Sacramento: Recreation

Sightseeing

Sacramento is a river town, virtually created by the California Gold Rush. Along the bank of the Sacramento River is the Old Sacramento Historic Area, a 28-acre National Historic Landmark that attracts more than 5 million visitors annually. This atmospheric area, with wooden-slat sidewalks and horse-drawn carriages on its cobblestone streets, gives the visitor a sense of the vitality and bustle generated by the thousands of hopeful prospectors who streamed through Sacramento in the mid-nineteenth century. Old Sacramento's museums, shops, and restaurants preserve its historical character. The Old Sacramento Waterfront offers a variety of activities, including touring and riding on nineteenth-century boats, visiting the depots of the Central Pacific railroad, and exploring the bustling Public Market. In midtown Sacramento, Sutter's Fort, the first Euro-American settlement in Sacramento, has been restored and preserved. The 1839 adobe fort contains relics of pioneer and goldrush days. Exhibits include living quarters, a blacksmith shop, a bakery, a prison, and livestock areas. The State Capitol building within 40-acre Capitol Park was built in 1869; it is similar in style to the U.S. Capitol building. Underneath its 120-foot high rotunda are ornate chandeliers, imposing staircases, and marble floors. Visitors can tour the offices of the Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, and Treasurer, and view exhibits about the history of California's state government. In Sacramento's south side, the Sacramento City Cemetery, established in 1849, contains the graves of more than 25,000 pioneers, immigrants, their families, and descendants; among its first interments were more than 600 victims of the 1850 Cholera Epidemic.

The Sacramento Zoo displays more than 400 exotic animals in their natural settings, including red pandas, snow leopards, lemurs, zebras, chimpanzees, jaguars, and many others. The zoo emphasizes protection of endangered animals, and faithful recreation of natural habitats. Adjacent to the zoo is Fairytale Town for children, a park based on themes from fairy tales and nursery rhymes. Water World USA, the only wave pool in Northern California, has the highest water slides in the West; its "Honolulu Halfpipe" Extreme Surf Slide is scheduled to open in 2005.

Sacramento is within easy driving distance of other atmospheric Gold Country towns: Coloma has Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park, where James Marshall's discovery of gold in 1848 started the Gold Rush; Placerville features Hangtown's Gold Bug Mine, a fully-lighted mine shaft; Sutter Creek has a charming array of Victorian homes and balconied buildings; Jackson retains a European character from its early Italian- and Serbian-American miners; Columbia has Columbia State Historic Park, where visitors can ride a stagecoach and pan for gold. Sacramento is conveniently located for day trips to Northern California's outdoor attractions. The city is only a few hours away from Yosemite National Park; from the Napa-Sonoma Valley, where most of California's finest wines are produced; and from Lake Tahoe.

Arts and Culture

Sacramento is rich in theater. California's largest nonprofit musical theatre—The California Musical Theatre, formerly known as Sacramento Light Opera Association or SLOA—is based here. It provides Music Circus productions during the summer and Broadway Series productions during the rest of the year. Since its first performance in 1951, Music Circus has staged numerous productions of some 150 musicals; classics such as The King and I, Oklahoma!, and Show Boat are well represented. Music Circus presented its music theatre under a circus-style open-air tent until its move in 2003 to the new 2,200-seat Wells Fargo Pavilion. Performances are in the round, with 360-degree seating. California Musical Theatre's Broadway Series, begun in 1989, offers Broadway hits with national stars. Productions are at the 2,452-seat Sacramento Community Center Theater, across from the Capitol building.

The 24th Street Theatre, a 296-seat auditorium at the Sierra 2 Center for the Arts and Community, is home to the Light Opera Theatre of Sacramento (LOTS), which brings light opera, such as the works of Gilbert and Sullivan, to the Sacramento area. The Sacramento Theater Company maintains its own resident company offering classical and modern plays at its 300-seat Mainstage and 85-seat Stage Two. The B Street Theatre, Sacramento's Professional New Works Theatre Company, produces contemporary theatrical works. Garbeau's Dinner Theatre, in nearby Rancho Cordova, is housed in a restored winery. In all, more than 80 groups present live theatrical performances throughout the region.

