Sacramento, California

Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California. The county seat of Sacramento County, it is located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in the Sacramento Valley. It is the fourth-most populous city in Northern California, sixth-most populous city in the state, and 35th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 524,943 at the 2020 census.

Before the arrival of the Spanish, the area was inhabited by the Nisenan, Maidu, and other indigenous peoples of California. In 1808, Spanish cavalryman Gabriel Moraga surveyed and named the Río del Santísimo Sacramento (Most Holy Sacrament River), after the Blessed Sacrament. In 1839, Juan Bautista Alvarado, Mexican governor of Alta California, granted the responsibility of colonizing the Sacramento Valley to Swiss-born Mexican citizen John Augustus Sutter, who subsequently established Sutter's Fort and the settlement at the Rancho Nueva Helvetia. Following the American Conquest of California and the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, the waterfront developed by Sutter began to be developed and incorporated in 1850 as the City of Sacramento. In 1852, the city offered its county courthouse to the state of California to house the state legislature, resulting in the city becoming the permanent state capital in 1854 and ushering in the construction of a new state capitol building which was finished in 1874.

Sacramento is the seat of the California Legislature and the governor of California. It is a major center for the California healthcare industry, as the seat of Sutter Health, UC Davis Medical Center, and the UC Davis School of Medicine. In 2013, the Sacramento Convention and Visitors Bureau stated that the city receives 15.3 million visitors per year. The city is home to the California Museum, Crocker Art Museum, California State Railroad Museum, California State Capitol Museum, the Sacramento Convention Center Complex, and Old Sacramento State Historic Park.

History

Pre-Columbian period

Nisenan (Southern Maidu), Modoc, and Plains Miwok American Indians have lived in the area for perhaps thousands of years. Until the settlers arrived who would eventually make Sacramento their home, these tribes left little evidence of their existence. 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.

Spanish period

In 1808, the Spanish explorer Gabriel Moraga encountered 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! (It's like the Blessed Sacrament.)"

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The valley and the river were then christened after the "Most Holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ", referring to the Catholic sacrament of the Eucharist.

Mexican period

John Sutter Sr. first arrived in the area on August 13, 1839, at the confluence of the American and Sacramento Rivers with a Mexican land grant of . The next year, he and his party established Sutter's Fort, a massive adobe structure with walls high and thick.

Representing Mexico, Sutter Sr. called his colony New Helvetia, a Swiss-inspired name, and was the political authority and dispenser of justice in the new settlement. Soon, the colony began to grow as more and more pioneers headed west. Within just a few short years, Sutter Sr. had become a grand success, owning a orchard and a herd of 13,000 cattle. Fort Sutter became a regular stop for the increasing number of immigrants coming through the valley. In 1847, Sutter Sr. received 2,000 fruit trees, which started the agriculture industry in the Sacramento Valley. Later that year, Sutter Sr. hired James Marshall to build a sawmill so he could continue to expand his empire,

thumb|right|In 1839, [[John Augustus Sutter established Sutter's Fort, which he called Nueva Helvetia. In 1841, he was officially granted the land by Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado.]]

American period

thumb|right|Sacramento in 1849, when the city was an economic center of the [[California gold rush]]

In 1848, when James W. Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill in Coloma (some northeast of the fort), numerous gold-seekers came to the area, increasing the population. In August 1848, Sutter Sr.'s son, John Sutter Jr., arrived to assist his father in reducing his debt. The Sutters struggled to contain the effects of thousands of new gold miners and prospectors in the area, many of whom squatted on unwatched portions of the vast Sutter lands or stole various unattended Sutter properties or belongings. For Sutter, his employee's discovery of gold in the area turned out to be a bane.

By December 1848, John Sutter Jr., in association with Samuel Brannan, began laying out the City of Sacramento, south of his father's settlement of New Helvetia. This venture was undertaken against the wishes of Sutter Sr., but the father, being deeply in debt, was unable to stop it. For commercial reasons, the new city was named "Sacramento City" after the Sacramento River. Sutter Jr. and Brannan had United States Army Captain William H. Warner assigned 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.) Relations between Sutter and his son became embittered after Sacramento became an overnight commercial success. (Sutter's Fort, Mill, and the town of Sutterville, all founded by John Sutter Sr., eventually failed).

thumb|[[Old Sacramento State Historic Park|Old Sacramento, the oldest quarter of the city, grew up along the Sacramento River in the mid-1800s.]]

