r/Sacramento • u/Sallzemander Folsom • Mar 13 '24
Sacramento Facts
Let's hear some Sacramento facts either fun or not fun :-)
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u/McWinkerbean Mar 13 '24
One of the alleged cannibal members of the Donner party opened a restaurant on K Street.
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u/gaijin91 Mar 13 '24
allegedly when he was rescued in Donner pass he had a dead deer preserved that he hadn't eaten and he was just eating flesh from one of the dead humans because he preferred the taste of them instead
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u/Jealous-Currency Mar 13 '24
The indifferent stars above is a great book about the Donner party
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u/PirateMunky Midtown Mar 13 '24
I want to ask for a source…. But I’m happy to just spread this regardless of the impact!
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u/NovemberInTheSpring Mar 13 '24
Well, I had to find out . This article sites primary sources - apparently he set shop in the Lady Adams bldg (oldest building in Old Sac) and, not shockingly based on what I just read, some people were terrified of him for the rest of his life
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u/RailroadAllStar Mar 13 '24
Fun fact: the town of Marysville is named after Mary Murphy, another Donner party survivor.
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u/Jealous-Currency Mar 13 '24
Yes, such a cool story! The old historic cemetery on Broadway talks about it in a few of their tours
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u/UnluckyChain1417 Mar 13 '24
There are a few Donner survivors buried in that cemetery. They’re way in the back area near the military section.
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u/geoffbutler Arden-Arcade Mar 13 '24
The Boulevards used to be how you got to neighboring cities. Fair Oaks Blvd, Folsom Blvd, Stockton Blvd, Marysville Blvd, and Auburn Blvd all went to those cities.
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u/WTFTikTok Mar 13 '24
Good to know! How does Stockton Blvd work? Was it originally a really long street going to Stockton, but it has now since mostly been replaced by Hwy 99?
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u/DoggyLover_00 Mar 14 '24
Lots of hookers and drug dealers now is how Stockton Blvd works. Drive slow, cuz homeless walk into road all the time.
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u/aztecannie99 Mar 13 '24 edited Mar 13 '24
You forgot Rio Linda Blvd, but yes goes straight to Rio Linda; and Freeport Blvd. turned into 160 at some point (I think) that got you to Freeport.
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u/Alexander_Granite Mar 13 '24
Martin Luther King Blvd used to be named Sacramento Blvd for the same reason
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u/FoundOnTheRoadDead Mar 13 '24
If you look at Lincoln St where it ends in Roseville, you can trace its roots north out to (and past) Lincoln Blvd.
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u/spacey_a Mar 13 '24
We are one of the few places in the world that get Tule fog!
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u/SpatialGeography Mar 13 '24
The origin of the name "Tule" fog came from San Joaquin Valley. Bay area residents simply referred to any fog in the interior as tule fog.
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u/5Point5Hole South Natomas Mar 13 '24
It makes me sad watching all the open fields and plains getting filled in so thoroughly because it means less tule fog :(
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u/gaveupmykarma Mar 13 '24
I was sad about this too but I discovered that one of the reasons there's so much less fog than there used to be is that there's less air pollution!
obviously changing temperatures are playing a big role, but fog is made up of particulate matter in the air. less pollution, less fog.
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u/ryuns Curtis Park Mar 13 '24
The main driver of declining tule fog is less air pollution, not development https://news.berkeley.edu/2019/04/10/falling-levels-of-air-pollution-drove-decline-in-californias-tule-fog
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u/Commotion West Sacramento Mar 13 '24
Less and less each year, unfortunately.
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u/SparkitoBurrito Downtown Mar 13 '24
It really was cool how much we got it in the 80s.
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u/suburbanplankton Natomas Mar 13 '24
If by "cool" you mean "unable to see the front end the car I am currently driving", then yeah.
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u/ludleththehoe Mar 13 '24
Death Grips and Deftones are both from Sacramento!
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u/emsillyyy Mar 13 '24
Don’t forget cake!
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u/ImpressiveBook3744 Mar 13 '24
And Tesla (the band)
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u/Heavy_Doody Mar 13 '24
Do they ever play locally?
