attention from visitors second only to the Capitol.
The Pioneers are an association of Califor-
nians who arrived prior to January, 1850. Their
hall has an antiquarian value — especially in a
very accurate register of important events extend-
ing back to A. D. 1650. "Another association,
the Sons of the Pioneers, will become the heirs
of these valuable archives, and perpetuate the
association. The annual business of the city
exceeds twenty-Jive million dollar*.
The State Capitol. — This is the most
attractive object to visitors. It cost nearly
§2,5l)l),i)l)ll. It stands at the west and thrice ter-
raced end of a beautiful park of eight blocks,
extending from L to N street, and from Tenth
to Fourteenth street. Back of the Capitol, but
within the limits of the park and its beautiful
landscape gardening, are the State Printing
Office and the State Armory.
The main entrance to the Capitol is opposite
M street. The edifice was modeled after the
old Capitol at Washington and has the same
massiveness, combined with admirable propor-
tions, and rare architectural perfection and
beauty. Its front is 320 feet and height 80 feet,
above which the lofty dome rises to 220 feet, and
is then surmounted by the Temple of Liberty,
and Powers' bronze statue of California. The
lower story is of granite, the other two of
brick.
Ascending by granite steps, which extend 80
feet across the front, we reach the portico with
ten massive columns. Passing through this, we
stand in the lofty rotunda, 72 feet in diameter.
The chambers and galleries are finished and fur-
nished in richness and elegance befitting the
Golden State. The doors are of walnut and
California laurel, massive and elegant. The
State library has 35,000 volumes. The great
•dome is of iron, supported by 24 fluted Corin-
thian columns and 21 pilasters. Rising above
this is a smaller dome supported by 12 fluted
Corinthian pillars.
The beauty of the whole is equaled in but
few of the public buildings in the country, and
the California laurel with its high polish adds no
little to the charm. The steps leading to the top
of the outer dome are easy, except for persons of
delicate health, and the view to be gained on a
clear day, will amply repay any exertion. The
extended landscape is incomparably lovely.
You are in the center of the great Sacramento
Valley, nearly 450 miles long by 4(1 wide, where
fertile soil and pleasant clime have contributed
to make one of the loveliest pictures to be seen
from any capitol in the world.
Just beneath lies a city with many beautiful
residences, half concealed in the luxuriant ver-
dure of semi-tropical trees. Lovely gardens
enlarged into highly cultivated farms — then,
wide extended plains, on which feed thousands
of cattle and sheep, groves of evergreen oak,
long, winding rivers, and landlocked bays, white
with the sails of commerce, and along the east-
ern horizon stretch the rugged Sierras, with
their lines of arid foot hills, perpetual verdure,
and snowy summits, shining like white sum-
mer clouds in a clear blue sky.
On the west the Coast Range limits the vision
with its indistinct and hazy lines, out of which
the round top of Mount Diablo is quite dis-
tinct. Southward, the eye takes in the valley of
247
the San Joaquin, (pronounced, Wah-keen), with
its rapidly populating plains.
In 1850, a fire left only on â– house standing,
where are now '21 of the principal business
blocks, and in 1854, a second fire nearly de-
stroyed the city, after which lumber was scarce
at $500 a thousand.
In the winter of 1851-2, a flood covered the
whole city, and led to the construction of levees,
which were afterward enlarged. Part of the
city, too, was raised above high-water mark.
Ten years later a flood occurred, with from
eight to ten feet of water in all the parts of the
city not raised, and flooding the first stories of
all houses and stores. In the winter of 1875-6,
the river was three inches higher than ever be-
fore known, yet the city was perfectly safe.
As a distributing point, the commercial ad-
vantages . of the city are second only to San
Francisco. Freight by the Overland route is
here started north or south. Merchants of Ne-
vada, Northern California and Utah secure their
freight from this point with less charges and
greater despatch than from San Francisco, and
all shipments to the mountains or beyond, must
go through this gate. Fruit from the foot hills,
of choicer flavor than that grown in the warmer
valleys, and vegetables, enormous and abundant,
from the rich alluvial soil of the rivers, concen-
trate here to supply the dwellers from the Sierras
eastward. During the summer of 1875 the aver-
age weekly shipment, of fruit alone, to the East,
was 400 tons.
The industries that already give the city
prominence, and not directly connected with the
railroad, are more than can be mentioned.
Among them are the Capital Woolen Mills, sev-
eral carriage, wagon and furniture factories,
several flouring-mills, one of which, the Pioneer,
is the largest in the State, with capacity for pro-
ducing 600 barrels of flour and 950 tons of barley
per day, boiler, general iron and brass works.
