SACRAMENTO FACTS
LOCATION: Sacramento is located near
the center of California's central valley at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California.
SIZE: The City of Sacramento covers nearly 96
square miles of Sacramento County's total 999 square mile boundary.
POPULATION: The City of Sacramento is home to 399,032 people.
ELEVATION: Seventeen feet above sea level.
CLIMATE: Sacramento enjoys a varied climate with temperatures ranging from 37 to 52F degrees
in the winter and an average of 57 to 92F degrees during the summer. The rainy season starts in November with rainfall
averaging about 17 inches per year.
INDUSTRY: The primary industries in Sacramento are government, trade, services, finance, insurance,
real estate, and manufacturing, including electronics manufacturing.
GOVERNMENT: The City of Sacramento is governed under a Council/Manager system. The Council
consists of eight members who are elected from separate districts and a Mayor, elected by the entire city. Council members
serve staggered four-year terms, so the four Council seats are open for election every odd-numbered year. A City Manager
administers their policies and programs on a day to day basis.
INTERESTING FACTS: Sacramento is the capital of California; the primary agriculture products
of Sacramento are rice, tomatoes, safflower, corn and sugar beets; Sacramento is the site of California's State Fair and Exposition--Cal
Expo; an electric train system, Light Rail, connects suburbs with downtown Sacramento; there are 7 television stations and
29 radio stations; Sacramento is known to flower lovers as the "Camellia Capital of the World".
SACRAMENTO'S HISTORY: California was first discovered by the Spaniards on September 28, 1542;
Sacramento was first established as a colony by Captain John A. Sutter in 1839; Sutter's Fort remains one of America's
most fascinating historical attractions; gold was discovered in Coloma near Sacramento on January 24, 1848; California was
admitted to the Union on September 9, 1850; Sacramento became California's permanent capital on 1854; Sacramento was the western
terminus for the Pony Express.
COMMUNITY INFORMATION: 95 parks, 78 playgrounds, 45 theaters, 15 nine and eighteen hole public
golf courses and 5 private golf courses; 33 art galleries and museums, two major symphonies, three ballet companies,
scores of movie theaters and live stage plays year around; 11 hospitals with a total of 2554 licensed bed capacity.
University of California, Davis, California State University, Sacramento, 4 community colleges as well as 4 private colleges
and universities including 2 law schools; annual events include the Camellia Festival, St. Patrick's Day Parade, Water Festival,
Dixieland Jazz Festival, California State Fair and more.
SACRAMENTO'S EARLY HISTORY
The history of Sacramento is a panorama of stirring events, varied cultures, and daring enterprises.
Sacramento was first home to a large population of peaceful Maidu and Miwok Indians. Early explorers visited the area
and in the early 1800's explorer Gabriel Moraga named the city's major river and surrounding area "Sacramento," the Spanish
word for Holy Sacrament.
In 1839 Captain John Augustus Sutter, a Swiss immigrant, sailed halfway around the world in a rented
schooner to find a suitable site for migrating Europeans. Sutter landed at the confluence of the Sacramento and American
Rivers and established a camp near the present site of downtown Sacramento. In 1841 Sutter received a Mexican land grant
of nearly 97 square miles. Dreaming of building an agricultural empire, Sutter established an inland fort and started
the town of New Helvetia. For nine years Sutter prospered, setting up fisheries, trapping expeditions, a flour mill,
and a lumber mill to build his new city.
On January 24, 1848, Sacramento's history changed forever and Sutter's empire was shattered.
On that day John Wilson Marshall, a contractor at Sutter's lumber mill, discovered GOLD! Sutter and Marshall tried to
keep the discovery a secret, but local business man, Sam Brannan, leaked the news to San Francisco, and the gold rush began.
Thousands of gold seekers arrived in Sacramento within a year, creating a tent city. Sutter's workers went prospecting,
his livestock was stolen, squatters occupied his land, and creditors were pursuing him. To save what he could, Sutter
deeded the remaining land to his son, John Sutter who began plotting a Sacramento townsite and selling lots.
Sacramento's population mushroomed from 2,000 in 1849 to 9,000 by 1850, and the city became an important
part of the West. California achieved statehood in 1850, and by 1854 Sacramento was the capital. Soon Leland
Stanford, Collis Huntington, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker began planning the transcontinental railroad route that would
link the nation. In 1863 the first track of the railroad was laid simultaneously at Front and K streets in the city
and on the east coast. With the opening of the railroad in 1869, the City of Sacramento began to grow and prosper.
Sacramento's rich and colorful past is a story of events that have shaped the history of this state
and the nation.
