Old Town Sacramento and its Underground (definitely not the London variety)

Friday, 28 September – Today saw Laren, Lynette and I heading into Old Town Sacramento for some sightseeing and lunch.  We walked around Old Town mainly doing some window shopping, while Laren pointed out some of the area’s remaining historic buildings.  We ended up at the edge of the Sacramento River trying to decide where to have a bite of lunch.  While we almost opted for a restaurant on-board a floating paddle-wheeler, we instead choose the Rio City Café on Front Street in Old Town Sacramento. It was such a nice day outside that we choose to dine on their outdoor patio overlooking the river.  Lynette and I decided to have their Tostada Bowl (very delicious), while Laren went with the fish tacos (also quite tasty).  After lunch we headed for the Sacramento History Museum; Laren treated us to a guided walking tour of Old Sacramento Underground. I don’t have enough time to go into great detail of Sacramento’s rich history, but the “Underground” part refers a part of the city’s history when the American and Sacramento Rivers were constantly flooding this part of Sacramento – which meant the town was repeatedly rebuilt.  The city finally got tired of this repetitive action and over a period of several years actually raised the city, its sidewalks, and streets to a higher level.  In effect, leaving the “old” parts of the Sacramento that had been flooded, underground.  Quite the history story.   To learn more, go to: www.HistoricOldSac.org. The guided tour took about 90 minutes and was terrific.  Our guide was great and we got to see a couple of the buildings that have been restored, along with several artifacts from Sacramento’s early history.  Well worth the time spent – thanks, Laren.

After the tour, we walked over to the State Archives building where Laren works.  I think I mentioned in an earlier blog that Laren is currently California’s Deputy State Archivist, so we knew our private tour would be fantastic – a behind-the-scenes look at some of our greatest historical records. And was it ever. The California State Archives is a division of the Office of the Secretary of State and is charged with providing a repository for the state’s permanent governmental records as well as other materials documenting California history, including some of the USA’s earliest history during the State’s early years under Spanish and Mexican rule. This includes such things as California’s state constitutions from 1849 and 1879; official papers of the state’s governors, such as the Earl Warren Papers; legislative records/papers; court records; prison records (some of the old mug books were neat to look at); oral histories of important figures, such as Ronald Reagan; and genealogical records. Today the Archives contains more than 100 million documents from state/local governments; 20,000 maps (including maps from California’s early history under Spain and Mexico); 250,000 photographs; and thousands of video and audio recording (also microfiche) – all available for public research.  We even got to see Laren’s quite large corner office on the 4^th floor with its own balcony and view of the state capital.  Way to go little brother!  Thanks so much for the really neat tour of the State Archives and Old Town!