Residents 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.

On January 10, 1850, a flood occurred that devastated the city. The rushing waters uprooted homes and drowned livestock. The city was almost destroyed. Due to the efforts of Hardin Bigelow, Sacramento's first elected mayor, the construction of the city's first levee was completed in early 1852 (the city became known as "The Levee City"). However, a month after it was completed, it was breached during the first major storm of the season and the city flooded again. A new levee was built for $50,000, but it also broke, causing more flooding of the city. Between October and December 1850, Sacramento was hit with a cholera epidemic that killed 1,000 residents, including Mayor Bigelow and 17 of the city's 40 physicians. Up to 80 percent of the populace left town. On November 2, 1852, a fire known as the Great Conflagration burned more than 80 percent of the structures in the city. It is estimated that the total damage was around six million dollars. Within a month 761 structures were re-built, many of them in brick. In spite of all these hardships the new city's location just downstream from the Mother Lode in the Sierra Nevada proved irresistible, and it grew rapidly during the early 1850s, attracting a population of 10,000. The Great Flood of 1862 from December 1861 to January 1862 caused the worst flooding in Sacramento's history. In 1861, Governor Leland Stanford, who was inaugurated in early January 1862, traveled to his inauguration in a rowboat.

thumb|left|An 1874 depiction of a Sacramento railway station by painter [[William Hahn]]

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 San Jose would be the new state's capital. From California's statehood beginning September 9, 1850 through 1851, the legislature met in San Jose. It moved to Vallejo in 1852 and Benicia in 1853, before ending up in Sacramento in 1854. During the 1850s the city was consolidated with the County of Sacramento. In the Sacramento Constitutional Convention of 1879, Sacramento was named the permanent state capital.

The Classical Revival-style California State Capitol, similar to the national Capitol, was started in 1860 and completed in 1874. In 1861, the legislative session was moved to the Merchants Exchange Building in San Francisco for one session because of the massive flooding in Sacramento. From 1862 to 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. The legislative chambers were first occupied in 1869, while construction continued around them.

thumb|The [[California State Capitol, built between 1860 and 1874, shown here under construction in 1868]]

With its new status and strategic location, Sacramento quickly prospered. It was designated as the western terminus of the Pony Express. Later it became a terminus of 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. Both the American and especially Sacramento rivers were key elements in the economic success of the city. Sacramento effectively controlled commerce on these rivers, and public works projects were funded through taxes levied on goods unloaded from boats and loaded onto rail cars in the historic Sacramento Rail Yards.

From 1862 until the mid-1870s, Sacramento raised the level of its downtown by building reinforced brick walls on its downtown streets and filling the resulting street walls with dirt. The previous first floors of buildings became basements, with open space between the street and the building, previously the sidewalk, now at the basement level. Over the years, many of these underground spaces have been filled or destroyed by subsequent development. However, it is still possible to view portions of the "Sacramento Underground".

Modern era

thumb|left|Built in 1935, [[Tower Bridge (California)|Tower Bridge connects Sacramento to West Sacramento.]]

The city's current charter was adopted by voters in 1920. As a charter city, Sacramento is exempt from many laws and regulations passed by the state legislature. The city has expanded continuously over the years. The 1964 merger of the City of North Sacramento with Sacramento substantially increased its population, and large annexations of the Natomas area eventually led to significant population growth throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.

Sacramento County (along with a portion of adjacent Placer County) is served by a customer-owned electric utility, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD). Sacramento voters approved the creation of SMUD in 1923. In April 1946, after 12 years of litigation, a judge ordered Pacific Gas & Electric to transfer the title of Sacramento's electric distribution system to SMUD. Today SMUD is the sixth-largest public electric utility in the U.S. and is a leader in innovative programs and services, including the development of clean fuel resources, such as solar power.

The year following the creation of SMUD, 1924, brought several events in Sacramento: Standard Oil executive Verne McGeorge established McGeorge School of Law, American department store Weinstock & Lubin opened a new store at 12th and K street, the US$2 million Senator Hotel was opened, Sacramento's drinking water became filtered and treated drinking water, and Sacramento boxer Georgie Lee fought Francisco Guilledo, a Filipino professional boxer known as Pancho Villa, at L Street Auditorium on March 21.

thumb|upright|The [[Elks Tower was built in 1926 in an Italianate style.]]