For music lovers, the all-volunteer Camellia Symphony season runs from October through mid-May, and includes six concerts (one of which, at the Sunrise Mall on Mother's Day, is free), and several special fundraising concerts. The Sacramento Opera has performed more than 40 operas; the opera season runs from September to March and includes 3 performances. The 73-member Sacramento Philharmonic presents 5 concerts annually from November through May.

The Sacramento Ballet, comprised of 22 artists, 8 apprentices, and 4 trainees, performs both classical and contemporary ballet. They present 5 performance series annually.

Sacramento is home to the oldest art museum in the West. Established in 1873, the Crocker Art Museum's permanent collection features European paintings by such masters as Rembrandt and Bruegel; a renowned collection of drawings; Indian and Persian miniature paintings; American (especially Californian) paintings; decorative arts and ceramics; photography; and contemporary art. The California State Railroad Museum displays the history of the railroads and makes special note of the fact that Sacramento was once the terminus of the transcontinental railroad. The 100,000 square-foot museum displays 21 locomotives and railroad cars, half of which may be walked through, as well as 46 exhibits. On weekends between April and September, visitors can ride the Museum's Sacramento Southern Railroad on a six-mile route along the Sacramento River. The Discovery Museum features interactive history, science, and technology exhibits examining the evolution of everyday life in Sacramento, on such topics as the gold rush and other periods of local California history, the history of the Sacramento Valley's topomorphology, and food processing technology. The Towe Auto Museum explores car culture and automotive history, and has more than 150 vintage automobiles on display. The State Indian Museum, on the grounds of Sutter's Fort, displays the jewelry, art, clothing, baskets, and other artifacts of the native Americans who lived in the area.

Festivals and Holidays

Sacramento Jazz Jubilee, the world's largest congregation of jazz bands, takes place during Memorial Day weekend; it features more than 100 bands and attracts more than 100,000 listeners. The Bridge to Bridge Waterfront Festival in July is a two-day event featuring boat races, boating exhibitors, and Coast Guard and wakeboard demonstrations. From mid-August through early September Sacramento hosts the California State Fair, one of the largest agricultural fairs in the country, at the California Exposition; the fair's features include a concert series, rides, horse racing, numerous competitions, extreme sports demonstrations, indoor and outdoor exhibits and shows, and a kids park. During the four-day Gold Rush Days festival over Labor Day weekend, the Gold Rush era is recreated in Old Sacramento, with historic characters, covered wagons and horse-drawn carriages, street dramas, musicians, dancers, arts and crafts, and exhibits; the streets of Old Sacramento are covered with dirt and only horse-drawn vehicles are permitted. The California International Marathon in December starts in Folsom and ends at the Sacramento State Capitol building.

Sports for the Spectator

The NBA Sacramento Kings and WNBA Sacramento Monarchs bring professional basketball to Sacramento; they play at Arco Arena, a 442,000 square foot venue that seats 17,317. The Kings won Pacific Division titles in 2001-02 and 2002-03, and advanced to the 2002 Western Conference Finals. In 2000, professional minor league baseball returned to Sacramento after a 27-year absence when the Sacramento River Cats, formerly the Vancouver Canadians, moved to 11,092-seat Raley Field. The River Cats have won four Pacific Coast League South Division titles (in 2000, 2001, 2003, and 2004) and PCL Championships in 2003 and 2004. Professional tennis is represented by the Capitals of the World TeamTennis League. As of 2005, the 20-year-old team has been five-time champion of the World TeamTennis (WTT) League Championship and King Trophy. The Sacramento State Hornets are among the Sacramento area's college sports teams.

Sports for the Participant

Sacramento, the "River City," provides many forms of water recreation. The American River offers boating, swimming, and calm- and white-water rafting. Nearby Folsom Lake and Lake Natoma offer sailing and windsurfing. All the waters in the Sacramento area are stocked with fish; king salmon run in the American and Sacramento Rivers. The American River Bike Trail, stretching from Sacramento's Discovery Park to Folsom Lake, provides nearly 35 miles of scenic trail used by cyclists, walkers, joggers, and bird watchers. More than 120 city parks dot Sacramento encompassing over 2,000 acres, and Sacramento is roughly two hours from five national forests. The Sacramento area's municipal golf courses comprise 540 acres. Sacramento has several equestrian centers and many horseback riding trails. More than two dozen ski resorts, most within 120 miles, are located in the nearby Sierra-Nevada Mountains.

