December 2007

Old Town Sacramento: Your Ticket to the 1860's

It is the capital of the most populous state, a city of nearly a half-million people. Its sophisticated citizens enjoy culture and art. Business and industry thrive. There was a time, however, when Sacramento was a rough-hewn gold rush town born of an unlikely partnership between a blatant opportunist and a dutiful son who was unappreciated by his father. It was the location of a humble hardware store, whose owners took another man’s dream and turned it into a practical reality, and in doing so, turned themselves into two of the nation’s richest citizens. The town was built on a site selected for river traffic, but within two decades, most of the trade rode on iron rails. At times, the town was buried under torrents of water or destroyed in devastating fires. Yet it grew. And as Sacramento grew, it turned its back on the place where it was born.

It hasn’t been that many years ago that the city’s waterfront along the Sacramento River was a seedy place—a hodgepodge of abandoned buildings and disreputable gin mills, and home to the destitute and down and out. A freeway was built, and conveniently formed a massive concrete barrier between the respectable citizens and the rotting waterfront. Fortunately for future generations, there were those who knew this area not as an unredeemable slum but as the birthplace of a great city.

Sutter’s Fort
Native Americans had long recognized the value of the land where the American and Sacramento rivers flowed together, but the first non-Indian settler chose to settle some distance away from the riverbanks. John Sutter was a complex man. He had left behind a wife and family in Switzerland as he traveled to Alaska, Hawaii and California. Some said he abandoned them. He convinced the Mexican officials who ruled California that he was a professional military man, even though he’d never served in any army. He gained a huge land grant by swearing to help Mexico keep out the small but steady stream of Yankees who kept appearing on California’s doorstep. As it turned out, he didn’t even keep that promise. In time, John Sutter and his fort became well known for the hospitality he gave to the American men and women who crossed the plains following their dream.

John Marshall, an employee of Sutter, was building a sawmill along the American River when he spied a small flake of gold in the millrace. The ensuing bonanza made many men rich, but Sutter and Marshall were not among them. It did benefit Sam Brannon, who had led a group of Mormons from New York to San Francisco. He was later expelled from the Mormon Church for collecting tithes from Mormon settlers but refusing to submit them to Salt Lake City, stating in the process that when God gave him a receipt for the tithes, he’d submit them.

Brannon had lost no time establishing himself as a business leader in San Francisco and in addition, opened a store along the banks of the Sacramento River. When Sutter tried to keep the news of the discovery of gold quiet, Brannon quietly bought up all the picks, shovels and gold pans he could, and then according to legend, took a quinine bottle full of gold (reputedly the gold dust he had received as tithes) and paraded through the streets of San Francisco screaming, “Gold! Gold from the American River!” The resultant rush greatly benefited Brannon and his well-located Sacramento riverfront store.

Brannon went on to collaborate with John Sutter’s son, John August, who was managing his father’s land grant, to lay out a new town along the Sacramento River. Sutter’s father had long dreamed of a new town in a different location and refused to support his son in this venture. Father and son were never reconciled and neither benefited from the new town. The father’s dream was buried by the gold rush; the son left before the town grew to be the state capital 20 years later.

Dream Realized
While it was the gold rush that gave birth to Sacramento, it was the railroad that allowed it to grow into a big city. Theodore Judah was a dreamer, but his dream proved eminently practical. As he looked at the towering Sierra Nevada range that had proven such a barrier to the settlers coming from the east, he realized it was possible to develop a railroad route up and over the mountains by utilizing the network of east-west running ridges that ran from the summit to the valley. Try as he might, he couldn’t interest anyone in his dream until four Sacramento businessmen listened—and acted. The city became the western terminus for the transcontinental railroad and those four businessmen became wealthy beyond their wildest dreams. They forced Theodore Judah out and he died without ever benefiting from his dream.