Early in World War II, the Sacramento Assembly Center (also known as the Walerga Assembly Center) was established to house Japanese Americans forcibly "evacuated" from the West Coast under Executive Order 9066. The camp was one of fifteen temporary detention facilities where over 110,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of them U.S. citizens, were held while construction on the more permanent War Relocation Authority camps was completed. The assembly center was built on the site of a former migrant labor camp, and inmates began arriving from Sacramento and San Joaquin Counties on May 6, 1942. It closed after only 52 days, on June 26, and the population of 4,739 was transferred to the Tule Lake concentration camp. The site was then turned over to the Army Signal Corps and dedicated as Camp Kohler.

After the war and the end of the incarceration program, returning Japanese Americans were often unable to find housing and so 234 families temporarily lived at the former assembly center. Camp Kohler was destroyed by a fire in December 1947, and the assembly center site is now part of the Foothill Farms-North Highlands subdivision.

The Sacramento-Yolo Port District was created in 1947, and the ground was broken on the Port of Sacramento in 1949.

thumb|left|The [[Gerald Ford assassination attempt in Sacramento|1975 assassination attempt of President Gerald Ford in Capitol Park]]

On June 29, 1963, with 5,000 spectators waiting to welcome her, the Motor Vessel Taipei Victory arrived. The Nationalist Chinese flagship docked at the Port of Sacramento, being the first ocean-going vessel in Sacramento since the steamship Harpoon in 1934.

In 1967, Ronald Reagan became the last Governor of California to live permanently in the city. The 1980s and 1990s saw the closure of several local military bases: McClellan Air Force Base, Mather Air Force Base, and Sacramento Army Depot. In 1980, there was another flood. Despite military base closures and the decline of agricultural food processing, Sacramento has continued to experience population growth in recent years. Primary sources of population growth are an influx of residents from the nearby San Francisco Bay Area, as well as immigration from Asia and Latin America.

In 1985, Hugh Scrutton, a 38-year-old Sacramento, California, computer store owner, was killed by a nail-and-splinter-loaded bomb placed in the parking lot of his store. In 1996, his death was attributed to the Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski.

After acquiring the majority stake in the Sacramento Kings, the team's new owner, Vivek Ranadivé, with the help of the city, agreed to build a new arena in the downtown area. With a final estimated cost of $558.2 million, Sacramento's Golden 1 Center opened on September 30, 2016.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city covers . 98.61% of it is land, and 1.39% of it is water.

Depth to groundwater is typically about . Much of the land to the west of the city (in Yolo County) is permanently reserved for a vast flood control basin (the Yolo Bypass), due to the city's historical vulnerability to floods. As a result, the contiguous urban area sprawls only west of downtown (as West Sacramento, California) but northeast and east, into the Sierra Nevada foothills, and to the south into valley farmland.

The city is at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River and has a deep-water port connected to the San Francisco Bay by a channel through the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta. It is the shipping and rail center for the Sacramento Valley.

Trees

thumb|Aerial view of Central Sacramento and the [[Sacramento River]]Sacramento has long been known as the "City of Trees" owing to its abundant urban forest. The city has more trees per capita than any other city in the world. The first recorded use of the term was in 1855, and it was popular by the early 20th century. It was not always so: it was at first called the "City of Plains" because of the lack of trees, but soon afterward there were cottonwood trees planted, and eucalyptus varieties were imported to dry out swampland. Later, locust trees, and willows were planted along streets, then elms, then palm trees, then fruit trees in the late 1910s.

In the early 21st century, the tree cover is well above that of the average tree cover of other major cities in the United States and the rest of the world, with the main species being the London plane. Other species are being introduced to increase diversity and to help cope with the effects of climate change on vegetation in the future. Treepedia, a project run by MIT using Google Maps' street-view data to calculate tree coverage in cities, ranked Sacramento the greenest city of 15 studied in the US, and third globally, after Vancouver and Singapore.

A prominent water tower bore the slogan "City of Trees" until 2017 when it was repainted with the words "America's Farm-to-Fork Capital" (referring to the farm-to-fork movement, which promotes the consumption of locally-grown food). After 4,000 displeased citizens signed a petition protesting the change, officials agreed to include both slogans on the water tower.

Cityscape

City neighborhoods

thumb|right|[[Downtown Sacramento is the home of numerous corporate regional headquarters.]]

