49 Fun Facts About Sacramento

Sacramento sits at the confluence of the Sacramento River and which other river?

The American River is where gold was found at Sutter's Mill in 1848, and the Gold Rush that followed made Sacramento grow rapidly as a supply town.

Which indigenous people lived in the Sacramento area before the Spanish arrived?

The Nisenan and other Native people were made to build Sutter's Fort, and their exploited labor ran the fort's many industries.

Which railroad, financed by four Sacramento merchants, was built eastward from the city over the Sierra Nevada?

The Central Pacific met the Union Pacific at Promontory, Utah, in May 1869, completing the first transcontinental railroad.

Which author visited Hawaii in 1866 as a correspondent for the Sacramento Union newspaper?

Mark Twain's letters from the islands were so popular that he set out on his first lecture tour when he returned.

Which Sacramento-born writer wrote the 1968 essay collection Slouching Towards Bethlehem?

Joan Didion won a Vogue essay contest as a Berkeley senior, and the win took her straight to a job at the magazine.

What Swiss-inspired name did Sutter give his colony?

New Helvetia means New Switzerland, and before the Gold Rush the colony became a refuge for American pioneers crossing the Sierra Nevada.

What did Sacramento offer California's legislature as a home in 1852?

Its courthouse lured lawmakers to Sacramento for good in 1854, ending the capital's hops through three other towns since statehood.

Before Sacramento, where did California's legislature meet in 1853?

Benicia was meant to be called Francisca after General Vallejo's wife, but when Yerba Buena became San Francisco, her second given name was used.

Which city served as California's capital under Spanish rule?

Monterey was taken by the United States in 1846, when Commodore John Sloat raised the American flag over the town during the Mexican–American War.

Which Roman goddess on California's state seal also adorns Sacramento's State Capitol?

Minerva is on the seal because she sprang full-grown from Jupiter's head, just as California became a state without first being a territory.

Which paddle-wheel steamboat that once ran between San Francisco and Sacramento is now a hotel in Old Sacramento?

The Delta King once housed workers building an aluminum plant in Kitimat, Canada, before it was restored and reopened in Sacramento as a hotel in 1989.

Sacramento was the western terminus of which famous mail service?

The Pony Express reached Sacramento in 1860 but lasted only 18 months before the transcontinental telegraph made it obsolete.

Which governor and railroad baron traveled to his 1862 inauguration in a rowboat?

Leland Stanford took office as the Great Flood of 1862 left much of Sacramento underwater, and the state capital soon moved temporarily to San Francisco.

Which US president survived an assassination attempt by Manson follower Lynette Fromme in Sacramento?

Gerald Ford had a pistol pointed at him until Secret Service agent Larry Buendorf grabbed it and Fromme was taken into custody.

The November 1852 fire that burned over 80% of Sacramento is known as what?

The Great Conflagration led Sacramento to rebuild many structures in brick, and masonry construction later helped end its run of devastating fires.

Sacramento's long-standing nickname refers to what feature?

The 'City of Trees' was first used in 1855; ironically the site was first called the 'City of Plains' for its lack of trees.

A 2017 water tower repaint declared Sacramento America's capital of what?

Farm-to-Fork replaced the tower's old slogan, but after more than 4,000 people signed a petition, officials agreed to put both slogans on it.

Which Sacramento-born actress won the Best Actress Oscar for playing Tammy Faye Bakker?

Jessica Chastain went to New York's Juilliard School with help from a scholarship funded by actor Robin Williams.

Sacramento's climate is classified as which type?

Hot-summer Mediterranean heat in Sacramento is often eased by the delta breeze, a sea breeze that blows in from San Francisco Bay.

What name is given to the dense winter ground fog that blankets Sacramento?

Tule fog shrouded Interstate 5 south of Sacramento in 1997 when dozens of vehicles, including nine big rigs, crashed in a pileup that killed five people.

Which river joins the Sacramento to form California's vast delta?

The San Joaquin River and the Sacramento built a delta that was once a vast marsh, but after levees went up and the land was drained for farming, it began to sink.

Which is the oldest public art museum in the western United States?

Crocker Art Museum began as Judge Edwin Crocker's family gallery, and after his death his widow Margaret gave the gallery and its collection to Sacramento.

Who led a 1966 march from Delano to the State Capitol in Sacramento?

Cesar Chavez cast the march as an act of penance, and the marchers reached the Capitol in Sacramento on Easter Sunday.

Sacramento's gold-painted Tower Bridge is what type of bridge?

As a vertical lift bridge, Tower Bridge hoists its center span up between two towers, and a public vote by residents chose its all-gold paint.

Which Oscar-winning actor transferred into the theater program at California State University, Sacramento?

