As Chair of the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum Board, I often reflect on why this place matters—not just to me, but to all of us who call Saint Helena home. So many of our streets and landmarks bear Stevenson’s name. This is not mere coincidence. We claim him for a reason. Robert Louis Stevenson was a literary light—an artist who helped define the cultural imagination of the 19th century. But more than that, his brief time in our valley marked a quiet turning point in the story of California itself. In the years after the Gold Rush, when this region shifted from a rugged, newly acquired U.S. territory to a place of vineyards, communities, and ideas, Stevenson stood at the threshold. He was not digging for gold—he was mining for meaning. His writings in The Silverado Squatters captured not only the eccentricities of frontier life but a sense that this place, the Napa Valley, could be more than a land of extraction. It could be a place of expression. That legacy continues at the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum. It is more than a collection of manuscripts and memorabilia. It is a living, breathing cultural institution that anchors our community’s sense of place. It reminds us that art and literature are not afterthoughts—they are foundations. They help us understand who we are, and what we aspire to be. This is why the museum matters to me. It is a beacon in our valley—a light that continues to shine, quietly but powerfully. At our most recent Stevenson Poetry Night, I closed the evening with a few lines I had written. I’ll share them with you here, in the same spirit:

A Light in the Valley For Robert Louis Stevenson In a house of light above the vines, He squatted not for gold but words— A stranger’s heart, yet ours in time, He made this valley sing with verbs. The wind he wrote, the hills he climbed, The trails of thought he blazed with care— Still echo now in rows of vines, In quiet stacks and local air. Not just a visitor passing through, But a mirror held to what we are— A land of dreamers, tried and true, Lit not by gold, but by a star. Let this be our shared call to keep that star burning bright.