In the mid-1960s, Sacramento decided to reclaim the place of its birth. It was a costly project, and could easily have failed. But over time, a festering slum was changed back into the vibrant community it had been in the 19th century. As you visit today, you can walk along the waterfront that was once the city’s prime source of transportation. Oceangoing vessels still travel up the Sacramento River from the far-flung ports of the world, but today, they dock in modern facilities in West Sacramento. From the rebuilt docks of Old Town, you can take a ride on a sternwheeler that recreates the kind of transportation common in the 1800s. Nearby, the Delta King is permanently moored, offering first class hotel and dining accommodations.

Vintage Trains
The California State Railroad Museum is adjacent to the bridge that carries modern Union Pacific freight trains and Amtrak passenger runs across the Sacramento River. Here lovers of the Iron Horse can gaze to their heart’s content on gleaming steam engines that once ran on such storied railroads as the Virginia and Truckee and the North Pacific Coast. Visitors can climb up into the cab of a giant cab-in-front Mallet engine and sit in the engineer’s or fireman’s seat. The engine was designed to pull trains through the miles of snow sheds in the Sierras without asphyxiating the engine crew. Newer diesel-electric engines and representative cars, including a car that once carried the mail from town to town, are also exhibited. An opulent private car once owned by writer and bon vivant Lucius Beebe shows how well the “other half” could live.

Near the museum is an old railroad station as well as a large shed containing additional railroad equipment. Along the waterfront, you can actually ride behind a steam-powered engine as it puffs along the banks of the river. It’s called the Sacramento Southern. The trips are six miles long and about 40 minutes in length. You can catch the Sacramento Southern excursion trains at the railroad station.

In the two-block wide portion of Old Sacramento from the river to the freeway are nearly 90 old buildings that have been restored and are used for a variety of commercial purposes. There are a number of restaurants ranging from casual to hauté cuisine. Several bars seek to recapture the feel of the lively gin mills and gambling halls that lined the streets in the 1870s and ‘80s. Visitors will also find every kind of tourist oriented business they can imagine. On weekends, the streets are jammed with pedestrians, horse-drawn wagons and those intrepid souls who brave the crowds in search of a parking place. Be advised, however, that street parking is limited to 45 minutes. You are better off parking in one of the lots that ring Old Sacramento if you plan to spend any time there.

Started in a Store
If you go, don’t miss the quiet buildings that sit adjacent to the entrance to the Railroad Museum. They are separate from the commercial hubbub described above, but contain some unusual history. The middle building is the Huntington–Hopkins Hardware Store. The name at first blush may not mean anything, but Collis P. Huntington and Mark Hopkins were two of the four visionary businessmen that believed in Theodore Judah’s dream, and consequently went from middle class shopkeepers to become two of the richest people in America. The store was moved here from its original location, but is authentic both in structure and in the contents. Now owned by the state, as part of the State Historic Park, it is staffed by knowledgeable docents who can take you back to the time when men were rushing to find their fortune and desperately needed equipment. As you look around this simple store, it is hard to imagine how such ordinary men had the uncommon vision to build the transcontinental railroad.

Old Sacramento could have fallen victim to “urban renewal” or been left to rot away. Fortunately, people with vision saw how the past could be a major attraction in the present. There’s much to see in Sacramento. The beautiful state capitol and capitol grounds as well as Sutter’s Fort are just two of the possibilities. You might even get a glimpse of the “Terminator” as he stars in his most recent role as Governor Arnold. But regardless of what else you see, don’t miss Old Sacramento.

Gerald C. Hammon is a retired program manager with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and a full-time RVer.

IF YOU GO

Access to Old Sacramento is from either I Street or Capital Mall. Signs direct you to Old Sacramento from Interstate 5.

In addition to the Delta King, lodging options for every pocketbook exist in and close by Old Sacramento. RV parks are in West Sacramento as well at the Cal Expo Park east of the downtown area.

The California State Railroad Museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., except for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Admission is $8 for adults and $3 for youths 6 to 17. Children 5 and under get in free.

The Sacramento Southern Railroad runs Saturdays and Sundays April through September, and selected dates only October through December. The trains depart hourly 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are $8 for adults and $3 for children 6 to 17. Children 5 and under ride free.

The Huntington-Hopkins Hardware Store is open to the public Thursday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. It may be open other days too. Call (916) 323-7234 for schedule information.