History of Sacramento, CA
California Gold Rush It was in 1849 that one of the workers at Sutter's Mill saw something that appeared to be gold in the water. There were many tests done on and it was shown that the item in question actually was gold. There was an attempt to keep this secret, but eventually word was leaked to the general population. This caused a large group of prospectors to move toward the area in search of gold. They caused much unrest with the Native Americans in the area as well as killed his livestock. They began to claim areas that were Sutter's for themselves. Eventually, Sutter gave up and left the area to his son. Economic Development John Sutter Jr. saw that the people in the area offered potential for economic development and decided to pursue this avenue. He took advantage of a small port that was established by his father and looked for an area nearby to begin a city. Many business men were attracted to this opportunity and bought in to Sutter's plan. There was a disagreement between Sutter and another business man that caused the founding of a separate city. Sutter Sr, disappointed with this, decided to resume control of his holdings and pushed until trade was stronger in his city, Sacramento,CA Railroads in Sacramento, CA In 1855, construction began on the Sacramento, CA valley railroad. This was one of the first railroads to begin that was on the west side of the Mississippi River. There were many difficulties with the construction of the railroad as management of the project was frequently changed due to everything from death to money problems. The railroad eventually made it approximately 22 miles where it ended in a town called Granite City. There were attempts to join it with a transcontinental railroad, but tensions between the north and south halted the project. Political Change in the 1900's Around 1907, a group of politicians from Sacramento, CA moved into political power. With their new found power, they worked to reform the city. They ended gambling and closed pool houses. They also made changes that equalized the various wards of the city. This made it so that the areas with fast growing worker population were not able to manipulate the vote. In 1920, a city manager was appointed and a more official city council was formed. The working classes hold over the cities politics was broken and worked to improve the city. In 1930, the United States was fully entrenched in the Great Depression. This caused a large number of the cities citizens to become unemployed. This gave rise to a number of homeless towns to spring up around the city. The city tried to give aid but was unable to manage quickly enough and the homeless stormed the welfare offices. This resulted in a number of people becoming arrested as communists and socialists. Today Sacramento, CA is a bustling city that houses the stated government. It is also known as one of the most racially integrated cities in the world.
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