Where does the Sacramento River end?
Sacramento River
As the river continues south it approaches the Sacramento metro area, the largest population center in the watershed. Sacramento International Airport is located on the east bank of the river near Fremont. Near downtown Sacramento it receives the American River from the east, then passes under the historic Tower Bridge and Interstate 80. The California State Capitol sits less than half a mile (0.8 km) east of the river where the Tower Bridge crosses it. Shortly downstream, the Port of Sacramento is located on the west side of the Sacramento, connected to the river by a lock. The Sacramento River Deep Water Ship Channel provides access to the port from the Pacific, bypassing about of the winding lower Sacramento. The channel runs parallel to the Sacramento several miles to the west, and also forms the eastern boundary of the Yolo Bypass. The manually operated Sacramento Weir, located across from downtown Sacramento on the west side of the river, serves to relieve floodwater pressure from the American River by allowing it to drain west into the Yolo Bypass instead of continuing down the Sacramento River.
Downstream of Sacramento, the river enters the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, a vast tidal estuary and inverted river delta of over which receives the entire run-off of the Central Valley, a region covering a third of California. The Sacramento is by far the largest contributor of fresh water to the Delta; in an average year, it accounts for more than 80 percent of the fresh water inflow. At Walnut Grove, the manmade Delta Cross Channel connects the Sacramento to the Mokelumne River channel, allowing a portion of the water to be pumped south toward Clifton Court Forebay, the receiving reservoir for the main CVP and State Water Project aqueducts which irrigate millions of acres and supply water to over 23 million people in the San Joaquin Valley, the San Francisco Bay Area and Greater Los Angeles. Although river levels are tidally influenced here and occasionally as far north as Verona, the water stays fresh in all but the driest years. Saltwater intrusion from the Pacific Ocean was one of the main reasons for the construction of the federal Central Valley Project (CVP), whose dams maintain a minimum flow in the Sacramento to keep seawater at bay.
Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge Complex
The Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge Complex is part of the United States system of National Wildlife Refuges (NWR). It is located in northern California, in the valley of the Sacramento River.
History of California 1900–present
The Sacramento Deep Water Ship Channel (also known as the "Sacramento River Deep Water Ship Channel" or "SRDWSC") is a canal from the Port of Sacramento to the Sacramento River, which flows into San Francisco Bay. It was completed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers in 1963. The channel is about deep, wide, and long.
Sacramento River
In the 19th century, gold was discovered on a tributary of the Sacramento River, starting the California Gold Rush and an enormous population influx to the state. Overland trails such as the California Trail and Siskiyou Trail guided hundreds of thousands of people to the gold fields. By the late part of the century mining had ceased to be a major part of the economy, and many immigrants turned to farming and ranching. Many populous communities were established along the Sacramento River, including the state capital of Sacramento. Intensive agriculture and mining contributed to pollution in the Sacramento River, and significant changes to the river's hydrology and environment.
California
Divided in two by the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the northern portion, the Sacramento Valley serves as the watershed of the Sacramento River, while the southern portion, the San Joaquin Valley is the watershed for the San Joaquin River. Both valleys derive their names from the rivers that flow through them. With dredging, the Sacramento and the San Joaquin Rivers have remained deep enough for several inland cities to be seaports.
Mohave Valley
The southern end of the valley begins elevated regions, with the Mohave Mountains directly south, and Dutch Flat, east of the Mohave Mountains, which drains northwest into Sacramento Wash. The southeast of the valley meets the outfall of Sacramento Wash, and associated drainage plains; Sacramento Valley itself is mostly east and south of the Black Mesa section at the south of the Black Mountains (Arizona); the Sacramento Wash turns due west, and follows Interstate 40 in Arizona as it turns west and parallels the wash to meet Needles at the Colorado River; it is also the southern drainage outfall point into the Topock Marsh, at Topock, eastern shore of the Colorado River, in the southeast valley. Other washes drain through the eastern Mohave Valley plains and foothills into the Topock Marsh from the southwest of the Black Mountains, the extensive range which goes north to Lake Mead.
North Sacramento, Sacramento, California
At the time of its 1964 merger with Sacramento, the boundaries of North Sacramento consisted of the American River on the south, property lines and the Natomas East Drainage Canal (now Steelhead Creek) on the west, Main Avenue on the north, and the Sacramento Northern Railroad (now a bike trail) on the east until its junction with Lampasas Avenue, continuing east and south on Evergreen Street, east on El Camino Avenue (with variations), and southeast on the Southern Pacific (now Union Pacific) railroad line to its crossing of the American River. All of these boundaries were also the boundaries of the surrounding city of Sacramento, except for the communities of Hagginwood and Ben Ali, which were not yet annexed to either city.
Central Valley Project
Shasta Division consists of a pair of large dams on the Sacramento River north of the city of Redding. The Shasta Dam is the primary water storage and power generating facility of the CVP. It impounds the Sacramento River to form Shasta Lake, which can store over of water, and can generate 680 MW of power. Shasta Dam functions to regulate the flow of the Sacramento River so that downstream diversion dams and canals can capture the flow of the river more efficiently, and to prevent flooding in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta where many water pump facilities for San Joaquin Valley aqueducts are located. The Keswick Dam functions as an afterbay (regulating reservoir) for the Shasta Dam, also generating power.
Sacramento Wash
The Sacramento Wash is a major drainage of northwest Arizona in Mohave County. The wash is east of the Black Canyon of the Colorado and drains into the south-flowing Colorado River 45 mi south of Lake Mohave, and 90 mi south of Hoover Dam at Lake Mead. The wash outfall is in the center-south of the Havasu-Mohave Lakes Watershed. An equivalent wash drains to the west of the Colorado River and the Black Canyon, draining southeast Nevada and a small part of California, the Piute Wash of the Piute Valley. The Piute Wash outfall is upstream of the Sacramento's outfall by about 15 miles.
Sacramento Wash
The confluence of the Sacramento Wash with the Colorado, occurs at the Topock Marsh in its southeast. The Topock Marsh has two interconnected sections, and the marsh is east of the main course of the Colorado River. It is a noted region for ecology, including birdwatching. The river section containing the marsh is the Havasu National Wildlife Refuge, about 25 miles long.
San Joaquin River
About from the mouth, the river draws abreast to the western flank of Stockton, one of the basin's largest cities. From here to the mouth, the river is dredged as part of a navigation project, the Stockton Deep Water Ship Channel. Past the head of tide, amid the many islands of the delta, the San Joaquin is joined by two more tributaries: the Calaveras River and the larger Mokelumne. The river grows to almost wide before ending at its confluence with the Sacramento River, in Antioch, forming the head of Suisun Bay. The combined waters from the two rivers then flow west through the Carquinez Strait and San Francisco Bay into the Pacific.
Sacramento, California
Sacramento is home to Sacramento State (California State University, Sacramento), founded as Sacramento State College in 1947. In 2004, enrollment was 22,555 undergraduates and 5,417 graduate students in the university's eight colleges. The university's mascot is the hornet, and the school colors are green and gold. The campus is located along the American River Parkway a few miles east of downtown.
Gold River, California
Gold River is a census-designated place (CDP) in Sacramento County, California. The population was 7,812 at the 2010 census, down from 8,023 at the 2000 census. Gold River is part of the Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area. With a median family income of over $117,000, Gold River is the highest-income place in Sacramento County.
