Once-functional relics from a century or more ago, tank houses still dot the northern California landscape—and fill the pages of a book published to capture and appreciate their utility and endurance.

Tom Cooper's fascination with tankhouses is a recent development, It was only after he retired to Sonoma County in 2007, and began bicycling around rural Santa Rosa that the peculiar three-story structures caught his attention. Now, the author of TANKHOUSE: California's Redwood Water Towers from a Bygone Era says the number of surviving buildings is steadily declining.

Of all the tankhouses he has visited and photographed, Cooper says he has found only one that still functions as it was originally meant to. And even that one required extensive restoration to do so.

The book is finished, but Cooper continues to learn of additional tankhouses. He visits and photographs them whenever he can, and shares his new discoveries on his blog.

19th century American landscape master Thomas Cole wove a preservationist perspective into his art. First grade students liked seeing it, but enjoyed making their own pictures even more.

Thomas Cole's 1827 oil painting, Peace at Sunset (Evening in the White Mountains) currently on display at the Sonoma County Museum, is a featured compliment to the touring ehxhibit there, "Wild Land: Thomas Cole and the Birth of American Landscape Painting," which was produced by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Cole's rare masterpiece is on loan from San Francisco's De Young Museums (Image courtesy Sonoma County Museum).

Cynthia Conway, with a reproduction of one of Thomas Cole’s most famous works, Double Waterfall—Kaaterskills Falls, that is part of the current exhibition. (KRCB photo)One reason that Cole's work proved so influential, explains Cynthia Conway, the Museum's Curator of Education, was because it was such a contrast to the prevailing styles of his day.

Cole's fame might have been greater, but in 1848 he died unexpectedly at the age of just 47. The Thomas Cole exhibits at the Sonoma County Museum continue through January 13.

 A young artist from Luther Burbank School takes inspiration from the Cole exhibit in creating a colorful landscape of her own. (KRCB photo)

Medical marijuana supporters heaved a sigh of relief last night as the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors chose to reject a recommendation to reduce the legal limits of possession and cultivation for medical marijuana users. KRCB’s Danielle Venton was on the scene. (Images: KRCB.)

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors met in front of a packed crowd of medical marijuana supporters last night as they considered a recommendation to repeal County Ordinance 06-0846, which sets the local limits of patient possession and cultivation.

When you open a bottle of wine, your focus is usually on the contents. But what you remove to get at the wine is a subject of competition and debate within the winemaking industry.