Shopping and Dining

Sacramento is home to several shopping malls and hundreds of boutiques and specialty shops. Old Sacramento is a popular and atmospheric shopping area; its Public Market is a European-style, open-air market featuring bakeries, fish, poultry, meat, produce, flowers, and assorted ethnic shops. Other major shopping areas in Sacramento include: Downtown Plaza, with more than 150 shops, many restaurants, and a cinema; Town and Country Village with 55 shops was built in 1946, making it Sacramento's oldest shopping center; Arden Fair has more than 150 shops, restaurants, a cinema, and foodcourt; Pavilions offers cosmopolitan shopping and fine dining; Sunrise Mall and Florin Mall each have approximately 100 shops and restaurants and a cinema; and Folsom Premium Outlets has more than 80 stores.

Restaurants are plentiful in Sacramento, featuring cuisine ranging from traditional American, to inventive Californian, to a wide variety of ethnic fare. Many eateries are concentrated in Old Sacramento, as well as along J Street and Capitol Avenue between 19th and 29th streets, and Fair Oaks Boulevard between Howe and Fulton streets.

Visitor Information: Sacramento Convention and Visitors Bureau, 1608 I Street, Sacramento, CA 95814; telephone (916)808-7777.

Sacramento: Economy

Major Industries and Commercial Activity

Sacramento began as a city rich from gold and railroad money. Productive mines still operate in the area, and the city remains an important transportation center. Sacramento's deep-water port, connected to the San Francisco Bay via a 43-mile channel, is an important West Coast hub for the handling of cargo from ocean-going ships. As the junction of the state's major railroad, the Southern Pacific Transportation Company, Sacramento maintains its position at the top of the rail transportation industry. As state capitol of California, Sacramento's largest employment sector has historically been federal, state, and local government. As is true of California in general, the Sacramento area is rich in agriculture; products of the fertile Sacramento Valley region include fruits and vegetables, rice and other grains, meat, beet sugar, and almonds.

Today the city's economy is broadly based. Government and transportation are the largest sectors of employment in the area, and agriculture and mining—while still important in the region—have been surpassed by information, technology service, leisure and hospitality, education and health services, and construction. Technology-related companies such as Intel and Hewlett-Packard are among the Sacramento area's largest employers; proximity to research centers, and a well-educated labor pool, have drawn such companies to the area. Sacramento's fastest-growing employment areas in the early 2000s include financial activities, professional and business services, and education and health services.

Items and goods produced: high-technology items, medical equipment and other health-related products, dairy products, feeds, meat, brick and clay products, mining equipment, lumber boxes

Incentive Programs—New and Existing Companies

Local programs

A number of organizations work to attract and assist businesses in the Sacramento area. Among them are the Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Development Group, and the Sacramento Area Commerce and Trade Organization (SACTO). Sacramento's Economic Development Department and its partners offers loan programs to assist the development of small businesses. The city of Sacramento's facade rebate programs help businesses pay for building improvements; the city also offers business incentives to businesses located within Sacramento's three Urban Enterprise Zones and two LAMBRA areas. The Recycling Market Development Zone program offers incentives to small and medium-sized manufacturing businesses. The Sacramento Municipal Utility District, California's largest customer-owned utility, offers discounts for new and expanding businesses.

State programs

California's Commerce & Economic Development Program offers financial solutions by helping businesses secure capital to invest in major public, private, and nonprofit ventures; providing export assistance and financing; and supporting small businesses by offering financial assistance, training, and technical assistance.

Job training programs

The Sacramento Training and Response Team (START), a partnership of 11 job assistance and training programs, helps companies recruit, train, and hire employees.