Feather River
The Feather River is the principal tributary of the Sacramento River, in the Sacramento Valley of Northern California. The river's main stem is about long. Its length to its most distant headwater tributary is just over . The main stem Feather River begins in Lake Oroville, where its four long tributary forks join together—the South Fork, Middle Fork, North Fork, and West Branch Feather Rivers. These and other tributaries drain part of the northern Sierra Nevada, and the extreme southern Cascades, as well as a small portion of the Sacramento Valley. The total drainage basin is about , with approximately above Lake Oroville.
Sacramento Wash
Bordering Watersheds
Cache Creek Wilderness
The centerpiece of the wilderness is Cache Creek, a tributary of the Sacramento River (in high rainfall years). Cache Creek is one of two tributaries (Putah Creek is the other) that are the most southerly of the significant east-flowing Coast Range drainages in the Sacramento River hydrologic basin and provides important riparian and fish habitat. More than of Cache Creek is designated a California Wild and Scenic River.
California State Route 275
The legislature added Route 275 back to the Streets and Highways Code in 2010, but its definition now only includes "Tower Bridge from the west side of the Sacramento River near the City of West Sacramento to the east side of the Sacramento River near the City of Sacramento."
Interstate 80 Business (Sacramento, California)
At an interchange southeast of downtown Sacramento, Business 80 turns north onto the south end of unsigned SR 51. US 50 continues east, State Route 99 heads south, and the "hidden" I-305 ends. The elevated freeway carrying Business 80 east of downtown is between 29th and 30th Streets, and an older section beginning at A Street and continuing northeast was originally known as the Elvas Freeway (and originally signed as U.S Highway 99 East). On this section of freeway, Business 80 crosses the American River before its northeast-bound merge with the North Sacramento Freeway (the northern portion of State Route 160 towards downtown).
Battle of the Sacramento River
The Battle of the Sacramento River was a battle that took place on February 28, 1847 during the Mexican–American War. About fifteen miles north of Chihuahua, Mexico at the crossing of the river Sacramento, American forces numbering less than 1,000 men defeated a superior Mexican army which led to the occupation of Chihuahua.
Mokelumne River
The Mokelumne River ( or ) is a -long river in northern California in the United States. The river flows west from a rugged portion of the central Sierra Nevada into the Central Valley and ultimately the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, where it empties into the San Joaquin River. Together with its main tributary, the Cosumnes River, the Mokelumne drains in parts of five California counties. Measured to its farthest source at the head of the North Fork, the river stretches for .
Sacramento River
In 1873, Colonel B.S. Alexander of the Army Corps of Engineers surveyed the Central Valley's hydrology and irrigation systems and proposed a great network of pumps and canals that would take water from the Sacramento River in the north, and transport it to drought-prone central and southern California, especially the San Joaquin Valley. The Sacramento River basin receives "two-thirds to three-quarters of northern California's precipitation though it has only one-third to one-quarter of the land. The San Joaquin River watershed occupies two-thirds to three-quarters of northern California's land, but only collects one-third to one-quarter of the precipitation." The topography of the Sacramento River watershed makes it particularly prone to flooding. Storm water runs quickly off the steep mountains flanking the Sacramento Valley, but with few exceptions the alluvial valley floor is strikingly flat, slowing down the runoff and causing it to overflow the river banks. Before flood control works were built, the winter floods frequently transformed the valley into an inland sea. In 1880 State Engineer William H. Hall developed the first flood control plan for the Sacramento River. Hall recognized that with the combination of flat topography and extremely heavy winter runoff volumes, a system of levees alone could not hope to contain flooding, as had been proven time and again in the flood prone city of Sacramento.
Central Valley (California)
Two major river systems drain and define the two parts of the Central Valley. The Sacramento River, along with its tributaries the Feather River and American River, flows southwards through the Sacramento Valley for about . In the San Joaquin Valley, the San Joaquin River flows roughly northwest for , picking up tributaries such as the Merced River, Tuolumne River, Stanislaus River and Mokelumne River. The Central Valley watershed encompasses over a third of California at , with 46 percent draining into the Sacramento River, 26 percent into the San Joaquin, and 27 percent into Tulare Lake.
Sacramento, California
Sacramento ( ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's estimated 2018 population of 501,334 makes it the sixth-largest city in California and the 9th largest capital in the United States. Sacramento is the seat of the California Assembly, the Governor of California, and Supreme Court of California, making it the state's political center and a hub for lobbying and think tanks. Sacramento is also the cultural and economic core of the Sacramento metropolitan area, which had 2010 population of 2,414,783, making it the fifth largest in California.
Stony Creek (Sacramento River tributary)
In 1851 the Native Americans and US government signed a treaty establishing a reservation for "the tribes or bands of Indians living... on the Sacramento river from the mouth of Stone creek [sic] to the junction of Feather and Sacramento rivers, and on Feather river to the mouth of Yuba river." However, the treaty was not ratified. In the next few decades repeated epidemics of introduced diseases decimated the Native American population. Many native children were kidnapped from their villages, to be sold as domestic servants or farm laborers. Less than 5 percent of the native population remained by 1907, when the federal government granted them a small area of land north of Colusa.
The upper Stony Creek area saw significant mining activity during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By 1894 the Whitlock and Oakes mines were extracting large amounts of chrome ore, near the eponymous settlement of Chrome along upper Stony Creek. The Oakes mine operated as late as World War II (as the Black Diamond mine), helping to meet the high wartime demand for chromite. Although the Stony Creek watershed was prospected for gold during the Gold Rush, gold mining never developed there on a large scale. Small amounts of copper, ochre, manganese, marble, mercury, dimension stone and coal have also been mined in the Stony Creek watershed. The bed of Stony Creek is still an important source of material for aggregate mining. In 1997, more than a million tons per year was still being extracted.
Sacramento, California
Depth to groundwater is typically about . Much of the land to the west of the city (in Yolo County) is permanently reserved for a vast flood control basin (the Yolo Bypass), due to the city's historical vulnerability to floods. As a result, the contiguous urban area sprawls only four miles (6 km) west of downtown (as West Sacramento, California) but northeast and east, into the Sierra Nevada foothills, and to the south into valley farmland.
Central Valley Project
Two large reservoirs, Shasta Lake and Trinity Lake, are formed by a pair of dams in the mountains north of the Sacramento Valley. Water from Shasta Lake flows into the Sacramento River which flows to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and water from Trinity Lake flows into the Trinity River which leads to the Pacific Ocean. Both lakes release water at controlled rates. There, before it can flow on to San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean, some of the water is intercepted by a diversion channel and transported to the Delta-Mendota Canal, which conveys water southwards through the San Joaquin Valley, supplying water to San Luis Reservoir (a SWP-shared facility) and the San Joaquin River at Mendota Pool in the process, eventually reaching canals that irrigates farms in the valley. Friant Dam crosses the San Joaquin River upstream of Mendota Pool, diverting its water southwards into canals that travel into the Tulare Lake area of the San Joaquin Valley, as far south as the Kern River. Finally, New Melones Lake, a separate facility, stores water flow of a San Joaquin River tributary for use during dry periods. Other smaller, independent facilities exist to provide water to local irrigation districts.
California State Route 151
SR 151 begins at Shasta Dam, where the Sacramento River is dammed to form Shasta Lake. From Shasta Dam, the road heads south as Shasta Dam Boulevard, crossing through heavily vegetated area. The road then meets CR A18 within the city of Shasta Lake. Heading eastward, the road enters the center of Shasta Lake before meeting its eastern terminus at Interstate 5.
