Category: History

In April of 1959 workers were excavating for a drainage sump on the Brooks Hop Ranch on Grantline Road. The crew reported broken bones and officials were called. There were artifacts but one item measuring 12 inches across and weighing 15 pounds was found to be a tooth from a wooly mammoth and believed to be over 1,000,000 years old. Elk Grove Citizen - April 22, 1959 Sacramento Bee  

The Town of Locke The largest, most complete, example of a rural agricultural Chinese-American community in the United States. It is part of the Sacramento Delta Region south of Sacramento, located just off the levee of the Sacramento River, north of Walnut Grove. Prior to 1915 the area consisted of four buildings and was part of the Locke Ranch known as "Lockeport." The name was later shortened to "Locke." When a 1915 fire consumed the Chinatown District of nearby Walnut Grove, the displaced residents asked the owner of the Locke Ranch for permission to rebuild their own separate town in Lockport. Here, on rented land, the Chinese community proceeded to establish a post office, a school, a theater, restaurants, saloons, food markets, dry goods stores, a church, gambling halls, brothels,…

Sloughhouse is a very small-unincorporated community in the south Sacramento area located roughly 17 miles east-southeast of Sacramento on Route 16, the Jackson Highway. It was a stop on the trail between Placerville and Sacramento/Stockton. The town has a post office with the 95683 zip code that was established in 1916. Jared Sheldon built a roadhouse in the community in the 1850’s and named the community after another building he had built nearby. It is a registered California Landmark. Here is its history. The name was supposed to be Slough House. Jared Dixon Sheldon (1813-1851) had all the land from Grantline Road to the Cosumnes River as part of the Omuchumnes Land Grant that he got from the Mexican government. Sheldon built the first house on the slough. It was…

It can be argued that the United States maybe one of the greatest countries ever created. All based on a document, the Constitution written by forward thinking men many years ago who wanted to create a society where all citizen where treated equal and fair. The ideals are there and for the most part it has been very successful. Unfortunately, Politian’s interpret it in many ways and due to a thirst for power and control, warped values, good intentions, prejudices, and fears, over time some have made some horrendous decisions. One such event was the internment of Japanese. On the morning of December 7, 1941, Japan launched a sneak attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet’s base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, as part of a plan to eliminate any potential challenge to…

The original Foulks house, the oldest remaining original residence in the Elk Grove area was moved to its present site, the Elk Grove Stage Stop and House Heritage Park. This home was constructed in 1853 on a ranch located at Elk Grove Boulevard and Bruceville Road. Slated for demolition in 2004 it was donated to the Elk Grove Historical Society by Frank Stathos, moved there in 2006 and restoration was completed in 2020. It has been made into a small museum highlighting the family. Here is the story of the Foulks family and how everything came to pass....            Foulks Family History: The following was written by Dennis Buscher for the restored Foulks House dedication on December 5, 2020....... It is believed that the Foulks family immigrated to the United…

The Cells of the Prison Ship LaGrange The original jail for Sacramento county was a converted sailing bark (barque), the LaGrange bought from the men and women of the Salem & California Trading & Mining expedition. The LaGrange set sail out from Salem, Massachusetts on 19 March 1849 for the California gold fields with 63 men on board. What is a Barque? A barque is a vessel with at least three masts. The wooden three-masted barque was the most common type of deep water cargo-carrier in the middle of the 19th century. By the end of the eighteenth century, however, the term barque (sometimes, particularly in the USA, spelled bark) came to refer to any vessel with a particular type of sail-plan. This comprises three (or more) masts, fore-and-aft sails on the aftermost mast…

Many of us growing up in Elk Grove ventured out of town and would frequent various spots in the Delta to enjoy tasty dinners with our families or take dates for a bit of river romance and dancing. Two very popular destinations were Al’s Place in Locke, or “Al The Wop” as it was known to us, and the Ryde Hotel for dinners and dancing. The small town of Ryde (four buildings on the levy) is located on the Sacramento River in the Delta. It is across the river and down from Walnut Grove. In the early years the draw to the town was a restaurant, hotel, and speakeasy that many of the rich and famous would sale their yachts and boats to the pier on the river outside the hotel,…

Amador County: Jackson to Plymouth on Highway 49 Gold Mines of Amador - After the gold rush of 1848-1850, miners began to dig into earth and rock to uncover gold imprisoned in quartz rocks' deep veins. The largest vein was the Mother Lode between Yosemite (Oakhurst) and Georgetown in El Dorado County. The 20-mile stretch from the Mokelumne River to the Cosumnes River was the richest, producing some $160 million in gold between 1851 and 1942. (Current value $5 billion) The first hard rock mines were found in Amador City in 1851. The original Minister's Claim and Spring Hill were soon followed by many others; Lincoln (11), South Spring Hill (12), Keystone (13), Original Amador (14), and Eureka. By the 1970's-80's Amador County was working 300+ mines. There were some…