Development Projects

Sacramento's healthy economy is reflected in the city's numerous recent development projects. Developments in Sacramento's downtown area include: a five-story, 200,000 square foot expansion of City Hall, to be completed in 2005; new hotels including a 32-story hotel that opened in 2001, an 8-story hotel that opened the following year, and a 239-room hotel scheduled to open in 2005; and construction of the Wells Fargo Pavilion, a 2,500-seat theater that replaces the Music Circus tent. Two of Sacramento's medical centers—University of California at Davis Medical Center and Kaiser Permanente's South Sacramento Hospital—are currently undergoing massive expansions.

Economic Development Information: Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce, 917 Seventh Street, Sacramento, CA 95814; telephone (916)552-6808; fax (916)443-2672

Commercial Shipping

With an international airport, rail hub, seaport, and junction of three freeways within ten miles of downtown, Sacramento is ideally situated for commercial shipping. Inland 85 miles from San Francisco, the Port of Sacramento admits international ocean-going vessels through a deep-water channel connecting it with San Francisco Bay. The port's specialty is handling dry-bulk cargos, and it utilizes the most modern equipment on the West Coast for that purpose. The city is served by three major rail lines. Union Pacific Railroad is the largest railroad in North America; its J. R. Davis Yard, in Sacramento County, is the largest rail facility on the west coast. More than 500 motor freight carriers serve the Sacramento area.

Labor Force and Employment Outlook

Employers have access to a large and well-educated labor pool. The Sacramento region's economy is among the strongest in California, and job growth has remained positive in the early 2000s. During 2003-2004, the area known as the Sacramento Region (comprised of 6 counties) gained more than 7,700 jobs; in comparison, the nearby San Francisco Bay Region lost more than 126,000 jobs in that timeframe. Government employment is the largest employment sector in the area. Among California's 471,000 government employees, nearly 25 percent are employed in the Sacramento area.

The following is a summary of data regarding the Sacramento/Arden-Arcade/Roseville area labor force, 2004 annual averages.

Size of non-agricultural labor force: 856,100

Number of workers employed in . . .

natural resources and mining: 600

construction: 70,300

manufacturing: 47,000

trade, transportation, and utilities: 146,200

information: 20,900

financial activities: 60,000

professional and business services: 97,500

educational and health services: 84,400

leisure and hospitality: 79,400

other services: 28,300

government: 221,000

Average hourly earnings of production workers employed in manufacturing: $15.01

Unemployment rate: 5.4% (January 2005)

Cost of Living

Sacramento's housing prices relative to San Francisco and southern California have been kept low by an abundance of cheap land.

The following is a summary of data regarding several key cost of living factors for the Sacramento area.

2004 (3rd Quarter) ACCRA Average House Price: Not reported

2004 (3rd Quarter) ACCRA Cost of Living Index: Not reported (U.S. average = 100.0)

State income tax rate: Ranges from 1.0% to 9.3%

State sales tax rate: 6.0% (food and prescription drugs are exempt)

Local income tax rate: none

Local sales tax rate: 1.75%

Property tax rate: 1.0% of total assessed value

Economic Information: Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce, 917 Seventh Street, Sacramento, CA 95814; telephone (916)552-6808; fax (916)443-2672

Sacramento: Education and Research

Elementary and Secondary Schools

The Sacramento City Unified School District, among the largest in the state, is Sacramento's primary school district and has a student enrollment of 52,850 in its 80 schools as of the 2002-2003 school year. Other districts in Sacramento are: Grant Joint Union High, with 12,682 students in 14 schools; Natomas Unified, 7,653 students in 10 schools; North Sacramento Elementary, 5,552 students in 11 schools; Robla Elementary, 2,323 students in 5 schools; Del Paso Heights, 2,155 students in 5 schools; and California Education Authority, 214 students in one school.

The following is a summary of data regarding the Sacramento City Unified School District as of the 2002-2003 school year.

Total enrollment: 52,850

Number of facilities elementary schools: 64

middle schools: 8

senior high schools: 14

Student/teacher ratio: 21.2:1

Teacher salaries minimum: $36,408

maximum: $67,918

Funding per pupil: $7,414 (2000-2001 school year)

Sacramento also has 84 private and parochial schools.