Sacramento, California
By December 1848, John Sutter Jr., in association with Sam Brannan, began laying out the City of Sacramento, 2 miles south of his father's settlement of New Helvetia. This venture was undertaken against the wishes of Sutter Sr., however the father, being deeply in debt, was in no position to stop the venture. For commercial reasons the new city was named "Sacramento City," after the Sacramento River. Sutter Jr. and Brannon hired topographical engineer William H. Warner to draft the official layout of the city, which included 26 lettered and 31 numbered streets (today's grid from C St. to Broadway and from Front St. to Alhambra Blvd.). Unfortunately, a certain bitterness grew between the elder Sutter and his son as Sacramento became an overnight commercial success (Sutter's Fort, Mill and the town of Sutterville, all founded by John Sutter, Sr., would eventually fail).
West Sacramento, California
West Sacramento (also known as West Sac) is a city in Yolo County, California. The city is separated from Sacramento by the Sacramento River which also separates Sacramento and Yolo counties. It is a fast-growing community; the population was 48,744 at the 2010 census, up from 31,615 at the 2000 census. The traditional industrial center of the region since the Gold Rush era, West Sacramento is home to a diverse economy and is one of the area's top four employment centers.
Sacramento River
In 1960, construction began on the State Water Project, whose primary purpose was to deliver water to Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. Oroville Dam – the tallest dam in the U.S. – was built on the Sacramento's largest tributary, the Feather River. A series of channels were enlarged in the Delta to facilitate water flow from the Sacramento to the Banks Pumping Plant and the California Aqueduct, which can carry as much as 4.2 million acre feet (5 km) of water each year. From its origin at the Delta the canal runs southwards through the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, providing irrigation water to farmlands along its length, and lifted almost over the Tehachapi Mountains via four large pumping stations. The project irrigates of land in the San Joaquin Valley and serves 22 million people in Central and Southern California.
List of crossings of the Sacramento River
This is a list of the crossings of the Sacramento River from its mouth at Suisun Bay upstream to the Ribbon Bridge in Redding. There are many more bridges north of this point up to Lake Siskiyou, immediately east of the source of the river at the confluence of the South and Middle Forks of the Sacramento River. All locations are in California.
Thomes Creek
Thomes Creek begins at Kingsley Lake, a small pond at elevation in the Mendocino National Forest. The lake is in a saddle between Solomon Peak, and Sugarloaf Mountain, near the Tehama-Trinity County line. The creek flows south through a deep valley for about and turns east at the confluence with Willow Creek. It passes through the narrow Thomes Gorge, also known simply as "The Gorge", and emerges from the mountains near Paskenta. From there it flows east-northeast through the semi-arid foothills of the Coast Ranges past Henleyville, Richfield and Tehama to join the Sacramento River at river mile 226 (km 364).
Yolo Bypass
The Yolo Bypass is one of two flood bypasses in California's Sacramento Valley located in Yolo and Solano Counties. Through a system of weirs, the bypass diverts floodwaters from the Sacramento River away from the state's capital city of Sacramento and other nearby riverside communities.
Rancho Buena Ventura
Rancho Buena Ventura (also called "San Buena Ventura") was a Mexican land grant in present day Shasta County, California, given in 1844 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to Major Pierson B. Reading (1816–1868). The land grant is named for the former name of the adjacent Sacramento River, Buena Ventura, which meant good fortune in Spanish. The grant extended some nineteen miles on the west side of the Sacramento River, from Cottonwood Creek on the south to Salt Creek on the north, and extended approximately three miles west of the Sacramento River the length of the grant. The grant encompassed present day towns of Anderson, Cottonwood and Redding. This was the northernmost land grant in California. Redding, however, was not named for Major Reading; it was named for B. B. Redding, a land agent for the Central Pacific Railroad.
Governor Micheltorena and John Sutter, his alcalde, granted Rancho Buena Ventura to Pierson B. Reading (listed as Pearson B. Reading in the land case documents) in 1844. Reading, who was at that time working for John Sutter at Sutter's Fort in Sacramento as a clerk and trapper, visited the land grant but did not move onto it. He stocked the land with cattle and built a house for his overseer but it was burned down by natives in 1846. Reading was active in promoting the Bear Flag Revolt of 1846. After serving as an artillery lieutenant then as paymaster at the rank of major in a battalion led by John C. Frémont, he built a permanent adobe dwelling and settled on his grant in 1847. He became the second (after Lansford Hastings) permanent settler of what was to become Shasta County.
With the cession of California to the United States following the Mexican-American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho Buena Ventura was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1852. The US appealed the claim on the grounds that Reading was not a Mexican citizen. In 1854 Reading went to Washington, D.C. for the hearing before the US Supreme Court on his land grant claims. There he met and married Fanny Wallace Washington. The claim was upheld by the Supreme Court and the grant was patented to Pearson B. Reading in 1857. 
The first land sale was made in 1853. By 1866, over of the land grant was sold. In 1866, Reading borrowed from the estate of his longtime friend Samuel J. Hensley, using the remaining rancho lands as collateral. After Reading's unexpected death in 1868, the remaining rancho lands were sold to James Ben Ali Haggin at public auction in 1871 to satisfy the unpaid debt. After the auction, the only remaining land from the original land grant was the one square mile () Washington section purchased by Fanny Washington's mother.
Sacramento Wash
The entirety of northwest Arizona is drained as a single region flowing into regions of the Colorado River and Lake Mead's southeast quarter. The Sacramento Wash Watershed is bordered, and enclosed on the southeast and south by the Bill Williams River and its northern tributary, the Big Sandy River which drains the areas east of the Sacramento Valley. The Bill Williams flows due west to its confluence with the Colorado, as does the Sacramento Wash flows west. The Bill Williams is also a delimiting line separating the Mojave Desert to the north and northwest, and the Sonoran Desert south and southeast. The Colorado Desert is southwest, and is called a northwest extension of the Sonoran.
Sacramento River
Second only to the Columbia River on the west coast of the United States in Chinook salmon runs, the Sacramento and its tributaries once supported a huge population of this fish. Millions of salmon once swam upstream to spawn in the Sacramento; as recently as 2002 eight hundred thousand fish were observed to return to the river. The Sacramento and San Joaquin River systems are home to the southernmost existing run of chinook salmon in North America.
Central Valley (California)
The Sacramento River carries far more water than the San Joaquin, with an estimated of virgin annual runoff, as compared to the San Joaquin's approximately . Intensive agricultural and municipal water consumption has reduced the present rate of outflow to about for the Sacramento and for the San Joaquin; however, these figures still vary widely from year to year. Over 25 million people, living both in the valley and in other regions of the state, rely on the water carried by these rivers.
Palo Cedro, California
The earliest European American history of Palo Cedro comes from the exploration of Hudson Bay trapper Alexander McLeod (c. 1782 – 11 June 1840) who sometime between March 26, 1829 and April 6, 1829, along with guide John Turner, and a brigade of trappers, traveling through Mexican California, started from the Pit River following the Cow Creek trail, and reached the Sacramento River. Cow Creek is Sacramento River tributary that runs through Palo Cedro and serves as its south eastern borderline. McLeod had been sent out earlier in January 1829 from Fort Vancouver to find the origins of a mythical Buenaventura River. After crossing the Sacramento River, McLeod explored and trapped in the Sacramento Valley as far South as present day Stockton. Upon his return with an ubundant supply of furs, he camped on the west bank of the Sacramento River by present day Anderson in December 1829. While attempting to cross the Cascades in winter, McLeod was met by a snow storm at the headwaters of the river named after him, "McLeod River" (McCloud River), he lost all his horses, was forced to cache his furs, and by snowshoe trek back to Vancouver, arriving on February 10, 1830. 