Wineries are permanently established and pro-
ductive.
Beet Sugar — is manufactured about three
miles from the city. The works were erected at
a cost of $275,000, and 1,450 acres of land are in
use for the factory. Ninety tons of beets can be
used, per day, yielding about 13 1-2 per cent, of
saccharine matter, while the refuse is mixed
with other feed and used to fatten cattle.
This promises to become one of the chief in-
dustries of California, and the only occasion
where the descriptive powers of Mr. Nordhoff
seem to have failed him, was in the presence
of the machinery of the Johnson process used in
this manufacture.
The sugar-beet does not grow to enormous
size, but the mangel-wurzel continues to grow,
summer and winter, until it attains enormous
size. Southern California is said to have pro-
duced one of 1,100 pounds, and a farmer of So-
noma County, had one (not considering the top),
three feet above the ground. We believe he
fenced around it, lest a cow should get inside of
it and eat out the heart.
The city has a paid Fire Department, and
five newspapers — the Daily and Weekly Record-
Union, the Daily and Weekly Bee, T/ie Sacramento
Valley Agriculturalist (weekly), Sacramento Jour-
nal (German tri-weekly), and The Weekly Res-
cue, the organ of the I. O. G. T.
Sacramento is also an important railroad cen-
ter, second only to San Francisco. Here is the
practical terminus of the California and Oregon
Railroad, which uses the main track of the Cen-
tral Pacific Railroad to Roseville, and is com-
pleted 170 miles north, to Redding. At Redding,
daily stage connection is made for Roseburg, Or.,
275 miles, and thence, by the Oregon and Cali-
fornia Railroad, 200 miles to Portland. Time,
four days ; Fare. $55.00, gold.
The California Pacific runs to Vallejo, 60
miles, at the head of San Pablo Bay, immedi-
ately north of, and connected with San Fran-
cisco Bay. At Vallejo, steamers connect, twice
a day, for San Francisco. The whole distance
is 83 miles. Davisville, Woodland, Knight's
Landing, Vacaville and the Napa Valley, are
reached by this road.
Here, too, is the terminus of the Sacramento
Valley Railroad, the oldest in the State. The
river, also, affords a pleasant route, either to
Northern California, or to San Francisco.
On the upper Sacramento, steamers of light
draft ascend 240 miles to Red Bluff, or by the
Feather River, from its junction with the Sacra-
mento, 65 miles to Marysville, at the confluence
of the Yuba and Feather Rivers.
Below the city an active trade is carried on
with steamers and sloops. The California Steam
Navigation Company have a daily line of steam-
ers leaving Sacramento at ten o'clock a. m., and
reaching San Francisco about six p. m. The
distance is 108 miles. The river does not pre-
sent the picturesque scenery of the Hudson, but
the tourist will be interested at every point,
whether as he looks out over the rich lands
awaiting reclamation, or the thriving villages
and fertile fields on either side, or the islands
well protected by high and broad levees. The
spacious bays — Suisun, San Pablo, and San
Francisco — afford a series of views, in which
the interest is like a good novel, increasing to
the end. Mount Diablo is nearly always in
view. You pass the United States Arsenal at
Benicia, once the rival of San Francisco, and
through the Straits of Carquinez. The United
States Navy Yard, on Mare Island, overlooked by
the town of Vallejo, and the beauty of the ap-
proach to San Francisco, noticed more at length
in connection with the California Pacific Rail-
road, will amply compensate for the difference in
time between the all-rail route via Stockton and
Sh^==§S
te
vx£^ -^_^Ci>-^
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF CALIFORNIA.
I.— Senator Sargent. 2— R. B. Woodward. 3.— Senator sliaron. (Nevada.) 4.— D. 0. Mills.
5.— James C. Flood. 6.— W. C. Ralston. 7.— M. S. Latham. 8.— Gov. Irwin.
tmm &&@ifig rovtuar.
249
the river. The river-boats, however, are not run
with the regularity of the trains, nor are they as
large and comfortable as they were a few years
ago.
Leaving Sacramento on the Central Pacific
Railroad, formerly the Western Pacific, we
reach
Brighton, — 134 miles from San Francisco,
where the Sacramento Valley Railroad leaves
the main track. This road extends to Folsom,
22 miles, where it connects with the Sacramento
Valley and Placerville Railroad, to Shingle
Springs 2b' miles, whence daily stages leave for
Placerville, .38 miles from Sacramento. The old
town of Brighton was on the Sacramento River
opposite the present station, and on the old
Placerville road.
