Sacramento, CA Part I: Sutter's Fort

After going into San Francisco on Saturday to tour the city and on Sunday to visit Alcatraz, we drove about a hundred miles north on Monday to Sacramento where we pulled into Cal Expo RV Park. Cal Expo is the California State Fairgrounds.

Cal Expo RV Park is a paved parking lot with full-hookup sites. We had 30 amp electrical service, but 50 amp is available. The park has pull-throughs with back-ins around the perimeter. There are a few trees here and there, especially along the back. The campground was fairly quiet with little traffic noise and only an occasional, very distant train. The photo below shows our site at Cal Expo.

Sacramento is the capital of California, and it is also near the location of the discovery of gold in 1848 that started the California Gold Rush. The discovery was made by workmen during the construction of Sutter's Mill. Sutter's Mill is long gone, but there is a reconstruction of Sutter's Fort, so that's where we went. Sutter's Fort State Historic Park is administered by California State Parks.

John Sutter was born in Germany in 1803, but he was considered a Swiss citizen because his father was Swiss. When Margery learned he was Swiss (her mother was VERY Swiss), she wanted to learn more about John Sutter. He married in 1828; but in 1834 after economic hard times, Sutter left his wife, children, and debts behind in Switzerland and sailed for America.

John Sutter, whose given name was Johan, changed his name when he came to America. He traveled around the country, and even to Hawaii and Alaska, before arriving in California in 1839. California was part of Mexico at the time, and Sutter became a Mexican citizen in order to be eligible for land. He received a grant of almost 50,000 acres from the Mexican Government.

In those days, there were fewer than 1,000 Europeans in California, so Sutter built an adobe fort for protection near the junction of the Sacramento and American Rivers using Native American labor. Sutter named his settlement New Helvetia (New Switzerland). Sutter's Fort is shown in the photo below.

The fort had walls that were 2 1/2 feet thick and 15 to 18 feet high. The compound was 320 feet long. For protection, there were numerous cannons like the ones in the photo below.

 

Small arms were stored in the guardhouse next to the gate.

Farming and ranching were John Sutter's primary sources of income. He grew wheat, barley, and cotton. He also had a blanket factory, a grist mill, and a bakery, which is shown in the photo below.

 

Bread was baked in a beehive oven like the one in the next photo.

 

Many travelers found temporary refuge in Sutter's Fort. Settlers for New Helvetia were sometimes recruited from the ranks of the travelers passing through. The photo below shows typical guest quarters at the fort.

Although no more than 50 people stayed inside the fort at any given time, there was also housing outside the fort for Sutter's guests and his vaqueros (cowboys). By 1845, Sutter had 1,700 horses and mules, 4,000 cattle, and 3,000 sheep, and the vaqueros helped take care of the animals.

There were several interpreters at the fort depicting life back in the 1840s. One girl was explaining early medical instruments. Medical care back then was very grim to say the least. There were few, if any, pain killers or anesthetics. She had a fairly extensive display of medical "tools," and was knowledgeable about explaining what they were used for.

 

The fellow in the next photo was a trapper. He showed examples of pelts from various animals and explained how different animals were trapped.

 

In 1848, one of the workers who was constructing a sawmill for John Sutter about 50 miles east of the fort was deepening the tailrace of the mill when he discovered gold. Sutter tried to keep the discovery secret, but word leaked out. Soon, thousands arrived in California to seek their fortune.

At first, John Sutter made lots of money selling supplies to the miners. His wife and children were finally able to join him. Eventually, however, miners began to steal from him, and his lack of business sense allowed unscrupulous men to swindle him. Eventually, he lost the fort and his nearby farm. He finally ended up settling in Lititz, PA, where he died in 1880. He wasn't exactly penniless, but he had lost his land and his dream.

 Sutter's Fort fell into disrepair, and by the 1850s, all that was left standing was the central building. The Native Sons of the West purchased the fort in 1880 and donated it to the state. The fort was reconstructed in 1891. The central building is shown in the photo below.

One may think of John Sutter as a failure because he ended up loosing his land and his fortune, but he played an important role in the history of California. His settlement paved the way for the founding of the city of Sacremento, and he helped an untold number of other pioneers, travelers, and settlers fulfill their dreams.

After our visit to Sutter's Fort, we took time for one more photo...

 

...then headed back to the motor home. There's more history in Sacramento, so look for our next post.