In 1832, another Hudson Bay trapper John Work (c.1792-1861), searching for a route to connect the Columbia River to the Sacramento River, reported in his journal traveling through Mexican California in with a group from the Hudson's Bay Company fur traders, staying east of the Siskiyous, bypassing Mt. Lassen, along Cow Creek, through the areas now known as Millville and Palo Cedro, finding a way to the Sacramento Valley. In the surrounding area, Work noted there were local Indians who lived in huts, in addition to various wildlife and numerous animals, including deer, elk, and grizzly bears. Local Indian men gave Work and his men food. Work called Cow Creek, "Canoe River", and his men chopped down pine trees to make canoes, camped near what is now called Anderson. During their stay, while his men were making the canoes, Work said the Indians were weeping and lamenting and observed six fires were burning in the Indian camp. Work later learned that the local Indian camp had been attacked and burned by another Indian raiding party, possibly the Shastas. After trapping in the Sacramento Valley, work retraced his steps to the Pit River, and using the same route as McLeod had earlier used through Bartle's Gap, but without disaster, emerged from the mountains and was assisted back to Vancouver.
Sacramento, Pennsylvania
Sacramento is an unincorporated community in southeast Hubley Township, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania on Route 25. It is located on the Pine Creek, which drains it westward into the Mahantango Creek. It has a post office with the zip code of 17968.
Sacramento River National Wildlife Refuge
Sacramento River National Wildlife Refuge is located along the Sacramento River in the Sacramento Valley of California. Landscape is very flat, bordered by the Sierra and Coast ranges, with intensive agriculture (rice, with walnut, almond, and prune orchards along the river). This riparian community is one of the most important wildlife habitats in California and North America.
Orland, California
The Sacramento River runs East of Orland and Black Butte Lake sits West. The Black Butte Lake dam drains into Stony Creek, which flows about a half-mile north of the Orland Arch.
Sacramento River
The Sacramento River and its valley were one of the major Native American population centers of California. The river's abundant flow and the valley's fertile soil and mild climate ensured enough resources for hundreds of groups to share the land. Most of the villages were small. Although it was once commonly believed that the original natives lived as tribes, they actually lived as bands, or family groups as small as twenty to thirty people. The Sacramento Valley was first settled about 12,000 years ago, but permanent villages were not established until about 8,000 years ago. Historians have organized the numerous separate original native groups into several "tribes". These are known as the Shasta, Modoc, and Achomawi/Pit River Tribes of the volcanic plateaus in the north; the Wintu and Hupa in the northern Klamath and Trinity mountains; the Nomlaki, Yuki, Patwin, and Pomo of the Coast Ranges; the Yana, Atsugewi, Maidu, Konkow, and Nisenan in the Sierra and their western foothills; and the Miwok in the south.
Deer Creek (Tehama County, California)
Deer Creek is a southwestward-flowing stream in Northern California that flows through Tehama County, California. It is an eastside tributary of the Sacramento River. As one of only three remaining Sacramento River tributaries supporting native runs of the genetically distinct Central Valley spring-run Chinook salmon, it is a stronghold for this state and federally endangered fish as well as other salmonids.
Wintu
Historically, the Wintu lived primarily on the western side of the northern part of the Sacramento Valley, from the Sacramento River to the Coast Range. The range of the Wintu also included the southern portions of the Upper Sacramento River (south of the Salt Creek drainage), the southern portion of the McCloud River, and the upper Trinity River. They also lived in the vicinity of present-day Chico, on the west side of the river extending to the Coast Ranges.
Interstate 80 Business (Sacramento, California)
In downtown West Sacramento, Business 80 and US 50 split from the West Sacramento Freeway, which is now locally maintained in part over the Tower Bridge up to the door of the capitol, but was once signed as State Route 275. Business 80 crosses the Sacramento River on the Pioneer Memorial Bridge, intersecting with Interstate 5 on the east bank. State Route 99 once ran along I-5 to the north and Business 80 to the east, but this is now signed SR 99. After crossing I-5, Business 80 runs on top of an embankment between "W" and "X" streets. The W-X Freeway gets its name from running parallel to "W" and "X" streets.
McCloud River
The McCloud River is a long river that flows east of and parallel to the upper Sacramento River, in Siskiyou County and Shasta County in northern California in the United States. It drains a scenic mountainous area of the Cascade Range, including part of Mount Shasta. It is a tributary of the Pit River, which in turn flows into the Sacramento River. The three rivers join in Shasta Lake, formed by Shasta Dam north of Redding.
Sacramento Valley
Interstate 5 is the primary route through the Sacramento Valley, traveling north-south roughly along the valley's western edge. Interstate 80 cuts a northeast-to-southwest swath through the southern end of the valley, mostly through Sacramento and Yolo Counties, and ends at the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Several secondary routes connect the two roads, including Interstate 505 and State Route 113. The Sacramento area has a web of urban freeways.
Stony Creek (Sacramento River tributary)
Originating on the eastern slope of the Coast Ranges, Stony Creek flows north through an extensive series of foothill valleys before turning east across the Sacramento Valley to its confluence with the Sacramento River, about west-southwest of Chico. Stony Creek is the second largest tributary to the west side of the Sacramento River; only Cottonwood Creek is larger. Stony Creek is an important source of water for agriculture in the Orland area. The river has native rainbow trout and historically had significant ocean-going runs of steelhead.
Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta
The Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, or California Delta, is an expansive inland river delta and estuary in Northern California. The Delta is formed at the western edge of the Central Valley by the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and lies just east of where the rivers enter Suisun Bay. The Delta is recognized for protection by the California Bays and Estuaries Policy. The city of Stockton is located on the San Joaquin River on the eastern edge of the delta. The total area of the Delta, including both land and water, is about .
Central Valley (California)
Runoff from the Sierra Nevada flows into the Central Valley and provides one of the largest water resources of California. The Sacramento River is the second largest river to empty into the Pacific from the Continental United States, behind only the Columbia River and greater than the Colorado River. Combined with the fertile and expansive area of the Central Valley's floor, the Central Valley is ideal for agriculture.
History of Sacramento, California
Sacramento was named after the Sacramento River, which forms its western border. The river was named by Spanish cavalry officer Gabriel Moraga for the Santisimo Sacramento (Most Holy Sacrament), referring to the Catholic Eucharist.
San Joaquin Valley
The San Joaquin Valley ( ) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven counties of Northern and one of Southern California, including, in the north, all of San Joaquin and Kings counties, most of Stanislaus, Merced, and Fresno counties, and parts of Madera and Tulare counties, along with a majority of Kern County, in Southern California. Although a majority of the valley is rural, it does contain cities such as Fresno, Bakersfield, Stockton, Modesto, Turlock, Porterville, Visalia, Merced, and Hanford.
Redding, California
Redding, officially the City of Redding, is the county seat of Shasta County, California, in the northern part of the state. It lies along the Sacramento River, north of Sacramento, and south of California's northern border, shared with the state of Oregon. Interstate 5 bisects the entire city, from the south to north before it approaches Shasta Lake, which is located to the north. The 2010 population was 89,861. Redding is the largest city in the Shasta Cascade region, and it is the sixth-largest city in the Sacramento Valley, behind Sacramento, Elk Grove, Roseville, Vacaville and Chico.
