Sacramento, California

“ The birds were singing, chattering, and flitting from tree to tree, through the romantic and picturesque valley where we had slept during the night. The scenery and its adjuncts were so charming and enticing that I recommenced my travels with reluctance. No scenery can be more beautiful than that of the small valleys of California. Ascending the range of elevated mountains which border the Cache creek, we had a most extensive view of the broad plain of the Sacramento, stretching with islands and bells of limber far away to the south as the eye could penetrate. ”

“ Sacramento City.—The site of this town on the eastern bank of the Sacramento, at its junction with the Rio Americano, presents many picturesque features. It is a town in the woods, with the native trees still waving over its roofs. The sails of the shipping are inwoven with the masses of shade, which serve as awnings. Roads diverge from it to the mines on the North, Middle, and South Forks, Bear, Juba, and Feather rivers. The town has been swept by one inundation from the overflow of the Americano. ”

“ The whitened peaks, reflecting the sun, resembled the domes of some vast cathedral. Looking back, the entire valley of the Sacramento was stretched out before us, bounded by the coast range of mountains, beyond which we could look upon the Pacific ocean—presenting a scene which, in extent, diversity, and grandeur is rarely if ever equalled. In the valley we could see extensive fertile plains, deserts of white sand, marshes, numerous lakes, dense forests, marking the water courses; and no doubt, with a glass of sufficient power, could have seen herds of elk, deer, antelope, and wild cattle. ”

“ The early emigrants from the East, who sought fortune on the Pacific slope after the gold discoveries of 1848-49, found a paradise in the fragrant and prolific valley of the Sacramento, which, beautiful at all times, was to them, after a journey of almost unbearable hardships across the burning sands of the American Desert, a region of incomparable delight. There is, indeed, no contrast in all nature so sudden and so great as that afforded between Nevada and California, the line of separation being the Sierras. ”

“ It is geographical courtesy merely, to treat of intramontane California as a valley; it is in reality a vast, rolling plain. Several little kingdoms of Europe could be tucked away in it. North and south it has no natural line of demarcation other than the rivers meeting for their single assault upon the sea, but its diversity deserves the double name. They make, the Sacramento rushing from the wooded north and the sluggish San Joaquin, one of the most interesting waterways of the world. I should say they made, for of the San Joaquin one must be able to speak in the past also, to understand it. ”

“ Judging by appearances, there are more saloons in proportion to the other shops of Sacramento than in any other town in California, unless it be San Francisco. The town is well shaded. One sees many wooden buildings of old-fashioned architecture, the old mansard roof being much in evidence. A most pleasant spot in Sacramento is the beautifully kept park around the fine State House. ”

“ Sacramento also became a canvas city, whose dust-clouds whirled, and men, mules, and oxen toiled; where boxes, barrels, bales innumerable, were piled in the open air, no shelter being needed for months. For the City Hotel, Sacramento, thirty thousand dollars per year was paid as rent, although it was only a small frame building. The Parker House, San Francisco, cost thirty thousand dollars to build, and rented for fifteen thousand dollars per month.
CHARLES HOWARD SHINN,
in Mining Camps.
DECEMBER 7.
The prospector is the advance agent of progress, civilization and prosperity. ”

“ Boo!
"Billy, we've been misinformed," said I, "the oranges in California are N. G."
"Right you are, Windy, but as they didn't cost us anything we oughtn't to kick."
After eating and resting, we took in the town. We found Sacramento to be a sizeable place, containing about fifty [Pg 29] thousand people, and the people to us seemed sociable, chatty and friendly. We both liked the place first class, and as we were broke, concluded to try our luck there for awhile. We struck a street cleaning job and held it down for a week. ”

“ Sacramento, largest river of California, rises in the NE. in the Sierra Nevada; follows a south-westerly course, draining the central valley of California; falls into Suisund Bay, on the Pacific coast, after a course of 500 miles, of which 250 are navigable.
Sacramento (29) , capital of California, situated at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers, 90 m. NE. of San Francisco; industries embrace flour and planing mills, foundries, potteries, &c.; has an art gallery, court-house, &c.; the tropical climate is tempered at night by cool sea breezes. ”

“ Those were indeed dark days for the dwellers in the valley of the Sacramento, and it seemed for a time that the whole country must be abandoned forever by man. For more than forty days and forty nights the windows of Heaven were opened, and the rain poured down almost incessantly. San Francisco was filled with refugees, supported by the charity of her citizens; and all the towns of the valley country were flooded, or saved from destruction only by incessant labor upon their levees. ”

“ Frank repeated in surprise.
"Yes, all; the headstrong young woman would not be left behind, and she is at Sacramento now, that is if she hasn't been shot by some of these red-shirted miners, or come to her end some other way. We stayed two days at San Francisco. I have wandered about a good deal, but I thought before I saw Sacramento and these places, that city was the residence of the roughest and most dangerous set of rascals I ever met. ”

“ I have elsewhere spoken of the endless Winter of Mono, California, and but this moment of the eternal Spring of San Francisco. Now if we travel a hundred miles in a straight line, we come to the eternal Summer of Sacramento. One never sees Summer-clothing or mosquitoes in San Francisco—but they can be found in Sacramento. ”

“ Sacramento—Fort Sutter—Nomadic Indians—Marysville—Shasta City—Adventure with a Bear—Weaverville—The Miners—The Rocky Mountains—Eureka—Return to San Francisco.
I spent a year at San Francisco, and, during that time, paid a visit to Sacramento, which is the second large city of California. The steamer took me there in a single day, and gave me an opportunity of admiring the river scenery. The city of Sacramento stands in the midst of a flat and fertile district, somewhat resembling the cultivated plains of France. ”