California Wind-Mills. — As you pass
along you notice numerous windmills, of various
sizes and styles, w hirling away to fill reservoirs for
household wants, or irrigate the vineyards or
orchards and gardens, if any there be. They are
common in all the valleys and plains of Cali-
fornia, and numerous in the cities. The sobri-
quet of Stockton is the " Windmill City."
About California farms there is usually no
garden. Perhaps a few vegetables are raised
during the winter. In some localities certain
fruits or vegetables do not grow well, and the
fanner who has twenty or a hundred head of
horses, before his gang-plows, or harvesting his
wheat or barley, has no time for gardening and
prefers to depend upon the daily visits of the
vegetable wagon as well as the butcher. And
among our cosmopolitan people, the only class we
lack is the farming women of the Mohawk Val-
ley, or the Pennsylvania Dutch.
Florin — is 131 miles from San Francisco,
a flag station — side track, store and post-office.
The hard pan is near the surface, and therefore
but little moisture retained from the most
copious winter rains. Trees cannot send down
their roots until this hard pan is broken through
for them.
Elk Grore, — 123 miles from San Francisco.
In early days the hunter here could find large
game without visiting Shasta, Tulare Lake or
the mountains. At the old hotel the sign of the
elk horns invited the traveler, suggesting him a
dish that even then was seldom seen. Beyond,
on the right hand, is some of the best soil in the
State in the low lands, comprising the delta of
the Sacramento, Mokelumne and San Joaquin
Rivers. There are Presbyterian and Methodist
Episcopal Churches in the village.
MeConnell's, — 119 miles from San Fran-
cisco, on the banks of the Cosumne River, a
stream like all others in California, turbid in
winter, and an empty channel in summer.
In California the name "ranche" (a contrac-
tion of the Spanish rancho, which is primarily
the rude lodging-} lace of herdsmen, or an estab-
lishment for raising horses and cattle), has
almost superseded the "hacienda," or farm. Mc-
Connell's Ranche is, however, devoted largely to
stock raising, and on it are kept the finest
imported thorough-bred merino sheep. Sheep
raising is among the most profitable pursuits in
the State, and the w : oolen manufactures of Cali-
fornia are unequaled in whatever line they have
hitherto sought to excel.
Halt — is 112 miles from San Francisco. The
Central Pacific Company are now building a
branch road to the coal mines at lone City,
called
THE AM ADORE BB AS CH BAIB-
BOAD.
lone City — is in a prosperous mining and
farming region, and has recently received new
life from the development of large coal fields.
Sutter Creek, — on this stage route, is 31
miles from Gait, and ranks next to Grass Valley
in Nevada County, as a quartz mining locality.
Here is the famous Amador or Hayward Mine,
where the excavations are now made several hun-
dred feet below the level of tin- sea. It. has been
one of the richest mines in the State, and pro-
duces about $700,000 annually. With irrigation,
fruit growing and agriculture succeed well.
tfackson — was formerly rich in placer mines,
but the prosperous mining interests of today
are in quartz. The soil and climate combine to
produce fruit unexcelled in the State, and large
quantities of wine and brandy are made.
Mokeliun ne Hill — is 11 miles from Gait, and
was the county-seat of Calaveras County until
1867. It was one of the earliest mining settle-
ments. The Gwin and other quartz mines are
now successfully worked. This route to the
Big Trees is traveled but little, except by those
who desire to visit the towns between them and
Gait. The tourist will, undoubtedly, proceed to
Stockton or Lathrop.
Acampo, — only a flag station.
Lodi, — formerly called Mokelumne. A daily
stage leaves Lodi at 2.20 p. jr., for Mokelumne
Hill, 37 miles distant; fare $5.
Just before reaching the village, the Mokel-
umne River is crossed. Lodi is one of a flour-
ishing trio of villages.
)l'ooilliriilf/e — is 2 miles north-west, and
Lockforil, — 4 miles north. This is one of the
best portions of the great valley, across which
one now passes. The soil is a rich sandy loam,
producing abundantly, and the intelligent, ener-
getic people are surrounded with all the neces-
sary appendages of first-class farms. The ever-
green trees have given their name " Live Oaks,"
to a large region in this part of the valley.
Castle — is 97 miles from San Francisco.— a
flag station. The Calaveras River is crossed be-
fore reaching Stockton, but except in winter is
only an empty channel. On either side of the
250
FMM &&€IFI© W&W'SIST,
road will be seen abundant crops, or unmistak-
able promise of them. Much of the land is so
level that the large fields of 100 or more acres
can be completely submerged from either of
their sides.
