Sacramento is the capital of the U.S. state of California, and the county seat of Sacramento County. Located along the Sacramento River and just south of the American River's confluence in California's expansive Central Valley. With a 2007 estimated population of 502,743, it is the seventh-largest city in California. Sacramento is the core cultural and economic center of the Sacramento Metropolitan Area which includes El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, and Yolo counties and has a combined population of approximately 2,136,604. The region has also been cited as one of the ten "most livable" regions in America in 2004, and the city was cited by Time magazine as America's most integrated in 2002.
Sacramento became a city due to the efforts of John Sutter, a Swiss immigrant, and James W. Marshall. Sacramento grew faster due to the protection of Sutter's Fort, which was established by Sutter in 1839. During the California Gold Rush, Sacramento was a major distribution point, a commercial and agricultural center, and a terminus for wagon trains, stagecoaches, riverboats, the telegraph, the Pony Express, and the First Transcontinental Railroad.
California State University, Sacramento, more commonly known as Sacramento State or Sac State , is the major local university. It is one of the twenty-three campuses of the California State University system. In addition, the University of California, Davis is located in nearby Davis, 15 miles west of the capital. The UC Davis Medical Center, a world-renowned research hospital, is located in the city of Sacramento.
History
Main article: History of Sacramento, CaliforniaIndigenous culture
Nisenan (Southern Maidu) and Plains Miwok Indians have lived in the area for perhaps thousands of years. Unlike the settlers who would eventually make Sacramento their home, these Indians left little evidence of their existence. Traditionally, their diet was dominated by acorns taken from the plentiful oak trees in the region, and by fruits, bulbs, seeds, and roots gathered throughout the year.
In either 1799 or 1808, the Spanish explorer Gabriel Moraga discovered and named the Sacramento Valley and the Sacramento River. A Spanish writer with the Moraga expedition wrote, "Canopies of oaks and cottonwoods, many festooned with grapevines, overhung both sides of the blue current. Birds chattered in the trees and big fish darted through the pellucid depths. The air was like champagne, and (the Spaniards) drank deep of it, drank in the beauty around them. “Es como el sagrado sacramento! (This is like the Holy Sacrament.)” The valley and the river were then christened after "the Most Holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ", referring to the Christian sacrament of the Eucharist.
From pioneers to gold fever
The pioneer John Sutter arrived from Liestal, Switzerland in the Sacramento area with other settlers in August 1839 and established the trading colony and stockade Sutter's Fort (as New Helvetia or "New Switzerland") in 1840. Sutter's Fort was constructed using labor from local Native American tribes. Sutter received 2,000 fruit trees in 1847, which started the agriculture industry in the Sacramento Valley. In 1848, when gold was discovered by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma (located some 50 miles (80.5 km), northeast of the fort), a large number of gold-seekers came to the area, increasing the population. John Sutter, Jr. then planned the City of Sacramento, in association with Sam Brannan against the wishes of his father, naming the city after the Sacramento River for commercial reasons. He hired topographical engineer William H. Warner to draft the official layout of the city, which included 26 lettered and 31 numbered streets (today's grid from C St. to Broadway and from Front St. to Alhambra Blvd.). However, a bitterness grew between the elder Sutter and his son as Sacramento became an overnight commercial success (Sutter's Fort, Mill and the town of Sutterville, all founded by John Sutter, Sr., would eventually fail).
The part of Sacramento originally laid out by William Warner is situated just east and south of where the American River meets the Sacramento River (though over time it has grown to extend significantly north, south, and east of there). A number of directly adjacent towns, cities or unincorporated county suburbs, such as Fair Oaks, Carmichael, Citrus Heights, Elk Grove, Folsom, Rancho Cordova, Roseville, Rocklin, West Sacramento,Natomas, Del Paso Heights,Orangevale, and North Highlands extend the greater Sacramento area.
The citizens of Sacramento adopted a city charter in 1849, which was recognized by the state legislature in 1850. Sacramento is the oldest incorporated city in California, incorporated on February 27, 1850. During the early 1850s the Sacramento valley was devastated by floods, fires and cholera epidemics. Despite this, because of its position just downstream from the Mother Lode in the Sierra Nevada, the newly founded city grew, quickly reaching a population of 10,000.
Remnants of Downtown Sacramento's Chinatown
Throughout the early 1840s and 1850s, China was at war with Great Britain and France during what was known as the First and Second Opium Wars, which drove many Chinese immigrants to America. They first came to San Francisco, which was known as "Dai Fow"(The Big City) and eventually to Sacramento, which is known as "Yee Fow"(Second City). Many of these immigrants came in hopes for a better life as well as the possibility of finding gold in Sacramento.
Sacramento's Chinatown was located on "I" Street from Second to Sixth Streets. This area of "I" Street was considered a health hazard; within a levee zone, it was lower than other parts of the city which were situated on higher land. Throughout Sacramento's Chinatown history, there were fires, hatred, and eventually the Chinese Exclusion Act that was not repealed until 1943. The mysterious fires were thought to be set off by those who did not take a liking to the Chinese working class. Ordinance on what was a viable building material was set into place to try to get the Chinese to move out. Newspapers such as The Sacramento Union, at the time, made stories of how bad the Chinese were to create hatred and eventually drive the Chinese out. As the years gone by, a railroad was created over parts of the Chinatown and further politics would make it even harder for Chinese workers to sustain living in Sacramento. While the east side of the country fought for higher wages and lower working times, many cities in the western United States wanted the Chinese out because of the belief that they were stealing jobs from the white working class.
The Chinese, rather resilient, remained, despite these efforts. They built their buildings out of bricks just as the building guidelines were established. They helped build part of the railroads that span the city as well as the United States. They also helped build the levees within Sacramento and the surrounding cities. As a result, they are a part of Sacramento's history and heritage.
Today, what remains is a Chinatown mall and a possible museum to dedicate the history of Sacramento's Chinatown. Amtrak sits along what was part of Sacramento's Chinatown "I" Street.
Capital city
The California State Legislature, with the support of Governor John Bigler, moved to Sacramento in 1854. The capital of California under Spanish (and, subsequently, Mexican) rule had been Monterey, where in 1849 the first Constitutional Convention and state elections were held. The convention decided that San Jose would be the new state's capital. After 1850, when California's statehood was ratified, the legislature met in San Jose, Vallejo, and Benicia before moving to Sacramento. In the 1879 Constitutional Convention, Sacramento was named to be the permanent state capital.
Begun in 1860 to be reminiscent of the United States Capitol in Washington, DC, the Classical Revival style California State Capitol was completed in 1874. In 1861, the legislative session was moved to the Merchants Exchange Building in San Francisco for one session due to massive flooding in Sacramento. The legislative chambers were first occupied in 1869 while construction continued. From 1862-1868, part of the Leland Stanford Mansion was used for the governor's offices during Stanford's tenure as the Governor; and the legislature met in the Sacramento County Courthouse.
With its new status and strategic location, Sacramento quickly prospered and became the western end of the Pony Express, and later the First Transcontinental Railroad (which began construction in Sacramento in 1863 and was financed by "The Big Four" – Mark Hopkins, Charles Crocker, Collis P. Huntington, and Leland Stanford) Leland Stanford is known as the man who hammered in the last (golden) spike into the transcontinental railroad and also, the man who founded Stanford University in honor of his fifteen-year old son, who had died.
In 1850 and again in 1861, Sac
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