chain. There are several other peaks over 2,500 feet (750 m), including Mount Saint Helena

Mount Saint Helena

Mount Saint Helena is a peak in the Mayacamas Mountains with flanks in Napa, Sonoma, and Lake counties of California. Composed of uplifted 2.4-million-year-old volcanic rocks from the Clear Lake Volcanic Field, it is one of the few mountains in the San Francisco Bay Area to receive any snowfall...

 and Hood Mountain

Hood Mountain

Mount Hood, also known as Hood Mountain is a mountain near the southeastern edge of Santa Rosa, California at the northeast of the Sonoma Valley and attains a height of . The originally name was Mount Wilikos, an Indian name meaning "willows."...

. These peaks are sufficiently high to retain some snow cover in winter. Several stream

Stream

A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...

s rise in the Mayacmas Mountains including Mark West Creek

Mark West Creek

Mark West Creek is a stream that rises in the Mayacamas Mountains of Sonoma County, California, USA. Tributaries of Mark West Creek include Porter Creek and Hummingbird Creek, both of which originate in the same mountain range. Discharge waters of Mark West Creek reach the Russian River after a...

, Sonoma Creek

Sonoma Creek

Sonoma Creek is a stream in northern California. It is one of two principal drainages of southern Sonoma County, California, with headwaters rising in the rugged hills of Sugarloaf Ridge State Park and discharging to San Pablo Bay, the northern arm of San Francisco Bay. The watershed drained by...

, Calabazas Creek

Calabazas Creek

Calabazas Creek is a stream in the Sonoma Valley, California, USA, that rises in the southern Mayacamas Mountains and empties into Sonoma Creek near Glen Ellen.-History:...

, Arroyo Seco Creek

Arroyo Seco Creek

Arroyo Seco Creek or simply Arroyo Seco is a tributary stream to Schell Creek in southern Sonoma County, California, United States. In the Spanish language arroyo seco means "dry creek"....

, Putah Creek

Putah Creek

Putah Creek is a major stream in Northern California, a tributary of the Yolo Bypass. The creek has its headwaters in the Mayacamas Mountains, a part of the Coast Range...

, and Santa Rosa Creek

Santa Rosa Creek

Santa Rosa Creek is a 22 mile long stream in Sonoma County, California which rises on Hood Mountain and discharges to the Laguna de Santa Rosa by way of the Santa Rosa Flood Control Channel...

. In prehistoric times of about ten million years ago, these mountains are thought to have been densely forested in Mendocino Cypress.

Naming

According to Gudde: "The mountain chain, forming the divide of the headwaters of Russian River

Russian River (California)

The Russian River, a southward-flowing river, drains of Sonoma and Mendocino counties in Northern California. With an annual average discharge of approximately , it is the second largest river flowing through the nine county Greater San Francisco Bay Area with a mainstem 110 miles ...

 and Clear Lake, was named for the Native American

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 tribe

Tribe

A tribe, viewed historically or developmentally, consists of a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states.Many anthropologists use the term tribal society to refer to societies organized largely on the basis of kinship, especially corporate descent groups .Some theorists...

s on the west slope, probably a division of the Yuki

Yuki tribe

The Yuki are a Native American people from the zone of Round Valley, in what today is part of the territory of Mendocino County, Northern California. Yuki tribes are thought to have settled as far south as Hood Mountain in present-day Sonoma County...

. According to Barrett (Pomo, p. 269), there was a Yukian Wappo

Wappo

The Wappo are a group of Native Americans who traditionally lived in Northern California in the areas of Napa Valley, the south shore of Clear Lake, Alexander Valley, and Russian River. When Mexicans arrived to colonize California, Wappo villages existed near the present-day towns of Yountville,...

 village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

, Maiya'kma, one mile south of Calistoga

Calistoga, California

Calistoga is a city in Napa County, California, United States. The population was 5,155 at the 2010 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , 99.30% of it land and 0.70% of it water.-Climate:...

. Serro de los Mallacomes (Mount Saint Helena

Mount Saint Helena

Mount Saint Helena is a peak in the Mayacamas Mountains with flanks in Napa, Sonoma, and Lake counties of California. Composed of uplifted 2.4-million-year-old volcanic rocks from the Clear Lake Volcanic Field, it is one of the few mountains in the San Francisco Bay Area to receive any snowfall...

) is shown on a diseno of the Rancho Caymus

Rancho Caymus

Rancho Caymus was a Mexican land grant in present day Napa County, California given in 1836 by acting Governor Nicolás Gutiérrez to George C. Yount. Caymus was the name of a subgroup of Mishewal-Wappo Indians. The rancho included present day Yountville, Oakville and Rutherford all within the...

 grant (1836). Later the name appears in the title and on the disenos of the Rancho Mallacomes y Plano de Agua Caliente or Moristul land grant

Ranchos of California

The Spanish, and later the Méxican government encouraged settlement of territory now known as California by the establishment of large land grants called ranchos, from which the English ranch is derived. Devoted to raising cattle and sheep, the owners of the ranchos attempted to pattern themselves...

, dated September 3, 1841, and October 11 and 14, 1843. The present spelling is used in the Statute

Statute

A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs a state, city, or county. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. The word is often used to distinguish law made by legislative bodies from case law, decided by courts, and regulations...

s of 1850 (pp. 60 f.). Although this version was also used by the Whitney Survey, confusion persists to the present day. The Geographic Board (Fifth Report) decided for Miyakma, but in 1941 it reversed this decision in favor of Mayacmas ('not Miyakma, Cobb Mountain Range, Malacomas, Mayacamas, nor St. Helena Range'). The stream

Stream

A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...

 is still called Maacama Creek

Maacama Creek

Maacama Creek is a stream in northern Sonoma County, California, U.S.A., which empties into the Russian River near the city of Healdsburg.-Course:...

."