Public Schools Information: Sacramento City Unified School District, 5735 47th Avenue, Sacramento, CA 95824; telephone (916)643-7400

Colleges and Universities

Sacramento is home to a number of colleges and universities. Four-year institutions include California State University (CSU), with an enrollment of approximately 25,700 students. CSU has the following academic divisions: Arts and Letters; Business Administration; Education; Engineering and Computer Science; Health and Human Services; Natural Sciences and Mathematics; Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies; and Continuing Education. CSU offers 60 undergraduate degree programs and 40 graduate programs. Golden Gate University, which offers undergraduate and graduate programs in business and management, information technology, taxation, and law, has a Sacramento campus (its main campus is in San Francisco). Nearby is the University of California at Davis, which boasts a highly regarded medical center—the primary teaching facility of the university's School of Medicine—located in Sacramento. A new $40 million education building for 200 first-and second-year medical students at the center that will double the number of students on campus and is scheduled for completion in 2006. Two-year colleges in Sacramento are American River, Cosumnes River, and Sacramento City colleges.

Libraries and Research Centers

The Sacramento Public Library operates a 160,000-square-foot Central Library that opened plus 25 branches and bookmobiles. Holdings include 1.8 million volumes and 3,952 periodical subscriptions, plus audio and video tapes, recordings, maps, and art reproductions. Among the special collections are Californiana, the history of printing, and city planning and urban development. One of the library branches, 38-year-old Carmichael Library, is currently closed and undergoing a $6.8 million renovation and expansion that will increase its square footage from 5,905 to 19,490; the library is scheduled to reopen in summer of 2006.

The California State University, Sacramento, Library holds1.2 million volumes, 4,444 e-books, nearly 5,000 periodical subscriptions, 12,847 audio/visual materials, plus maps and government documents. Sacramento is also the headquarters of the California State Library with special collections of federal and state government documents; its holdings include 777,509 volumes. The Braille and Talking Book Library has 55,000 titles and 15 periodical subscriptions.

The Western Ecological Research Center (WERC), which has 14 field stations in California and one in Nevada, is headquartered in Sacramento. WERC offers its clients and partners the research and technology needed to support the management of Pacific Southwestern ecosystems. WERC's scientists are experts in such fields as herpetology, conservation biology, wetlands ecology, and ecological restoration. The research centers and institutes of the nearby University of California at Davis (UC) perform research in a wide variety of areas such as food safety and cleaner fuel technologies. UC Davis's renowned Health System, which is based in Sacramento, has more than 550 research studies—including basic science, translational, and clinical research—underway as of early 2005. The center has performed cutting edge research in such areas as autism and cancer. Other research centers in the Sacramento area conduct inquiries in such fields as natural history and grain studies.

Public Library Information: Sacramento Public Library, 828 I Street, Sacramento, CA 95814-3576; telephone (916)264-2770

Sacramento: History

Gold Rush Begins in Sacramento

The Sacramento area was originally inhabited by the Nisenan, a branch of the Maidu, who lived in the valley for 10,000 years before white settlers arrived. Spanish soldiers from Mission San Jose, under the command of Lieutenant Gabriel Morago, discovered the Sacramento and American rivers in 1808. The area was not settled until 1839. That year, with the permission of Mexico, Captain John Sutter, a Swiss immigrant who had fled his homeland to escape debtor's prison, built a settlement on 76 acres and called it New Helvetia, after his homeland. He built a fort called Sutter's Fort (which has been restored and can still be seen today). Sutter also constructed a landing on the Sacramento River that he called the Embarcadero and contacted a millwright, James Marshall, to help build the settlement. It was Marshall who in 1848 discovered a gold nugget, thus precipitating the great California Gold Rush of 1849. Sutter's Embarcadero became the gateway to the mines, but Sutter was financially ruined by the influx of newcomers from all over the world who trampled his settlement; even his employees left him to make their fortune.

Sacramento, Spanish for "Holy Sacrament," was originally the name of a nearby river that is now called the Feather River; in 1849 the name was taken for the town, which was incorporated in 1850. Sacramento was a rowdy place, full of successful miners who spent their money on gambling and dance halls. In its early days, the town encountered difficulties, with floods in 1849 and 1853 and a fire in 1852. But Sacramento survived to become the capital of California in 1854, paying the state $1 million for the honor.