The city used to group neighborhoods into four areas. As of 2011, the groupings were:

Area One: Alkali Flat, Boulevard Park, Campus Commons, Sacramento State, Dos Rios Triangle, Downtown, East Sacramento, Mansion Flats, Marshall School, Midtown, New Era Park, McKinley Village, Newton Booth, Old Sacramento, Poverty Ridge, Richards, Richmond Grove, River Park, Elmhurst, Sierra Oaks, Southside Park.
Area Two: Airport, Carleton Tract, Freeport Manor, Golf Course Terrace, Greenhaven Hollywood Park, Land Park, Little Pocket, Mangan Park, Meadowview, Parkway, Pocket, Sacramento City College, South Land Park, Valley Hi / North Laguna, Z'Berg Park.
Area Three: Alhambra Triangle, Avondale, Brentwood, Carleton Tract, Colonial Heights, Colonial Manor, Curtis Park, Elmhurst, Fairgrounds, Florin, Fruitridge Manor, Glen Elder, Glenbrook, Granite Regional Park, Industrial Park, Lawrence Park, Med Center, North City Farms, Oak Park, Packard Bell, South City Farms, Southeast Village, Tahoe Park, Tahoe Park East, Tahoe Park South, Tallac Village, Vintage Park, Churchill Downs, and Woodbine.
Area Four: Ben Ali, Del Paso Heights, Gardenland, Hagginwood, McClellan Heights West, Natomas (north, south, west), North Sacramento, Northgate, Robla, Swanston Estates, Terrace Manor, Valley View Acres, and Woodlake.

thumb|[[Old Sacramento and Downtown are seen from the Sacramento River.]]

Other neighborhoods in the city include Cal Expo, Capital Avenue, College/Glen, Creekside, Elder Creek, Erikson Industrial Park, Gateway Center, Gateway West, Glenwood Meadows, Hansen Park, Heritage Park, Johnson Business Park, Johnson Heights, Metro Center, Natomas Corporate Center, Natomas Creek, Natomas Crossing, Natomas Park, Newton Booth, Noralto, Northpointe, Norwood, Oak Knoll, Old North Sacramento, Parker Homes, Point West, Raley Industrial Park, Regency Park, Richardson Village, Richmond Grove, Sierra Oaks, Sports Complex, Strawberry Manor, Sundance Lake, Upper Land Park, Village 5, Village 7, Village 12, Village 14, Village Green, West Del Paso Heights, Westlake, Willowcreek, Wills Acres, Winn Park, and Youngs Heights.

Notable areas

Capitol Mall

Capitol Mall connects West Sacramento and Downtown Sacramento. Some notable landmarks on this road include the Tower Bridge, Old Sacramento, and the California State Capitol Building. Capitol Mall is considered to be the business district of the city. Skyscrapers such as the Wells Fargo Center and U.S. Bank Tower, two of the tallest buildings in the city, are located on Capitol Mall and are home to several major companies. The street is also home to major festivals such as the annual Farm to Fork Festival.

Sacramento's historic Japantown once occupied much of today's Capitol Mall, spanning 4th street from K to P streets. The area suffered from the forced eviction of its Japanese residents during WW2 and never recovered, resulting in the remaining properties taken through eminent domain to create the grand promenade of today's Capitol Mall. The Nisei Memorial Hall at 4th and Q remains the last remaining property associated with Sacramento's former Japantown.

Downtown Commons

One of the newest districts in the city is Downtown Commons. Formerly home to the Downtown Plaza shopping mall, the district opened in 2016 along with Golden 1 Center. Downtown Commons, otherwise known as DOCO, is home to the Sawyer, a 16-story skyscraper with a 250-room hotel and 45 condominiums, a Macy's anchor store, an IMAX theater, and retail space with a variety of restaurants and shops.

Downtown Sacramento

thumb|Aerial view of Sacramento, clearly showing the downtown/midtown grid and surrounding areas

Downtown Sacramento is home to the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center and Theater, Sacramento City Hall, the Sacramento Public Library, and K Street, a historic street home to apartments, retail, and historical buildings. In addition, Downtown Sacramento is home to several hotels including the Citizen Hotel, housed in one of the first skyscrapers built in the city.

East Sacramento

East Sacramento is a neighborhood in between Midtown and Sacramento State. This neighborhood is well known for being home to McKinley Park and Rose Garden and the Fabulous Forties, home to some of the most expensive, largest, and architecturally unique homes in the city. East Sacramento was home to Ronald Reagan during his term as Governor of California and this neighborhood was prominently featured in Greta Gerwig's film Lady Bird.

