I moved to Sacramento after the 5^th grade and my family has primarily lived there ever since. Like all city inhabitants, residents of Sacramento live each day with the realities of the natural setting. The city is embraced by two rivers where area residents swim, fish, and sail up and down the waters of the American River. Low flow in the hot summer months causes concerns about rapid water level rise during the rainy season and when the Sierra Nevada snow-melt cascades down the mountain into the flat valley (Mitchell, 1994).

   Sacramento is part of an agricultural processing center. Famous commodities exported include tamatoes grown on valley farms and almonds processed in plants. Areas of the city are the sites of industrial and military facilities that once brought hundreds of thousands to work and live in the community and also polluted the soil and water (Castaneda & Simpson, 2013).

   It was first inhabited by native peoples, who created their own distinct tribal cultures in the area, then explored by Spain and carved up into Mexican land grants. Sacramento started as a gateway to the gold fields of the Sierra, which made the settlement an instant city on the banks of the Sacramento River. As a railroad hub, Sacramento provided industrial jobs and created a food-processing and packaging center that drew from the produce of the fields, orchards, and farms of the Valley (Castaneda & Simpson, 2013).

   It had a rising significance as the capital city of the growing state of California. Although its most dynamic population surge took place after World War 2, the Sacramento region’s unique sense of place and interaction with its surrounding environment was not often understood by many state residents. Human interaction with nature has been a central theme in Sacramento’s history (Scott, 2020).

   A combination of location, entrepreneurial risk-taking, and the urge to be at the center of things led people to this early boom-town. Settlement soon evolved into a city, but the Sacramento region was not conductive to the development of urban life. Fires sparked in the wooden buildings and fueled by the oppressive heat of summer, devastated the community while waterborne diseases caused inhabitants to flee (Mitchell, 1994).

   Sacramentans raised the city grade rather than abandon what had been chosen in panic. Citizens taxed themselves nearly to urban death to pay for the ambitious street raising above the floodwaters. Railroads transformed the nature of the American River and erected stronger new levees. This created a symbiotic relationship between Sacramento and the fertile farmland. Agriculture became a staple source of income, with fields providing millions of tons of rice, hops, and other grains for the city’s processing plants. Orchards, groves, and farms transferred large quantities of fruits, nuts, and vegetables to Sacramento’s food-processing, boxing and shipping enterprises (Scott, 2020).

   Noise and pollution increased as a result of the railroad. Although it destroyed and altered the lands around it, the railroad also helped to preserve the city and the rivers from complete destruction. The environment was harmed through congestion, pollution, landscape degradation and space allocation. But it also created and encouraged more balanced, sustainable human-nature relationships. Effective action of the federal government was a critical element in shaping Sacramento’s environment (Castaneda & Simpson, 2013).

   New people meant additional demands on outdated energy systems. The American River Parkway attempted to preserve the ecosystem’s diverse wildlife and flora. The riverbank, once a railroad property, was one of the first transformed by the urban renewal and historic preservation policies of the federal government. Reducing or undoing some of the ecological damage of the past, living more harmoniously with the natural environment, and conserving resources has been written into Sacramento’s daily existence by law and public sonsensus (Castaneda & Simpson, 2013).

   The environmental movement and increased interests in historical preservation and heritage tourism caused a rethinking of how the Sacramento region allocated its public space and resources. Community loss of trees gave way to efforts to control the rivers and to build the city. A restful and memorial-filled park took shape around the state capitol as later generations would call for green spaces amidst the relentless grid of concrete (Mitchell, 1994).

   The women’s rights movement of the 1960s emerged from the experiences of the previous two decades. During World War 2, the shortage of male workers opened new opportunities for women in California’s shipyards and aircraft plants. Renewed appreciation for the virtues of living in Sacramento’s downtown has refurbished old neighborhoods and created new venues for entertainment and dining. Modern efforts of restoration focus on the streets and environments once used by businesses and the railroad (Scott, 2020).

References:

Castaneda, C. J., & Simpson, L. M. A. (Eds.). (2013). River City and Valley Life: An Environmental History of the Sacramento Region. University of Pittsburgh Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjs7n

Mitchell, M. D. (1994). Land and Water Policies in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Geographical Review, 84(4), 411–423. https://doi.org/10.2307/215756

Scott, J. C. (2020). From Jennies to JATO: World War I, Sacramento, and the Ascent of an “Air-Minded” California Community. California History, 97(3), 122–158. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48735760