Red Bank Creek
Red Bank Creek is a major stream in Tehama County, California and a tributary of the Sacramento River. About long, it originates in the foothills of the Coast Ranges, near the boundary of the Mendocino National Forest, and flows east across the Sacramento Valley to join the Sacramento River near Red Bluff. Red Bank Creek, like the other streams draining this part of the western Sacramento Valley, is a highly seasonal stream that flows only during the winter and spring. Old Red Bank Creek Bridge at Red Bluff was built by the Pacific Bridge Company in 1894
Cottonwood Creek (Sacramento River tributary)
The headwaters of Cottonwood Creek originates as North, Middle, and South Forks and numerous smaller tributaries along the north-western rim of the Sacramento Valley. The North Fork rises near Shasta Bally, a peak in the southern Klamath Mountains. It flows southwest, through a small reservoir, Rainbow Lake. Below Rainbow Lake it flows south, receiving Jerusalem Creek from the right, and turns east, emerging from the mountains near the town of Ono, where it turns southeast to flow through the Klamath foothills. The larger Middle Fork originates at about on McFarland Ridge in the Shasta–Trinity National Forest and flows east to Platina, where it turns briefly north before heading east again, cutting a deep canyon before its confluence with Beegum Creek, its major tributary. Below Beegum Creek it forms the border of Shasta and Tehama counties. The North and Middle Forks join near Janesville to form the main stem of Cottonwood Creek; below this confluence the main stem continues to define the border between the two counties.
Sacramento River
Most of the Sacramento Valley is below in elevation; in its lower course, the Sacramento River drops only about per mile. Between the bajadas or alluvial slopes extending from the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and Coast Ranges, are the low floodplains of the Sacramento River. The river flows at an elevation somewhat higher than the surrounding terrain due to deposits of sediment over millennia that created raised banks (essentially natural levees). The banks separate the river from the lowlands to the east and west that once served as vast overflow basins during winter storms, creating large areas of seasonal wetlands. Since the 19th century, artificial levee systems have been constructed to enable farming in the fertile flood plain. Today there are of irrigated farmland in the Sacramento Valley. Due to the reduction of the floodplain area, the speed of flood flow in the Sacramento River has increased, creating a significant hazard for the farms and towns along its course. By the early 20th century engineers had realized not all the floodplains could be safely reclaimed, leading to the intentional creation of flood bypasses where development is limited to annual crops and recreational uses.
North American Cordillera
California's Central Valley is a large, flat valley that dominates the central portion of California, stretching inland and parallel to the Pacific Ocean coast. Its northern half is referred to as the Sacramento Valley, and its southern half as the San Joaquin Valley. The two halves meet at the huge Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, which along with their tributaries drain the majority of the valley. The Central Valley covers an area of approximately , making it slightly smaller than the state of West Virginia and about 13.7% of California's total area. The Central Valley is wide, with the Sierra Nevada to the east and the Coast Ranges to the west.
Sacramento County, California
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (3.0%) is water. Most of the county is at an elevation close to sea level, with some areas below sea level. The highest point in the county is Carpenter Hill at 828 feet (252 m), in the southeast part of Folsom. Major watercourses in the county include the American River, Sacramento River, Cosumnes River, a tributary of the Mokelumne River, and Dry Creek, a tributary of the Sacramento River.
The 2010 United States Census reported that Sacramento County had a population of 1,418,788. The racial makeup of Sacramento County was 815,151 (57.5%) White, 200,228 (15.4%) African American, 14,308 (1.0%) Native American, 203,211 (14.3%) Asian, 13,858 (1.0%) Pacific Islander, 131,691 (9.3%) from other races, and 93,511 (6.6%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 306,196 persons (21.6%).
Elder Creek (Tehama County)
Elder Creek is a major stream in Tehama County, California and a tributary of the Sacramento River. It originates at the confluence of its North, Middle and South Forks, which begin in the Mendocino National Forest, and flows east to its confluence with the Sacramento River about a mile (1.6 km) east of Gerber and north of Tehama. Measured to the head of its longest tributary, the South Fork, Elder Creek has a total length of , draining a watershed of about . Like the other streams draining this part of the western Sacramento Valley, Elder Creek is a highly seasonal stream that flows only during the winter and spring.
Clear Creek (Sacramento River tributary)
The creek is long, flowing in southern Siskiyou County and northern Shasta County. Clear Creek is the first major Sacramento River tributary downstream of the Shasta Dam.
Port of Stockton
The only natural outlet for the waters of the Central Valley to pass into the sea is through the narrow Carquinez Strait, at the inland eastern extreme of San Pablo Bay. Further inland are the Suisun and Grizzly Bays, arms of the Pacific Ocean deep in the Californian interior. Further inland again from these last bays is the broad Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, formed where the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers meet and cross together. This verdant triangle of land with deep black soils is at the heart of the Central Valley and stretches some fifty miles from Suisun Bay on the west to the cities of Stockton and Sacramento on the east.
California Aqueduct
When it was open, the California Aqueduct Bikeway was the longest of the paved paths in the Los Angeles area, at long from Quail Lake near Gorman through the desert to Silverwood Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains. This path was closed in 1988 due to bicyclist safety and liability issues. It is expected to remain closed indefinitely due to the continued liability issues and an increased focus on security, especially after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Two major river systems drain and define the two parts of the Central Valley. Their impact on the California Aqueduct is both direct and indirect. The Sacramento River, along with its tributaries the Feather River and American River, flows southwards through the Sacramento Valley for about . In the San Joaquin Valley, the San Joaquin River flows roughly northwest for , picking up tributaries such as the Merced River, Tuolumne River, Stanislaus River and Mokelumne River.
Stony Creek (Sacramento River tributary)
Black Butte Lake, formed by Black Butte Dam in Tehama County, is the largest reservoir on Stony Creek, covering more than in the lower Coast Range foothills. A second tributary called North Fork Stony Creek joins in the reservoir from the west. Downstream of Black Butte Dam surface water from Stony Creek is diverted into the Stony Creek Canal and other smaller ditches for irrigation. The river re-enters Glenn County, flowing in an east-southeast direction across the Sacramento Valley as a wide meandering stream. North of Orland, the largest town in the watershed, it is crossed by Interstate 5. It joins the Sacramento River south of Hamilton City and west of Chico at Sacramento river mile 190 (kilometer 306).
Sacramento Deep Water Ship Channel
The Sacramento Deep Water Ship Channel (also known as Sacramento River Deep Water Ship Channel or SRDWSC) is a canal from the Port of Sacramento in West Sacramento, California, to the Sacramento River, which flows into San Francisco Bay. It was completed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers in 1963. The channel is about 30 feet (9 m) deep, 200 feet (61 m) wide and 43 miles (69 km) long.
Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta
Delta waterways are also major transportation corridors for agricultural products; the ports of Sacramento and Stockton, located on the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, respectively, are the most important inland ports in California. The San Joaquin River throughout most of the Delta and the lower Sacramento River below its connection to the Sacramento Deep Water Ship Channel are routinely dredged to allow the passage of large cargo ships. The Sacramento River corridor has been maintained to a depth of as early as 1899, and was deepened to in 1955. The Stockton Ship Channel has been dredged since 1913; however, its present depth of was only achieved in 1987. The Delta is also home to the port of Benicia, an automobile and bulk shipping facility. Petroleum is shipped to both the Benicia Refinery and the Martinez Refinery by water. Nearby is the Port Chicago Marine Ocean Terminal, a facility that supports the U.S. Navy.