Historic Chinatown

The Opium Wars of the 1840s and 1850s, along with the California gold rush, brought many Chinese people to California. Most arrived at San Francisco, which was then the largest city in California and known as "Daai Fau" (). Some eventually came to Sacramento, then the second-largest city in California and consequently called "Yee Fow" (). Today the city is known as "" () by mainland Chinese and as "" Sāgāmíhndouh and Shājiāmiǎnduó by Cantonese speakers and Taiwanese respectively.thumb|right|Sacramento's historic ChinatownSacramento's Chinatown was on "I" Street from Second to Sixth Streets, called the China Slough. At the time, this area of "I" Street was considered a health hazard because, lying 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, acts of discrimination, and prejudicial legislation such as the Chinese Exclusion Act that was not repealed until 1943. The mysterious fires were thought to be set off by those who resented the Chinese working class. Ordinances on what was viable building material were set into place to try to get the Chinese to move out. Newspapers such as The Sacramento Union wrote stories at the time that portrayed the Chinese in an unfavorable light to inspire ethnic discrimination and drive the Chinese away. While most of Sacramento's Chinatown has now been razed, a small Chinatown mall remains as well as a museum dedicated to the history of Sacramento's Chinatown.

Newton Booth Historic District

The Newton Booth Historic District, named for Newton Booth, is located on the southeast corner of Sacramento's original 1848 street grid.

Old Sacramento

thumb|The historic [[Ebner's Hotel, built in 1856, in Old Sacramento]]

The oldest part of the town besides Sutter's Fort is Old Sacramento, which consists of cobbled streets and many historic buildings, several from the 1850s and 1860s. Buildings have been preserved, restored, or reconstructed, and the district is now a substantial tourist attraction, with rides on steam-powered historic trains and horse-drawn carriages.

Lavender Heights

The Lavender District, formally designated as Lavender Heights in 2015, is central to Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ culture and community. It is home to the Gay & Lesbian Community Center, five LGBTQ+ nightclubs such as Badlands and Faces, and numerous LGBTQ+-owned shops, galleries, and eateries.

The Poverty Ridge Historic District was considered to be Sacramento's wealthiest

neighborhood from 1868 to 1947.

Climate

thumb|right|The [[American River is popular for kayaking and recreational boating.]]

Sacramento has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csa), characterized by long, hot, dry summers and short, mild, rainy winters. Most of the annual precipitation generally occurs from November to April, though there may be a day or two of light rainfall in May or October. The normal annual mean temperature is , with the monthly daily average temperature ranging from in December to in July. During especially cold winter and spring storms, intense showers do occasionally produce a significant amount of hail, which can create hazardous driving conditions. Snowfall in the city often melts upon ground contact, with traceable amounts occurring in some years. Significant annual snow accumulations occur in the foothills east of the city, which had brief and traceable amounts of snowfall in January 2002, December 2009, and February 2011. The greatest snowfall ever recorded in Sacramento was on January 5, 1888.

On average, there are 76 days with a high of +, and 14 days with a high of +; On the other extreme, there are 8.5 days where the temperature remains below , and 15 freezing nights per year. Official temperature extremes range from on December 22, 1990, to on September 6, 2022; a station around east-southeast of the city dipped to on December 11, 1932.

thumb|right|View of [[Downtown Sacramento]]

The average annual precipitation is . On average, precipitation falls on 58 days each year in Sacramento, and nearly all of this falls during the winter months. As in much of California, precipitation is highly variable from year to year, ranging from as little as in 2013 to in 1983. Average January rainfall is , and measurable precipitation is rare during the summer months. In February 1992, Sacramento had 16 consecutive days of rain, resulting in an accumulation of for the period. On rare occasions, monsoonal moisture surges from the Desert Southwest can bring upper-level moisture to the Sacramento region, leading to increased summer cloudiness, humidity, and even light showers and thunderstorms. Monsoon clouds do occur, usually during late June through early September. Sacramento is the second most flood-susceptible city in the United States after New Orleans.

Sacramento has been noted as being the sunniest location on the planet for four months of the year, from June through September. It holds the distinction as the sunniest month, in terms of the percentage of possible sunshine, of anywhere in the world; July in Sacramento averages 14 hours and 12 minutes of sunshine per day, amounting to approximately 98% of possible sunshine.

Since 2010, statewide droughts in California have further strained Sacramento's water security.