Railroad Arrives; Agriculture Surpasses Gold Mining

In 1855 construction began on the Sacramento Valley Railroad, with the financial backing of shopkeepers known as the Big Four: Collis P. Huntington, Mark Hopkins, Charles Crocker, and Leland Stanford (after whom Stanford University is named). In 1856 Sacramento became the terminus of California's first railroad. Then came the Pony Express and, in 1861, the transcontinental telegraph. The Central Pacific Railroad joined the east and west coasts in 1869, permitting Sacramento farmers to ship their produce to the east. The railroad also transformed what had been a six-month trip between the coasts to six days; in time it also superseded the river as a means of transportation. In another important change, agriculture eventually replaced the gold mines as the primary industry.

Mather Field was established to prepare planes to fly to Europe during World War I; McClellan Air Force Base was established in 1937 and was an important base of operations during World War II. These military installations drew a large influx of people into the area, many of whom stayed after World War II and spurred the development of the private sector. The first suburban shopping mall in the United States was established in North Sacramento in 1945. Like many cities in the United States, downtown Sacramento had fallen into decay by the 1950s, since most of the moneyed population had moved to the suburbs. The city eventually experienced a resurgence, marked by the redevelopment of the downtown area, with the city's historical sections being preserved and restored. Sutter's Embarcadero, for instance, now houses shops and restaurants. Sacramento's redevelopment has been acclaimed as one of the most successful in the United States. Today's Sacramento is experiencing further growth; population within the six-county Sacramento Region increased by 20 percent between 1990 and 2000. The city's economic growth, livability, and comparatively low cost of living has made it one of California's fastest-growing metropolitan areas.

Historical Information: Sacramento Room, Sacramento Public Library, 828 I Street, Sacramento, CA 95814-3576; telephone (916)264-2700

SACRAMENTO

SACRAMENTO, the major urban center of California's Central Valley, is located at the confluence of the American and Sacramento Rivers. The region has been a crossroads of trade and commerce since its earliest habitation. John A. Sutter, a German-speaking Swiss adventurer, arrived in Sacramento in 1839 and built a fort as a frontier outpost for the Mexican government. The gold rush that began in 1848 led the following year to the platting of the city of Sacramento, which became the state capital in 1854. It was the western terminus of the Oregon Trail and of the first transcontinental railroad (completed 1869). By the late 1850s, agriculture had begun to supplant mining as the city's primary economic venture.

Located at the lower end of one of the world's highest-volume watersheds, Sacramento experienced its first flood in 1849. Completion of the Shasta Dam on the Sacramento

River in 1949, the Folsom Dam on the American in 1956, and the Oroville Dam on the Feather in 1968 led to extensive development on the floodplains. A major flood in 1989, which eclipsed all previous runoffs, and local flooding in January 1995 caused local, state, and federal agencies to reassess land use patterns.

The completion of Interstate Highways 5 and 80 in the 1960s reaffirmed Sacramento's role as a transportation hub. Several factors shielded the local economy from the problems that beset other regions of California after the Cold War. In the 1990s housing and land prices were one-third lower than in the San Francisco Bay area, approximately eighty miles to the southwest.

Local, state, and federal government employment provided a stable, albeit declining, share of the job market. With many institutions of higher learning, including community colleges, California State University, Sacramento, and the University of California, Davis, the region has a well-educated labor force. After the 1970s, data processing centers, high-tech manufacturing companies, bio-technology enterprises, and financial services companies were created in or relocated to Sacramento. The city's population increased from 275,741 in 1980 to 366,500 in 1990, when the Sacramento–Yolo County area had a population of nearly 1.5 million. From its inception Sacramento has had a multicultural population. Like the state of California, but at a much slower pace, Sacramento has experienced increased ethnic diversity since the 1970s.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kelley, Robert L. Battling the Inland Sea: American Political Culture, Public Policy, and the Sacramento Valley, 1850–1986. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989.

McGowan, Joseph A., and Terry R. Willis. Sacramento: Heart of the Golden State. Woodland Hills, Calif.: Windsor Publications, 1983.

Gregg M.Campbell/f. b.

See alsoCalifornia ; Gold Rush, California ; Sutter's Fort .