On the right, entering the town of Stockton,
stands one of the
Insane Asylums — of the State. The other,
recently opened, is located at Napa. The
grounds at this place comprise 130 acres, all
under a high state of cultivation. There are
about 1,300 inmates. The first building passed
is the largest and most imposing, has every
modern convenience, and is occupied by female
inmates. The male inmates occupy the other
buildings.
Stockton — is 91 miles from San Francisco,
and has a population of 13,000. It is 23 feet
above the sea, and the county-seat of San Joa-
quin County. It was laid out in 1818 by Captain
Webber, who named it to commemorate Commo-
dore Stockton's part in the conquest of Califor-
nia. It is two miles from the San Joaquin River,
at the head of Stockton Slough, which is navi-
gable at all seasons for vessels of 250 tons.
The heart of the town was destroyed by fire
in 1849 and again in 1851. It is laid out with
broad streets at right angles, and has street-cars
from the depot to the principal hotels and the
Insane Asylum. " Free busses " also convey
passengers to the Yosemite, Mansion, Grand or
Central, all first-class hotels. The city was once
the exclusive base of supply for a large mining
and agricultural trade which is now diverted, yet
the development of the country has caused a
steady increase of its volume of business. It is
admirably situated to control the trade of the
whole San Joaquin Valley, but needs a ship
canal that will enable ocean vessels to load at its
wharves.
The water supply is from an artesian well,
1,002 feet deep, flowing 300,000 gallons of pure
water daily, the water rising 11 feet above the
surface of the ground. The city is lighted with
gas and has an efficient volunteer fire department.
Two daily and weekly papers, the Stockton In-
ilepewlent and Eveniny Herald, four banks and
large woolen, leather, wood, iron and paper fac-
tories, wholesale and retail stores, and an exten-
sive grain business are the foundations and
measures of the prosperity of the city. The
leather tanned here is considered equal to the
best French, and commands as high a price.
The proximity of iron and coal should make
this city the Pittsburg of the Pacific. It has
fourteen organized churches, some of which
have built houses of worship — Roman Catholics,
Methodists, North and South, German and Col-
ored, Episcopalians, Congregationalists, Baptists,
white and colored Christians (Disciples), and
Jews. Passing in the cars, nothing is seen of
the better residences, of which there are many,
provided with every convenience and comfort.
Excellent public and private schools are the
boast of the people, for, if Caliiornians ever
boast (which they never do), they do not forget
to speak of their schools. Masons, Odd Fellows,
Red Men, Knights of Pythias, Hibernians, Pio-
neers and other societies represent social and be-
nevolent progress. Near the depot, on the left,
may be seen the grounds of the San Joaquin
Valley Agricultural Society.
Heat. — The city has the best climate of the val-
ley. The hot air of the interior is usually tem-
pered by the sea breeze, and the nights are always
cool. The hot and sickly places of California are
never reached by the traveler. In Sacramento
it is said to be hot in Marysville, and in Marys-
ville, one is referred to Oroville for heat, and in
Stockton, men say it is hot at Merced. The sim-
ple fact is that all parts of the Great Central
Basin of California are subject to occasional
north winds — the dread, at once, of man and
beast. They usually lull at night, but continue,
at least, three successive days. The wind hav-
ing swept over hundreds of miles of dry and
scorching plains, breathes as from a furnace, the
mercury marking 110° to 120° in the shade.
One may fancy himself in Egypt or Barbary,
withered and fainting under blasts from the Sa-
hara Desert.
The origin of the name, California, is said to
be from two Spanish words, " caliente fornalo,"
meaning a " heated furnace." This seems plau-
sible. The extreme dryness of the climate, how-
ever, enables men and animals to endure this
heat surprisingly. Sunstrokes are unknown.
Rapid evaporation keeps the pores open, no
perspiration accumulates, the skin is dry and cool,
and a heat 20 to 30 degrees above what would
mark an intensely heated term, in the moister
atmosphere of the Eastern States, produces little
exhaustion in the dry atmosphere of this central
basin. Horses travel frequently 50 to 00 miles a
day without injury, the thermometer marking
100° or over. Stockton has not yet attained
the importance as a railroad center, to which her
position entitles her. A narrow gauge road to
lone City was commenced, but there is no pros-
pect of its early completion. The Stockton and
Copperopolis Railroad extends easterly into Cala-
veras and Stanislaus Counties, the main branch
30 miles to Milton, with a branch at Peters, 15
miles from Stockton, to Oakdale, 34 miles from
Stockton.
