The Hawaiian Legacy on the Petaluma
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👉 Reserve a Private Charter
Before roads connected the valleys, the river did.
In the early nineteenth century, Hawaiian sailors — known in California as Kanakas — were among the most skilled mariners in the Pacific world. They worked coastal trade routes, hunted sea otter, and navigated inland waterways from San Diego to Fort Ross and beyond. To a Polynesian, the canoe was what the horse was to Europeans — a vehicle of movement, livelihood, and expansion.
In the 1830s, George C. Yount traveled north from Monterey with a Kanaka crew into the tidal reaches of San Pablo Bay and toward Petaluma. In his chronicles, he described arriving where “ducks and geese flew with whirr from the tule-covered estuary; deer, elk, wild horses and coyotes watched them without fear, while tall grass waved in the distance.”
These journeys depended on Hawaiian knowledge of tides and small-watercraft mastery — expertise that made inland exploration possible. Yount later recorded abundant sea otter beds near Petaluma, trade that would help finance California’s first vineyards.
Today, the tide still moves through these wetlands — a reminder that California’s beginnings were shaped by water, and by those who knew it best.
Experience the River on Your Terms
Step aboard the Kanaka River Voyage and travel the waterway as it was first reached — by boat.
Private charters offer an intimate way to explore the river, whether for a celebration, sunset cruise, corporate gathering, or heritage-focused excursion.
