Within just a few short years, Sutter Sr. Soon, the colony began to grow as more and more pioneers headed west. called his colony New Helvetia, a Swiss-inspired name, and was the political authority and dispenser of justice in the new settlement. The next year, he and his party established Sutter's Fort, a massive adobe structure with walls 18 feet (5.5 m) high and three feet (0.91 m) thick. first arrived in the area on August 13, 1839, at the divergence of the American and Sacramento Rivers with a Mexican land grant of 50,000 acres (20,000 ha).

In 1841, he was officially granted the land by Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado. Mexican period In 1839, John Augustus Sutter established Sutter's Fort, which he called Nueva Helvetia. The valley and the river were then christened after the 'Most Holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ,' referring to the Catholic sacrament of the Eucharist. '¡Es como el sagrado sacramento! (It's like the Blessed Sacrament.)' The air was like champagne, and ( the Spaniards) drank deep of it, drank in the beauty around them. Birds chattered in the trees and big fish darted through the pellucid depths.

A Spanish writer with the Moraga expedition wrote: Ĭanopies of oaks and cottonwoods, many festooned with grapevines, overhung both sides of the blue current. In 1808, the Spanish explorer Gabriel Moraga encountered and named the Sacramento Valley and the Sacramento River. Their diet was dominated by acorns taken from the plentiful oak trees in the region and by fruits, bulbs, seeds, and roots gathered throughout the year. Unlike the settlers who would eventually make Sacramento their home, these Native Americans left little evidence of their existence. Nisenan (Southern Maidu), Modoc, and Plains Miwok Native Americans lived in the area for perhaps thousands of years. History įor a chronological guide, see Timeline of Sacramento, California. It is also a global city, designated at the 'Gamma'-level. and is home to the California Museum, Crocker Art Museum, California State Railroad Museum, California State Capitol Museum, California Hall of Fame, and Old Sacramento State Historic Park. In 2013, the Sacramento Convention and Visitors Bureau stated that the city receives 15.3 million visitors per year. Similarly, Sacramento is a major center for the California healthcare industry, as the seat of Sutter Health, the world-renowned UC Davis Medical Center, and the UC Davis School of Medicine. Sacramento is the fastest-growing major city in California, owing to its status as a notable political center on the West Coast and as a major educational hub, home of California State University, Sacramento and UC Davis. In 1852, the city offered its county courthouse to the state of California to house the state legislature, resulting in the city becoming the permanent state capital in 1854 and ushering in the construction of a new state capitol building which was finished in 1874. Following the American Conquest of California and the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, the waterfront developed by Sutter began to be developed and incorporated in 1850 as the City of Sacramento. In 1839, Juan Bautista Alvarado, Mexican governor of Alta California, granted the responsibility of colonizing the Sacramento Valley to Swiss-born Mexican citizen John Augustus Sutter, who subsequently established Sutter's Fort and the settlement at the Rancho Nueva Helvetia. Spanish cavalryman Gabriel Moraga surveyed and named the Río del Santísimo Sacramento ( Sacramento River) in 1808, after the Blessed Sacrament. īefore the arrival of the Spanish, the area was inhabited by the Nisenan, Maidu, and other indigenous peoples of California. Sacramento is also the cultural and economic core of the Greater Sacramento area, which at the 2020 census had a population of 2,680,831, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in California. Sacramento is the seat of the California Legislature and the Governor of California. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 population of 524,943 makes it the fourth-most populous city in Northern California, sixth-most populous city in the state, and the ninth-most populous state capital in the United States. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. Sacramento ( Spanish for ' sacrament') ( / ˌ s æ k r ə ˈ m ɛ n t oʊ/ SAK-rə- MEN-toh Spanish: ) is the capital city of the U.S.

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