Tom Hanks spent three seasons at a Great Lakes theater festival in Ohio, then dropped out of college and moved to New York City.

The Kings arrived in Sacramento in 1985 from where?

In Kansas City the team became the Kings, because the city's Major League Baseball team had already claimed the Royals name.

In 2013, NBA owners voted against moving Sacramento's Kings to which city?

Seattle was Chris Hansen's destination for the team, but owners kept the Kings in Sacramento after the city pledged public money toward a new downtown arena.

Which tech entrepreneur led the group that kept the Kings in Sacramento in 2013?

Vivek Ranadivé, founder of TIBCO Software, had to sell his stake in the Golden State Warriors before he could buy a majority of the Kings.

The Sacramento Monarchs, champions in 2005, played in which league?

The WNBA's Monarchs folded after the Maloof family chose to focus on the Kings, and the league then sought investors to move the team to the Bay Area.

Which MLB club began playing temporarily in West Sacramento in 2025?

The Athletics came to West Sacramento after 57 seasons at the Oakland Coliseum, and as of 2026 they were approved to move to Las Vegas for 2028.

What did Sacramento Republic FC win in its debut 2014 season?

The USL title came in the club's first season, but its plan to join MLS was put on indefinite hold in 2021 when lead investor Ron Burkle pulled out.

What is the nickname of Sacramento State's athletic teams?

The Hornets' football team joined the Mid-American Conference as a football-only member in 2026, moving up to the top FBS level of college football.

Which California governor lived in Sacramento's Governor's Mansion for only a few months in 1967 before moving out?

Ronald Reagan's move left the historic mansion without a governor in residence until 2015, when Jerry Brown moved in after a renovation.

Which director set her solo debut Lady Bird in her hometown of Sacramento?

Greta Gerwig's first draft of Lady Bird ran about 350 pages, and she whittled it down to the parts that felt essential to the story.

Which music retail chain was founded and based in Sacramento?

Tower Records took its name from Sacramento's Tower Theatre building, which housed the drugstore where founder Russ Solomon first sold records.

Which of these rock bands comes from the Sacramento area?

Deftones kept going after bassist Chi Cheng was left in a coma by a 2008 car crash, bringing in Quicksand bassist Sergio Vega in his place.

What animal does Leap, the giant red sculpture in Sacramento International Airport's Terminal B, depict?

The Rabbit was chosen so that it would seem to have leapt into the terminal from the grounds outside, and it dives toward a granite suitcase on the baggage-claim floor.

Which airline was the dominant carrier at Sacramento International Airport as of 2024?

Southwest built its biggest Sacramento schedule ever for 2025, adding daily red-eye flights to Baltimore and Orlando and up to 109 departures on peak days.

Sacramento's three light-rail lines are Blue, Gold and which color?

The Green Line opened in 2012 as the first phase of a planned light-rail extension from downtown Sacramento to Sacramento International Airport.

Which group did rescuers from the Sacramento Valley set out to save in 1847?

Survivors and rescuers reported that starving members of the Donner Party resorted to cannibalism, and Donner Lake and Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada are now named for the group.

In 2010, the California State Fair in Sacramento moved to which month?

July was picked because Sacramento schools start in August, but after complaints about summer heat, organizers voted in 2025 to move the fair to the fall from 2027.

Gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in 1848 in which town northeast of Sacramento?

The Coloma gold find set off a rush that undermined John Sutter's businesses, as crowds of miners overran his land.

The Jedediah Smith Memorial Trail runs from Old Sacramento to which lake?

Folsom Lake swallowed the Gold Rush mining town of Mormon Island when the new dam's reservoir filled in 1955.

Which almond cooperative is headquartered in Sacramento?

Blue Diamond Growers began in 1910 as the California Almond Growers Exchange, and the blue diamond label it put on its almonds later became its name.

Sacramento's historic Japantown once stood where which grand promenade is today?

Capitol Mall was built after 1950s redevelopment cleared the neighborhood, uprooting Japanese Americans who had returned after their wartime incarceration.

After the great flood of 1862, how did Sacramento protect its downtown from future floods?

Raising the street level left many buildings' original ground floors below the new streets, creating the basements known as the Sacramento Underground.

The Sacramento River, California's largest, begins near which mountain?

Mount Shasta is near the river's start, and farther downstream Shasta Dam cut salmon off from their mountain spawning streams.

Which future Civil War general helped survey Sacramento and lay out its street grid in 1848?

William T. Sherman, then an army lieutenant, assisted Captain William Warner on the survey for John Sutter Jr., which numbered north–south streets and lettered east–west ones.

Which former NBA All-Star point guard served as mayor of Sacramento from 2008 to 2016?

Kevin Johnson fought to keep the Kings when their owners agreed to sell to an out-of-town buyer, lining up local investors to make a rival offer.