“ But at that period, a considerable portion of the gold-diggers made Sacramento and the other towns in the neighborhood of the mines, their resort, to escape the severity of spending the season at the open and exposed valleys of the gold region. The city is regularly laid out, but its appearance evidences the rapidity of its erection. The greater number of the houses and stores in the neighborhood of the river are constructed of wood, while the outskirts, particularly upon the south, are occupied by the tents of the constantly-arriving overland emigrants. ”

“ Growth stretches for miles, without ever a hint of undulation. California is the flattest thing you have ever seen. And again and again you will be declaring it the most mountainous of all our states. The flat-lands carry you beyond daylight into dusk. The towns multiply, a glow of arc reflection against the shadows of evening is Sacramento a dozen miles distant. Then there is a rattle of switches, a halt at a junction station, and mail is being gathered from the impromptu literature makers on our train to go east. ”

“ Had we taken the Lincoln Highway literally from ocean to ocean, we should have driven direct from San Francisco to Stockton. As it was we saw California first, and came in at Stockton.
It was a bright, sunny day, the thirteenth of [Pg 112] June, when we left Stockton for Sacramento. We drove along an excellent asphalt road, through grain fields and orchards, the almond orchards being loaded with their green, velvety fruit. It was late afternoon when we reached our hostel, the Sacramento Hotel. Sacramento is even to-day more or less a frontier town. ”

“ They are the real Fathers of the Pacific. Roving over the interior, the miners leave a land as nearly ruined as human effort can render it. In the wake of these nugget-hunters, future years bring those who make the abandoned hills lovely with scattered homes. They are now hidden by orchards, vineyards, and gardens. Peaceful flocks and herds prove that the Golden Age of California is not to be these wild days of the barbaric Forty-niner.
Maxime Valois sees the land sweeping in unrivalled beauty to the Colorado. Free to the snowy peaks of the Sacramento, the rich plains roll. ”

“ But the number of emigrants who arrive at Sacramento at particular seasons forces them to encamp outside of the regularly built town, and when thus encamped, they consider themselves as settlers, and are unwilling to give up possession of the ground. ”

“ The population was only a little over one hundred. Colfax, fifty-four miles from Sacramento, had a population of nearly six hundred, mostly employed in the gold mines in the vicinity. Auburn, thirty-six miles from Sacramento, is also a gold-mining village. Its population was given me as over 1,200. Two weekly papers are published here, and three hotels offer good accommodations to tourists and others. Sacramento was reached November twenty-first, and here I found myself within a hundred miles of my destination.
California has the Pacific Ocean for its western boundary. ”

“ Improvements are constantly being made to the appearance of the city and the comfort of its inhabitants. A levee is in course of construction, which, it is thought, will effectually protect the city from being flooded during the season of the rise of the river. The overland emigration of which Sacramento is the goal, contributes to swell the population rapidly ”

“ The growth of the commerce of California necessarily carries with it the growth of all those cities and towns which have any commercial advantages, or which are connected with the various ports. Not only has San Francisco constantly in her harbor a tremendous fleet of merchant vessels from all parts of the world, pouring into her lap the commodities necessary to a new country and a rapid building city, and Sacramento, the commerce of the mines continually passing through it, but all the towns along the coast have felt the impulse, and have become the seat of a traffic of some sort. ”

“ That, of course, is merely a reminiscence, but as the center of one of the most prosperous grain and fruit-raising sections of the Sacramento Valley, Marysville is still a place of considerable importance. The old town is very much in evidence; so much so that, in spite of the numerous modern buildings, the general effect produced is of age, as age is understood in California. I doubt if San Francisco before the fire, or Sacramento today, could show as many substantial, solid buildings dating back to the fifties. ”

“ From end to end of the earth spread the news of the existence of vast seams of ore on the hitherto deserted shores of the Bay of San Francisco. The name of Sacramento, the infant settlement founded by Sutter, was in every mouth; and from the north and from the south, from the east and from the west, a stream of adventurers began to struggle toward it. In 1849 took place the overland emigration of no less than thirty thousand souls, men, women and children—half of them entering California by the old Gila route, associated with the Franciscan fathers of the earlier portion of our narrative ”

“ Between ranches, placer-diggings, and small settlements, we now thread our comparatively level way to Sacramento. Here we are met by the chief affluent of this end of the Pacific Road,—the long-projected, greatly needed, and now finally accomplished line between Sacramento and Portland. This enterprise has done for the Sacramento and Willamette valleys the same good offices of development performed by our grand line for all the central continent. The noble orchards, pastures, grain-lands, and gardens of Northern California and Oregon are now provided with a market. ”

“ It is understood that a considerable number of American citizens are now settled on the Sacramento River, near Sutter's establishment, called "Nueva Helvetia," who are well disposed towards the United States. Should you, on your arrival in the country, find this to be the true state of things there, you are authorized to organize and receive into the service of the United States such portion of these citizens as you may think useful to aid you to hold the possession of the country. You will in that case allow them, so far as you shall judge proper, to select their own officers. ”

“ Sacramento, the capital city of California, is a manufacturing and wholesale center, with an ever increasing and diversified trade extending up to central Oregon on the North, and to central Nevada on the East. ”

“ At ten-thirty o’clock in the morning we left the main stream of the Sacramento, which makes a turn here and runs to the northwest, and took a branch which here cuts off from the big river and runs southward. After having sailed along this branch for five miles, we suddenly came upon a village of the heathen, situated on the east bank of the branch, or slough. All the Indians ran away, hiding themselves in the brush and tule swamps. It was possible to gather up only a few women and children of both sexes and nine buck Indians. ”