In 1988, SOMA’s genesis happened during a summer lunch on the back deck of the Bodega Marine Lab. Dr. Chris Kjeldsen, a Sonoma State University biology professor, and Darvin DeShazer pondered the idea of a local mushroom club. The first meeting was in December of 1988 in the mycology lab at SSU, and in attendance were the “founding four”, Chris, Darv, Elmer Dudik and David Zuch. At the next meeting in 1989, the club was officially christened as the Sonoma County Mycological Association, SOMA, a name created by Beverly Kjeldsen with Amanita muscaria as the “mascot” - a nod to the potential connections to the famed ”soma” of the Rig Veda. Beverly also produced the first newsletter pictured here and a sweatshirt. The first, official SOMA voyage into the forest was at Sugarloaf State Park.

By December of 1992, the club had outgrown the 24 seat lab room in Darwin Hall at SSU and moved to the Community Room in the downtown Santa Rosa Mall on 4th Street where we stayed until February of 1994. During those years, we attempted Mushroom Fairs at the Veteran’s building and the Coddingtown Mall. The next move was to the Sonoma County Farm Bureau where our mycelial threads grew for over two decades. As membership increased, SOMA offered educational scholarships and created SOMA Camp to fund them.

Today, we meet at the Sebastopol Grange and the story continues…