Picturesque Courtland, in the heart of the Sacramento River Delta, is a slice of Americana. Because it is a little off the beaten path, it remains a town that seems untouched by time. Courtland hosts the popular annual July Pear Fair.
Dubbed the “Bartlett Pear Capitol of the World,” the town has always had a farming base and the wharf was in constant use with famous side-wheel steamboats like the Chrysopolis and Yosemite calling daily. During harvest season plums, pears, peaches, beans, and celery would be shipped. The mail packets Apache and Modoc also docked daily, along with passenger boats, launches, lighters, and bay schooners.
Founder James V. Simms bought 100 acres in the 1870’s and became one of the first grape growers in the Delta. Simms operated a post office, telegraph office, and Wells Fargo Express Agency. Courtland also claims Benjamin Bates as a founder. He bought 730 acres of land in the area, 600 which were at “The Point” at Steamboat Landing on Sutter Island across the river.
The third early settler was Capt. Albert Foster, a former supervisor at the California Navigation Company oversees river steamers. He built the wharf around which the town centered. The Native Sons of the Golden West established a hall in the growing town. Courtland sported an electrical shop, blacksmith, barber shop, mercantile stores, a hotel with a bar, a livery stable, a saloon, the I.V.E.S Hall, and apartments, as well as a small group of commercial buildings around what was called Fisherman’s Wharf. A four-horse stage connecting Sacramento with Walnut Grove and Isleton stopped at the saloon. Chinese workers lived in a thriving section of town, built overhanging the river adjacent to the town.
Chinatown burned twice and was built on more stable land, but little remains today except some former stores, one of them Japanese – the Nishihara Grocery Store. By 1920, Courtland changed from a riverbank town to the town it is today on the land side of the levee. Four of the buildings were jacked up and skidded across the levee. What is now Courtland Market sold everything from boots and sporting goods to ladders and cigars. The Bank of Courtland built the building you can’t miss as you investigate the town. It resembles a Greek temple. The bank closed during the Great Depression but it proudly paid all its creditors in full.
