The Other Side of the Tracks An unnatural history of The American river waterfront

A Missing River

Sacramento grew at the confluence of two rivers. An instant city erupted on the floodplain where the American River joins the Sacramento. The “Nile of the West” brought immigrants from San Francisco. But the “American Fork” provided the gold – and sparked the world’s imagination. Yet only the Sacramento River appears in early images. The city’s northern edge lurks just out of view.

The Sacramento riverfront was not the only option for settlers here. Several villages were growing along the American. Each of these was in the path of overland immigrant. They should have kept growing But they wound up on the wrong side of the tracks.

Urban growth usually follows natural patterns. Parcels are subdivided. Roads are widened. Villages become towns. Towns become cities. But early settlements along the American River withered and died. By the turn of the 20th century, these communities were mostly gone. Only Sacramento City survived.

Background Image: "Sacramento City, Ca., from the Foot of J Street;" Charles Parsons; 1850. Courtesy Library of Congress (LOC).

A Shrinking Boomtown

Most cities expand outward. But Sacramento City was born enormous – more than 1,000 city blocks. This was an audacious land scheme, which exploited gold mania to sell poor land to naïve newcomers. After five years, buildings stood on only a tiny portion of the sprawling expanse. Still, Sacramento City’s ward system spread to the far corners of this vast grid. All three wards reached the American River.

By 1885 the city had shrunk. The new northern border lay just beyond the railroad tracks. The American River was now separated from the city. Sacramento would not recover its full waterfront until 1963.

This contraction created a power vacuum that lasted for decades: The city assessor’s map books generally stopped at the new boundary. The county assessor’s map books recorded only a small fragment of this northern land’s ownership. Property lines were shifting and contradictory. Who lived in this void?

Background Image: "Plan of Sacramento City, State of California;" William Warner; 1850. Courtesy LOC.

The Crossing

Early images of the American River are rare. An exception appears in Thompson and West’s 1880 History of Sacramento County. This view of James Holland’s 100-acre farm includes Lisle’s Bridge, which brought travelers from the north and east.

Hungry new arrivals would have flocked to any business here – the city was another mile down the road. But this key crossroads remained a backwater 30 years after the Gold Rush. Why? People should naturally have gathered here. Their absence demands explanation.

The distant railroad provides a clue: The B Street levee was raised to carry the transcontinental railroad. This structure would also protect Sacramento City from floods. But the tracks isolated Lisle’s Bridge and prevented it from developing normally. Today, most of Holland’s old farm is a wasteland. Many people cross the river on highway 160 or Sacramento’s light rail. But few ever stop at what was once a major crossing.

Background image: "Birds-eye View of the Fruit Gardens of James Holland, 100 Acres, at Lile's Bridge;" History of Sacramento County, California; Thompson & West, 1880.

The Old Channel

The modern mouth of the American looks very different than the wild river that greeted early pioneers. The channel curved south, emerging just north of the famous historic district of Old Sacramento. This confluence was why the young city grew, but also its greatest threat. So in 1862 Sacramento City moved the American River. The old riverbed was later filled in with debris and it is now buried under the edge of the Railyards redevelopment project.

The river was also moved further upstream, in 1868. This was just in time to take pressure off the railroad’s levee. The river now flows nearly half a mile north of Sutter’s Landing, where that famous pioneer came ashore.

Moving the river had a massive impact. Strings of riverside parcels appear in maps of Sacramento City. These parcels suggest that someone was already living here. These first settlers lost their riverfront.

Background image: "Plan of Sacramento City, State of California;" William Warner; 1850. Courtesy LOC.

The Levee

This image contains a riddle: A dog stands at the foot of J Street. The city is flooded but the riverbank is dry. How is that possible? The strange truth is that Sacramento’s highest ground is found along its rivers. Sacramento is perched on a great pile of sediment from the Sierra Nevada. American River floodwaters would overflow their banks, dropping silt as they drained into flood basins. These high banks were where any sensible people would live. The village of Pujune sat on the river’s north levee. Before the genocide, Nisenan people built on mounds that added a few critical feet of elevation here.

Modern Sacramentans think of levees as artificial berms holding back our rivers. Yet those rivers created natural levees long before humans lifted a shovel. Floods drove settlers onto these natural levees for years, until artificial levees could hold back the raging rivers.

Background image: "Sacramento View During the Great Flood;" author unknown; 1851. Courtesy SPL.

Boston

Sacramento City was not alone at the mouth of the American River. A rival called Boston was located just north of the old channel. This map is by Cadwalader Ringgold, who also surveyed Boston. It shows a tidy grid of blocks, which were visibly smaller than those of Sacramento City, and tilted 10 degrees to the northwest. In 1850 E. Gould Buffum described Boston’s layout, including block sizes. These blocks corroborate an early map showing Boston alongside Sacramento City, and are the basis for a reconstruction that reveals Boston parcel boundaries extending into Discovery Park.

Was this a real place? Or just a “paper city” to attract naïve settlers? Many buildings in the Union Pacific shops complex are built in alignment with the streets of Boston. But although traces still remain on the land, Boston seems to have lasted only a few years. In 1886 Boston was briefly remembered before it was forgotten again.

Background image: "Chart of the Sacramento River from Suisun City to the American River, California"; Cadwalader Ringgold; 1852. Courtesy David Rumsey Map Center.

Calle de los Americanos

The earliest maps of Sacramento City also reveal an older waterfront at Lisle’s Bridge. Little is known about Calle de los Americanos. The name suggests it was home to Americans during the Mexican period. In any case, this street was here when Sacramento City was first surveyed. Another map shows that it was valuable. In 1850 city surveyor Clement Coote, prominent land merchant Henry Schoolcraft, and others divided up the parcels. Each saw value in this real estate at the land gateway to Sacramento. Each wanted his investment protected.

Just downstream of Lisle’s Bridge was Vine Street, which ran parallel to Calle de los Americanos. Half of that old street still exists, more than 170 years later. But by the 1880s James Holland owned everything on the south side of Vine.

Background image: "Plan of Sacramento City, State of California;" William Warner; 1850. Courtesy LOC.

Last Traces

Older Sac was still home to 20th Century Sacramentans. Its last block appeared in this 1915 Sanborn Insurance map – 50 years after the railroad came. A trace lingered until Sanborn’s 1951 edition – Sycamore Avenue now only an unnamed and severed roadway.

Ruins stand at the old confluence today. They are unmarked and they are divorced from the historic tourism of Old Sacramento. But Older Sac had a long history, perhaps even before the Gold Rush.

The riverbed at Calle de los Americanos still shows up in a 1937 aerial photograph. The channel appears as an angled strip of orchards. This vestige of a lost waterfront is separated from the city by the massive levee.

The railroad protected Sacramento and connected it to the world. But this protection had a price. The American River waterfronts were walled off, isolated and forgotten. It is a strange fate for a city’s birthplace.

Background image: "Sacramento 1915 vol. 1, Sheet 4;" Sanborn Map Company; Courtesy Environmental Data Resources, Inc.