Travels in the 2nd half

  The city of Sacramento was built as a river town, along the Sacramento River. It was founded in 1848 near the junction of the Sacramento and American Rivers. Sacramento was a place that boats could easily reach from San Francisco, and became the gateway to California’s Gold Rush. The area along the river became the center of town, with stores and warehouses doing brisk business. When the Southern Pacific Railway was built it passed right through the city. Today you can visit both aspects of the history in Old Sacramento. The Yellow Bridge, over the Sacramento River Old Sacramento is a five block long stretch along the river. Thanks to “urban planning” is has been cut off from the rest of the city by highways and bridges. But the twelve square blocks of the historic district have been maintained in their original condition. The buildings date back to the late 1800’s, and streets are paved with cobblestones. The stores in the neighborhood no longer are set up to equip miners. Inst...

The Wells Fargo Museum Last week, in our history of Sacramento, we visited the home of the California Gold Rush. The gold rush of 1849 changed the face of the state. Over 300,000 people moved to California in the five years between 1848 and 1853, most of whom moved to the Sacramento area and the nearby mountains. The Sacramento area became the center of trade in the central valley, and the key supply point for prospectors. Goods were barged up the Sacramento River from San Francisco, and then distributed out to the mining towns. In 1850 the new state of California was trying to find a permanent place for its capital. In 1849 the territorial government had named San Jose as it home, and then the town of Vallejo, but when funding to build a capital building wasn’t found, they kept on looking. In 1852 the government moved to Sacramento temporarily, and in 1854 they named it the permanent capital of California. However it wasn’t until 1874 that capital building was completed. ...