Sacramento, California
Sacramento has two other professional teams. Sacramento Republic FC began play in April 2014 at Hughes Stadium before a sellout crowd of 20,231, setting a USL Pro regular-season single game attendance record. They now play in Papa Murphy's Park. The Republic FC won the USL championship in their first season. In 2000, AAA minor league baseball returned to Sacramento with the Sacramento River Cats, an affiliate of the San Francisco Giants and formerly an affiliate of the Oakland Athletics. The River Cats play in Raley Field, in West Sacramento.
Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta
The Delta is often considered the nexus of California's statewide water system. About half the total river flow in the state passes through this region, from which water is exported to the San Joaquin Valley, Southern California and portions of the Bay area to supply some of farmland and 23 million people in central and Southern California. The Delta provides an estimated of water per year, of which about are exported to the San Francisco Bay Area, are used locally, and over are exported to the San Joaquin Valley, coastal Central and Southern California.
Sacramento Valley
The Sacramento Valley is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies north of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the Sacramento River. It encompasses all or parts of ten Northern California counties. Although many areas of the Sacramento Valley are rural, it contains several urban areas, including the state capital, Sacramento.
Cardwell v. American Bridge Co.
The American River is a tributary of the Sacramento River in California. It is entirely within the state, and navigable for small steamboats and barges from its mouth on the Sacramento River to the town of Folsom, a distance of . From its confluence with the Sacramento River, vessels starting upon it can proceed to San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean, and thence to adjoining states and foreign countries. It is therefore a navigable water of the United States and, as such, is under the control of the general government in the exercise of its power to regulate foreign and interstate commerce so far as may be necessary to insure its free navigation.
History of Sacramento, California
The first European in the state of California was conquistador Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese explorer sailing on behalf of the Spanish Empire, in 1542; later explorers included Sir Francis Drake and Sebastián Vizcaíno. However, no explorer had yet discovered the Sacramento Valley region nor the Golden Gate strait, which would remain undiscovered until, respectively, 1808 and 1623. A number of conquistadors had completed cursory examinations of the region by the mid-18th century, including Juan Bautista de Anza and Pedro Fages, but none viewed the region as a potentially valuable region to colonize. Neither did Gabriel Moraga, who was the first European to enter the Sierra in 1808 and was responsible for naming the Sacramento River, although he incorrectly placed the rivers in the region. However, Padres Abella and Fortuni arrived in the region in 1811 and returned positive feedback to the Roman Catholic Church, although the church disregarded their finds as they were in conflict with all previous views of the area. The Mexicans, who had declared independence in 1821, shared Spanish sentiments, and the area remained uncolonized until the arrival of John Sutter in 1839.
Sacramento Mountains (California)
The Sacramento Mountains are also named for the Sacramento Wash and Sacramento Valley across the Colorado River across from the range, that drains northwestern Mohave County, Arizona into the Topock Marsh.
Sacramento, California
Before the arrival of the Spanish, the area was inhabited by the Nisenan people indigenous peoples of California. Spanish cavalryman Gabriel Moraga surveyed and named the "Rio del Santísimo Sacramento" (Sacramento River) in 1808, after the Blessed Sacrament, referring to the Eucharist in the Catholic Church. 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." 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. As a result of the California Gold Rush, Sacramento became a major commercial center and distribution point for Northern California, serving as the terminus for the Pony Express and the First Transcontinental Railroad.
Sacramento River
About further downstream, the Sacramento River reaches the Tisdale Weir. During floods, water overtops the weir and flows east into the Sutter Bypass, the first of two major bypass channels that temporarily store and move floodwaters downstream to reduce pressure on the main channel of the Sacramento. The Sacramento River and the Sutter Bypass flow parallel for over , rejoining on the border of Sutter County and Yolo County near Knights Landing. The Feather River, the largest tributary of the Sacramento, joins from the east at Verona directly below the Sutter Bypass. A second flood control structure, the Fremont Weir, diverts flood waters from both the Sacramento and Feather Rivers into the Yolo Bypass, which parallels the Sacramento River down the west side of the valley. Cache Creek and Putah Creek, two major tributaries which formerly joined the Sacramento River from the west, are now intercepted by the Yolo Bypass via man-made channels. The main channel of the Sacramento flows south, forming the Yolo–Sacramento County line.
Sacramento Valley (Arizona)
The Sacramento Wash is the first southerly drainage south of the "Havasu-Mohave Lakes Watershed" entering the east bank of the south-flowing Colorado River. The "Sacramento Wash Watershed" flows south-then-westerly into the Colorado; Kingman lies in the northeast of the "Sacramento Wash Watershed" on the water divide with the "Hualapai Wash Watershed" lying to the east, that flows north into the Colorado River as it enters Lake Mead.
California Aqueduct
The Sacramento River carries far more water than the San Joaquin, with an estimated of virgin annual runoff, as compared to the San Joaquin's approximately . Intensive agricultural and municipal water consumption has reduced the present rate of outflow to about for the Sacramento and for the San Joaquin; however, these figures still vary widely from year to year. Over 25 million people, living both in the valley and in other regions of the state, rely on the water carried by these rivers.
Sacramento Mountains (California)
The Sacramento Mountains are bordered on the west by the Ward Valley which merges southeasterly into the southeast-draining Chemehuevi Valley and Wash. The southeast of the Sacaramento's merge into a range of equal size, the Chemehuevi Mountains. Both ranges are bordered on the east by a southeast-flowing Colorado River which turns back southwest at the Whipple Mountains.
Geography of California
California's geography is largely defined by its central feature—the Central Valley, a huge, fertile valley between the coastal mountain ranges and the Sierra Nevada. The northern part of the Central Valley is called the Sacramento Valley, after its main river, and the southern part is called the San Joaquin Valley , after its main river. The whole Central Valley is watered by mountain-fed rivers (notably the San Joaquin, Kings, and Sacramento) that drain to the San Francisco Bay system. The rivers are sufficiently large and deep that several inland cities, notably Stockton, and Sacramento are seaports.
Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta
The Delta consists of approximately 57 reclaimed islands and tracts, surrounded by of levees that border of waterways. The southwestern side of the Delta lies at the foothills of the California Coast Ranges, while to the northwest sit the lower Montezuma Hills. Most of the Delta lies within Contra Costa, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Solano and Yolo Counties. The total human population of the Delta was 515,264 as of 2000.
Pocket-Greenhaven, Sacramento, California
Pocket-Greenhaven (also known as The Pocket) is a suburban community within the city of Sacramento, California, 5 miles south of downtown Sacramento. It is bordered by Interstate 5 on the east and a semi-circular "pocket" bend in the Sacramento River on the south, west, and north. The three exits into the Pocket-Greenhaven community off Interstate 5 are 43rd Avenue (southbound only), Florin Road, and Pocket/Meadowview Road. Entering the area from the South on Interstate 5, travelers pass a landmark water tower with the words "Welcome to SACRAMENTO AMERICA'S FARM-TO-FORK CAPITAL" painted on it, marking the southern boundary of the city of Sacramento. Pocket-Greenhaven is located in the 95831 Zip code.
