Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THE FIREHOUSE
RESTAURANT
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Miwok, Shonommey, and Maidu Indians first settled the Sacramento area thousands of years ago.
The Europeans that eventually arrived to push these Native Americans out of Sacramento Valley
were not all Spanish explorers, although it was Lieutenant Gabriel Moraga from Mission San Jose
who first arrived in 1808.
Moranga found the confluence of two rivers, and named the largest one for the Spanish term for
“sacrament,” or “the Most Holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ.” The American River
was named for the new country.
Mexico's independence from Spain in 1821 opened the way for settlers from many nations to
arrive in the new land. In 1833, a smallpox epidemic killed 20,000 Indians, making it all but impos-
sible for the remaining tribe members to resist the invasion of Europeans. John Sutter came from
Switzerland in 1839 and launched a trading colony in the fertile valley. He built a stockade in 1840
that he called New Helvetia (“New Switzerland”), but it would later be known as Sutter's Fort.
Sutter's Fort, which sits in the center of today's Sacramento City, was built by local Indian
laborers. Sutter saw the value of their land and had thousands of fruit trees shipped in, beginning
a cycle of agricultural development for the area that continues today. Expanding his new empire,
Sutter built a sawmill along the American River in Coloma. In 1848, one of his employees, James
Marshall, discovered gold in the river at the mill site. Sutter used his increasing wealth to found the
city of Sacramento, and named it for the local river and valley. In an odd twist in history, a future
Civil War general for the Union, William Tecumseh Sherman, as a very young man, helped survey
and lay out the street grid for Sutter's new town.
It took a while for the news to spread, but by 1849 the California Gold Rush was on. Sacramento
was the jumping-off place for tens of thousands of miners, entrepreneurs, and developers who came
from all parts of the globe. They were everywhere, including where they were not supposed to be.
Squatters occupied much of Sutter's land and many saw no problem with stealing his cattle for
food. The onslaught that would dub California the Golden State would eventually also put Sutter
in financial ruin.
Statehood in 1850 lead to the creation of various levels of new government. Since there were so
many people around Sacramento due to the lure of gold, the new legislature met there. Eventually,
the city would be recognized as the state capital in 1854.