To the liia Trees, Calaveras Group.—
The best route to the Calaveras Grove of Big
Trees is via Stockton and Milton. There is
another grove of big trees at Mariposa, which is
best reached from Lathrop and Merced. The
comparative inducements to visit one or the
other, will be stated hereafter, and here will be de-
scribed only the route from Stockton to the Cala-
veras Grove. Cars leave Stockton at 12.35 p. m.,
L-Grizzly Giant, Maripo» Grove. 2.-Three Graces, Calaveras Group . 3.-Scenes in Mariposa Gmve.
4-Trank of Big Tree, Mariposa Grove. 5.-Nat U ral Arch, Big Tree, Mariposa Grove. 6,-Calaveras Gr,u P , «-
Trees.
252
TMS &&CIFW W@W$MMW*
for Milton ; stages leave Milton at 2.45 P. M., and
reach Murphy's at 7 p. m., where the first night
is spent.
The Grove, 15 miles from Murphy's, is reached
the next day at 11 A. M., and those who desire
can leave at 3 p. M. the same day, and return to
Murphy's for the second night. On the foil* iwing
day one may reach San Francisco, or go to Gar-
rote, 45 miles from the Yosemite Valley. To
visit the Calaveras Grove and Yosemite Valley
by this route requires 145 miles of staging. This
route to the Yosemite Valley via Milton, is called
the Big Oak Flat, or Hutching's Route, the
former name from a local point on the road, and
the latter after the man who in past years did
more than any other to make the Yosemite Valley
known, and by whose untiring energy the stage
road to it was opened. It is one of three routes
by which the valley is reached without horseback
riding. It is the shortest route from Stockton or
San Francisco, but it requires more staging than
the other two. To go directly to the valley by
this route, one leaves Stockton for Milton at 12.35
p. M., and spends the night at Chinese Camp, 23
miles from Milton, reaching the valley the second
day after, at 2 p. m. For the other three routes
to the valley, see Lathrop, the next station. The
decision whether to visit the Calaveras or the
Mariposa Grove of Big Trees, substantially de-
termines the route taken to and from the valley.
The considerations that enter into this decision
are as follows : There are seven known groves
of big trees. Of these only the Calaveras and
Mariposa have accommodations for tourists, are
easily accessible and convenient to other points
so as to be visited in comparatively little time
and without large expense. It is true, that the
Tuolumne and Merced Groves are directly on
different routes to the valley, but the number of
trees in these is small, and their size is not great.
In the Tuolumne there are but ten, the largest
only 24 feet in diameter.- In both the Calaveras
and Mariposa Groves are prostrate trunks one-
sixth larger than the largest living trees, which
enable one to realize, as cannot lie done by look-
ing at and walking round living trees, the enor-
mous size of these forest giants. As the tourist
will probably see one of these two groves it may
be well to note for him that
Jn the In the
Calaverntt Grove. Maripnsn Grove.
Number of trees 93 600
Diameter of largest, 3:'. feet. 33 feet.
Circumference of largest living tree,
six feet above the ground. 01 feet. 00 feet.
No. of living trees between 80 and
90 feet in circumference, 1
No. between 7(1 and so feet, C
No. between GO and 70 feet, 1 2
The largest tree yet known in any of the
groves is on King's River, 40 miles from Visalia,
and is 44 feet in diameter.
The Calaveras Grove was the first discovered,
the first opened to tourists, has been long and
well known, has a first-class hotel directly at the
edge of the grove, where a summer vacation may
be pleasantly passed ; the trees all the while
growing on the visitor in size and beauty, as Ni-
agara does on him who tarries there.
Private teams for either the big trees or the
valley, or both, may be had at Stockton, Milton,
or Merced, but unless one's time is absolutely un-
limited, the public conveyance is to be chosen.
By relays of horses these hurry one over the dry
plains, and once in the midst of the charming
scenery of the foothills, one can tarry at pleasure.
The most notable trees in the Calaveras group
are :
The Father of the Forest, which measures 435 feet in
length, no feet in circumference.
Mother of the Forest, — 321 feet high, 00 feet in circumfer-
ence.
Hercules 320 feet high, or, feet circumference.
Hermit 318 feet high, 60 feet circumference.
Pride of the Forest, . 276 feet high, 00 feet circumference.
Three Graces, . . . 295 feet high, 92 feet circumference.
Husband and Wife, . 252 feet high, 00 feet circumference.
Burnt Tree 330 feet long, 97 feet circumference.
" Old Maid," " Old Bachelor," " Siamese Twins," " Mother
and Sons," " Two Guardians."