The Pocket-Greenhaven neighborhood is in the Southwest area of Sacramento that is now primarily populated by upper, upper-middle, and middle-class families. Original homeowners are generally older and live in Pocket-Greenhaven's periphery, while newer residents are typically younger and reside more centrally. Home construction in the neighborhood began in the early 1960s, and over the years, several noteworthy have resided within the community, including Hollywood Actor Eddie Murphy (whose then-wife Nicole Mitchell Murphy, is a Sacramento native), and members of the Sacramento Kings professional basketball team. Current Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, a resident of Los Angeles County, maintains a home in the Greenhaven section of the district. Former State Senate President and current Sacramento mayor Darrell Steinberg resides in Greenhaven. Delaine Eastin, former Superintendent of Schools for California and Assemblymember from Union City, CA lived in the Pocket section while serving as Superintendent, but now resides in Davis, CA.
Deer Creek (Tehama County, California)
Deer Creek and its tributaries drain . The creek flows roughly southwest for most of its length. Its headwaters are in Lassen National Forest at an elevation of on Butt Mountain in the southern Cascade Range, several miles (9 km) west of Lake Almanor. The creek's upper reaches are through meadows and dense forests. The Lost Creek tributary sources in Lake Wilson and joins Deer Creek along Highway 89, as does Gurnsey Creek (also known as North Fork Deer Creek). After leaving these meadows and broader valleys, Deer Creek flows through a steep rock canyon until it reaches the Sacramento Valley. About after entering the valley, it joins the Sacramento River at an elevation of only , about south-southeast of the small city of Tehama, California.
Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta
In April 2009, the Sacramento River in the Delta was declared the nation's most endangered waterway system by the environmental group American Rivers, due to water shortages caused by the Delta's environmental problems, declining fish populations and aging levees, among other problems.
Mill Creek (Tehama County)
Mill Creek is a large stream in northern California. It is an eastside tributary of the Sacramento River, draining an area of and flowing for . The creek begins in Shasta County, California, but almost immediately flows into Tehama County, California. The creek's source is a thermal spring at an elevation of in Lassen Volcanic National Park. At first, the creek flows roughly south while meandering to the east and west, but the lower two-thirds of the creek flow roughly southwest until it reaches the Sacramento River at an elevation of only , just north of Los Molinos, California.
Water in California
Around 75% of California's water supply comes from north of Sacramento, while 80% of the water demand occurs in the southern two-thirds of the state. The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta Estuary located between San Francisco Bay and Sacramento receives about 40% of California's total precipitation and 50% of its total streamflow. It is a critical hub used by the federal Central Valley Project and California State Water Project to connect water collected and stored in the north regions of the state with aqueducts and canals that transport it to users in the North Bay, South Bay, East Bay, and Greater Southern California. In a typical year, about are exported from the Delta: 67% is delivered by the Central Valley Project, 26% by the State Water Project and the remainder to other federal water project users. Those flows are greatly reduced in drought years. About of water entering the Delta in a typical year flows through the Delta into San Francisco Bay, including in governmentally mandated environmental flows; is used for other environmental purposes, and supplies water to managed wetlands and wildlife preserves.
Central Valley (California)
Runoff from the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers is intercepted in the delta by the state Department of Water Resources through a series of massive pumps, which divert water into the California Aqueduct that runs south along the entire length of the San Joaquin Valley.
In parallel, pumps operated by the Bureau of Reclamation divert water into the Delta Mendota Canal.
The flow of the Sacramento River is further supplemented by a tunnel from the Trinity River (a tributary of the Klamath River, northwest of the Sacramento Valley) near Redding. Cities of the San Francisco Bay Area, also needing great amounts of water, built aqueducts from the Mokelumne River and Tuolumne River that run east to west across the middle part of the Central Valley.
Sacramento River
The Pit River, by far the largest of the three, begins in Modoc County in the northeastern corner of California. Draining a vast and remote volcanic highlands area, it flows southwest for nearly before emptying into Shasta Lake near Montgomery Creek. Goose Lake, straddling the Oregon–California border, occasionally overflows into the Pit River during wet years, although this has not happened since 1881. The Goose Lake watershed is the only part of the Sacramento River basin extending into another state. Unlike most California rivers, the Pit and the McCloud Rivers are predominantly spring-fed, ensuring a large and consistent flow in even the driest of summers. At the lower end of Shasta Lake is Shasta Dam, which impounds the Sacramento River for flood control, irrigation and hydropower generation. Before the construction of Shasta Dam, the McCloud River emptied into the Pit River, which joined the Sacramento near the former mining town of Kennett, submerged when Shasta Lake was filled. The Pit River Bridge, which carries Interstate 5 and the Union Pacific Railroad over the reservoir, is structurally the highest double-decked bridge in the United States (although most of the bridge piers are submerged under Shasta Lake when the reservoir is full). The Upper Sacramento River canyon also provides the route for I-5 and the railroad between Lakehead and Mount Shasta.
Sacramento River Cats
The Sacramento River Cats are a Minor League Baseball team of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and the Triple-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. They are located in West Sacramento, California, and play their home games at Raley Field which opened in 2000.
Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta
The Delta in its contemporary (pre-1850s) state began to form about 10,000 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age. During the Ice Age global sea levels were about lower than today, and the Delta region, as well as Suisun Bay, the Carquinez Strait and San Francisco Bay, were a river valley through which the continuation of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers flowed to the Pacific Ocean. When sea levels rose again, ocean water backed up through the Carquinez Strait into the Central Valley; the combination of the narrow strait and tidal action pushing inland dramatically slowed the current of these rivers and forced them to drop sediment. The early delta was composed of shifting channels, sand dunes, alluvial fans and floodplains that underwent constant fluctuation because of rapidly rising seas – per year. About 8,000 years ago, the rate of sea-level rise slackened, allowing wetland plants to take hold in the Delta, trapping sediment; the growth and decay of these plants began to form the vast peat deposits that make up the Delta islands. The Delta reached a stabilized form similar to its mid-1800s state about 2,000–3,000 years ago.
Immediately before large-scale human development, most of the Delta islands had saucer-like cross sections, with low natural levees flanking a marshy interior "bowl" that flooded intermittently with the seasons and tides. The height of these natural levees, formed from overbank deposits of sediments deposited by annual river floods, ranged from above mean high tide at Sherman Island on the Sacramento River, to at Andrus, Staten and Tyler Islands, located further east near the Mokelumne River. An estimated 60 percent of the Delta flooded for up to two hours each day at high tide; during spring tides or river floods, it was not uncommon for the entire Delta to be under water.
Sports in Sacramento, California
Sacramento hosts some recreational facilities and events. The Jedediah Smith Memorial Trail that runs between Old Sacramento and Folsom Lake grants access to the American River Parkway, a natural area that includes more than of undeveloped land. It attracts cyclists and equestrians from across the state. The California State Fair is held in Sacramento each year at the end of the summer, ending on Labor Day. In 2010, the State Fair moved to July. More than one million people attended this fair in 2001.
Sacramento Valley
Other principal routes in the region include State Route 99, which runs along the valley's eastern edge, roughly parallel to I-5, from Sacramento until its northern terminus in Red Bluff; State Route 20, which traverses the valley from west to east on its route from State Route 1 in Mendocino County to the Donner Pass; State Route 49, named in honor of the California Gold Rush and running through many old mining towns in the foothills of the valley; and State Route 45, which runs along the course of the Sacramento River roughly ten miles (20 km) east of I-5.
Sacramento metropolitan area
The western half of Greater Sacramento is centered on the Central Valley, one of the most vital agricultural areas in the country. The Sierra Nevada and its foothills compose the eastern portion of the region. Yolo County contains a large flood control basin. The Sacramento River and the American River are major rivers that form a deepwater port connected to the San Francisco Bay by a channel through the Sacramento River Delta. Coniferous and oak dominated woodland are prevalent in the Sierra Nevada and the Lake Tahoe area.
