Sacramento: Where California’s History Began

Story and photography by
Nancy & Eric Anderson 

Schwarzenegger promised when he got to California’s capital, “I will pump up Sacramento.” Well, he tried. He didn’t understand that dysfunctional government was the norm in this small town at the end of the Sacramento River.

But tourists surely come here for fun not to witness impressive halls of fame especially if they take a tour of the Capitol and walk past the portrait of Jerry Brown. Jerry was the governor of the state from 1975 to 1983 -- and seemingly wants to have a go at it for a second time in November 2010.

The governor of California gets to choose the artist for the official portrait that ultimately hangs in the State Capitol Museum. Jerry went for someone as controversial as himself: Don Bachardy. The painting hangs among the 33 somber, rather dignified souls who preceded him and the four who followed. We ask a docent whether she thinks Ronnie Reagan (whose portrait is the nearest one to this) would have been amused by the painting? She struggles not to comment.

The Capitol stands in a beautiful park that also has a memorial to those who served in Vietnam. A circular wall with the names of the 5,822 dead and missing of the one third of a million Californians who served surrounds bronze life-size statues showing scenes from the war including a 19 year-old soldier wearily reading a letter from home. The memorial is the first “to recognize the contributions of the 15,000 nurses who served in Vietnam” and depicts movingly a nurse caring for a severely wounded soldier.

California’s history goes farther back, of course, but to the world it started with that electrifying event on the south fork of the American River on January 24, 1848. “My eye was caught by something shining in the bottom of the ditch” wrote James Marshall who was building a sawmill there for John Sutter. “I reached my hand down and picked it up…The piece was about half the size and shape of a pea. Then I saw another!” Four days later Marshall was at Sutter’s Fort reporting his find to his employer. “It made my heart thump for I was certain it was gold,” he said.

Sutter’s Fort, then an agricultural settlement and now a state park, is the oldest restored fort in the United States. It is a sad reminder of the fortunes of both men. They had suffered financial reverses before they ever met; neither benefitted from the Gold Rush and both died in wretched circumstances.

The Discovery Museum downtown has much evidence of those times including displays of over-the-counter medications of the 1850’s era and exhibits of surgical instruments and personal effects of Alexander Nixon, MD including his top hat and cane as seen in the top right photograph. Dr. Nixon was, like many 19th century doctors, a character. He came as a Gold Rush miner but failed, like most, to make a living at that so he went back to Ohio and ultimately returned with a medical degree. He became president of the California State Medical society and, as such, cast the deciding vote to admit women doctors. Three years after he died in 1889 his widow, Ann Wisewall Nixon, obtained her medical degree!

The Sierra Sacramento Valley Medical Society arranged the medical presentations at the Discovery Museum but the society’s own Museum of Medical History about four miles east of town at 5380 Elvas Avenue has really interesting display like the poster held up by retired physician Bob La Perriere, MD, then the curator, who seems to be “offering the best medicine at the lowest price.”

They range from “snake oil” advertisements and examples of blood-letting instruments to the first X-Ray tube brought to Sacramento in 1897 and an iron lung used for children in the dreadful days of the polio epidemics in the 1950s.

Sacramento has had more than its share of epidemics. Perhaps being in the flood plain of the Sacramento River Delta increased the risk of pollution but the cholera epidemic of 1850 was particularly tragic as the old city Cemetery attests.

Seventeen physicians chose to stay with their sick patients as most of the residents evacuated the city. Those physicians succumbed to the disease; one is buried here but a plaque names all 17. There are actually 55 physicians buried in the cemetery and their head stones are certainly moving. The medical society has published a walking tour booklet on those medical pioneer gravesites.

A more cheerful walk would bring art lovers to the Crocker Art museum (which is currently upgrading its premises after a run of 125 years) and car and Americana enthusiasts to the Towe Automobile Museum. The car museum got its start as recently as 1983 with local support but it all happened fast after a Montana banker Edward Towe “who had the largest collection of Fords in the world” donated his collection to the museum. Many of the Fords had to be sold to resolve an IRS dispute but the museum still has great exhibits that capture the flavor of times gone past.

Additional fun for visitors would be a casual saunter through Old Sacramento and along the river front. Pride of place is occupied by the Delta King riverboat (now permanently berthed as is its sibling the Delta Queen in Chattanooga, Tennessee.) It’s now a hotel that gives another medical connection to the city: after Pearl Harbor it served as a hospital ship. We went onboard simply to explore but ended up staying overnight to enjoy its history and complete our trip to Sacramento.