Sacramento River
The Sacramento River Deep Water Ship Channel was completed in 1963, and was built to facilitate navigation of large oceangoing ships from the Delta to the port of Sacramento. The channel bypasses the winding lower part of the Sacramento River between the state capital and the Delta thus reducing water travel times. It also serves to discharge floodwaters from the lower end of the Yolo Bypass. Built by the Army Corps of Engineers, the canal is long and is maintained to a depth of .
California State Route 275
State maintenance resumes once again as SR 275 crosses the Sacramento River on the Tower Bridge, a four-lane lift bridge that formerly carried a Sacramento Northern Railroad track in the center. At the east end of the bridge, the roadway becomes Capitol Mall, maintained by the city of Sacramento, and crosses over Interstate 5. Seven blocks later, the main road ends at 9th Street; the last block of Capitol Mall to 10th Street, on which the State Capitol fronts, is a two-lane road with a mid-block traffic circle around a fountain.
Sacramento River
Although just one of thousands of American emigrants that poured into California over the next few years when California became part of the United States, John Augustus Sutter's arrival marked a turning point in the history of the Sacramento Valley, and California as a whole. In 1841, Sutter and his men built a fortress at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers and the Mexican government granted him almost of land surrounding the two rivers. Naming it New Helvetia, he created an agricultural empire in the lower Sacramento Valley, attracting several hundred settlers to the area, and relied on Native American labor to maintain his domain. Sutter had something of a two-faced relationship with the many Native American groups in the area. He was friendly with some of the tribes, and paid their leaders handsomely for supplying workers, but others he seized by force to labor in the fields.
After the Bear Flag Revolt of 1846 and the Mexican–American War, in which California became part of the United States, Sutter and other large landholders in California held on to their properties. In 1848 Sutter assigned James W. Marshall to build a sawmill on the South Fork American River at Coloma, where Marshall discovered gold. Although Sutter and Marshall originally intended to keep the find a secret, news soon broke attracting three hundred thousand hopefuls from all over North America, and even the world, to the Sacramento River in search of fortunes, kicking off the California Gold Rush. People flocked to the region by the Oregon Trail-Siskiyou Trail, California Trail, Southern Emigrant Trail and various land and/or sea routes through the Isthmus of Panama and around southern South America by ship. Steamboats traveled up and down the Sacramento River carrying miners from San Francisco to the gold fields.
As the miners expanded their diggings deeper into the Sierra Nevada and Klamath Mountains, Native Americans were pushed off their land and a long series of skirmishes and fights began that continued until intervention by the state and national governments.
Cumbres de Majalca National Park
Sierra de Majalca is the point of origin of the Sacramento River that flows towards the state capital city. The Sacramento River empties into the Chuvíscar River before reaching Chihuahua.
Sacramento River
The first outsiders to see the river were probably the members of a Spanish colonial-exploratory venture to Northern California in 1772, led by Captain Pedro Fages. The group ascended a mountain, likely in the hills north of Suisun Bay, and found themselves looking down at the delta of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. However, due to their vantage point, neither Fages nor any of his men saw the Sacramento clearly. They assumed that the San Joaquin, coming from the south, was the largest of the merging rivers they saw. In 1808, explorer Gabriel Moraga, on a journey to find suitable sites for the construction of missions, became the first foreigner to see the river clearly. Judging its huge breadth and power he named it "Rio de los Sacramentos", or "River of the Blessed Sacrament". In the following years, two more Spanish expeditions traversed the lower part of the river, the last one in 1817.
Sacramento River (Mexico)
In 1847, a Mexican army was defeated along the river by the U.S. Army during the Mexican–American War. The engagement is known as the Battle of the Sacramento.
Sacramento metropolitan area
It lies in the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada regions of California as well as a small region of Western Nevada. Greater Sacramento is anchored by Sacramento, the political center of California, the nation's most populous state with the largest number of representatives in the U.S. government, home of the California State Capitol and the secondary location of Supreme Court of California and was the original terminus for the First Transcontinental Railroad. Greater Sacramento also contains sites of natural beauty including Lake Tahoe, the largest alpine lake in North America and numerous ski and nature resorts. It is also located in one of the world's most important agricultural areas. The region's eastern counties are located in Gold Country, site of the California Gold Rush.
History of Sacramento, California
The real city of Sacramento was developed around a wharf, called the Embarcadero, on the confluence of the American River and Sacramento River that Sutter had developed prior to his retirement in 1849 as a result of gold discoveries at Sutter's Mill in Coloma. John Sutter, Sr. had replaced himself with his son, John Sutter, Jr., who noticed growth of trade at the Embarcadero and considered it a viable economic opportunity; the port was used increasingly as a point of debarkation for prospecting Argonauts heading eastwards. Sutter, Jr. had military officials William H. Warner and his assistant, William Tecumseh Sherman, survey his father's holdings for a location where he could establish a new city and create the city over a grid of numbered and lettered streets for organizational purposes. A number of businessmen, including millionaire-to-be Samuel Brannan, future California governor Peter Burnett, and George McDougall, brother of future California governor John McDougall, were attracted to the waterfront location. However, Sutter, Jr. and George McDougall disagreed over the terms of the lease of the location, and a trade war erupted between Sutter's Sacramento City and McDougall's new base of operations at Sutterville. Sutter, Sr., who had opposed many of his son's decisions, resumed control of his business affairs after Sutter, Jr. ended the competition between the two cities; trade in the area was biased toward Sacramento City as a result of Sutter, Jr.'s efforts.
Tower Bridge (California)
The Tower Bridge is a Vertical lift bridge across the Sacramento River, linking West Sacramento in Yolo County to the west, with the capital of California, Sacramento, in Sacramento County to the east. It was previously a part of U.S. Route 40 until that highway was truncated to east of Salt Lake City. The bridge is maintained by the California Department of Transportation as part of State Route 275 and connects West Capitol Avenue and Tower Bridge Gateway in West Sacramento with the Capitol Mall in Sacramento.
Cosumnes River
The Cosumnes flows west through Rancho Murieta, an affluent outer suburb of the Sacramento metropolitan area. Two small diversion dams cross the river near Van Vleck Park just upstream from the town. Below Rancho Murieta the Cosumnes flows through an agricultural valley, turning southwest near Sloughhouse. A few miles downstream the Folsom South Canal crosses under the Cosumnes River via an inverted siphon. The Cosumnes continues southwest, passing Sheldon and Wilton, receives Deer Creek from the right, then is crossed by Highway 99 near Elk Grove. Below Highway 99 it enters the nearly Cosumnes River Preserve, which include some of the largest remaining wetlands and riparian areas in the Central Valley. It enters the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta near Mokelumne City, turning west once more to join the Mokelumne on the border of Sacramento County and San Joaquin County.
Natomas, Sacramento, California
Natomas is a community in northwestern Sacramento, in the U.S. state of California. It is the last area of Sacramento that has not been fully developed and has seen major residential development in the 1990s and 2000s. Major growth has been mostly due to Sleep Train Arena, former home court to the Sacramento Kings and now disbanded Monarchs and disbanded Sacramento Knights, located in Natomas. Natomas is generally defined as south of the Sacramento County line, north of the Garden Highway and the American River, west of the Natomas East Main Drain, and east of the Sacramento River. The neighborhood school district is Natomas Unified School District.