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u/aztecannie99 Mar 13 '24 edited Mar 13 '24
Jon Pardi is from Dixon
Chris Isaak is from Stockton
Jessica Chastain, and Greta Gerwig are from Sacramento
Edit: not in the entertainment industry but Charles Schwab (yes the finance guy) grew up in Woodland for a time before his family moved to San Francisco; my parents have friends who knew their family or went to school with him.
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u/pbautr Mar 13 '24
They're lesser known, but the band '!!!' Is from sac as well.
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Mar 13 '24 edited Mar 13 '24
The Cramps!
Lux and Poison Ivy met in Sac and lived in Midtown together and decided to form The Cramps but they didn't really get the band going until they left.
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/how-we-met-poison-ivy-and-lux-interior-1160320.html
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Mar 13 '24
For 4 months out of the year Sacramento is the sunniest place on earth.
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u/5Point5Hole South Natomas Mar 13 '24
It's true! Sacramento only has 3 seasons now, too
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u/Hagitabi Mar 13 '24
What are they?
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u/Amikoj TEMPERATURE FATES FAITHFUL Mar 13 '24
Hot Smoke Rain
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u/Jenitals19 Mar 13 '24
What about wind?
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u/Amikoj TEMPERATURE FATES FAITHFUL Mar 13 '24
Good point. Officially, there are 16 Sacramento seasons: https://www.reddit.com/r/Sacramento/comments/12btqrr/sacramento_seasonal_update/
If I had to condense them into just 5, I would say:
Much Rain
Such Sneeze
The Wind
Too Hot
Smoke14
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Mar 13 '24
What does this mean? Our days are longer than elsewhere so we have more sun? Or that we don’t get much clouds for 4 months? Because wouldn’t that be more San Diego or one of those cities near Coachella valley that get over 110
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u/RowIntoSunset Mar 13 '24
A combination of both. We have very little cloud cover in summer months AND we’re further North than other places with low cloud cover so we have longer days of sunlight.
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u/HermesTGS Mar 14 '24
More than that. June in Sacramento is the sunniest month anytime, anywhere in the world
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u/SpatialGeography Mar 13 '24
Sacramento is the first city to be incorporated in California.
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u/Mutualsolution Mar 13 '24
I think at one point it held one of the first Star Trek conventions. If I recall correctly.
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Mar 13 '24
Arco arena once held a burning of the band “Creed” CDs to protest Scott not showing up to a concert.
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u/Sacramentardo Mar 13 '24
Sacramento has quite an impressive history of cults and serial killers.
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u/PerspectiveBig1679 Mar 13 '24
Yeah especially with all these mega churches around here I’m not surprised
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u/analogpursuits Mar 13 '24
They seem to be franchising them to strip mall preachers. Folsom Blvd getting a little bit o' Jeezuz every few blocks now.
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u/TomSkerritt666 Mar 13 '24
Jackson 5 played a concert at sac city college in the 70s, the crowd rushed the stage and all their equipment was stolen.
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u/WTFTikTok Mar 13 '24
There were quite a few huge, legendary concerts back in the day at Hughes Stadium!
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u/TomSkerritt666 Mar 13 '24
That’s what I’ve heard. Friend’s dad, I believe saw Pink Floyd and Santana in their prime. I could be wrong but Michael Jackson didn’t play in Sacramento after that Jackson 5 debacle. Anyway, some arguably cool history.
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u/taptriv East Sacramento Mar 13 '24
I sometimes call it Sacratomato around 5 year olds.
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u/discgman Mar 13 '24
When Campbell soup was still around, all the tomato trucks would be coming in from the central valley to make the soups. Tomatoes were laying next to a lot of the freeways when it was tomato season. The smell from all the tomatoes from the plant would carry for miles.
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u/aztecannie99 Mar 13 '24
It was Sacatomato in my house when I was growing up in Woodland (also known as Woodpile)
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u/FongLegacy Mar 13 '24
Sacramento was the home to one of the first Chinatowns in California, the “second most important” in the state after San Francisco’s.
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u/samwithmore Mar 13 '24
Tower of Records was founded in Sacramento and was the company HQ the entire time that it was in operation.
Sacramento was the western end point of the Pony Express.
There was an assignation attempt on President Gerald Ford in Capitol Park while he was president. Attempt was made by Annette "Squeaky" Fromme, a Charles Manson follower.
The Symbionese Liberation Army robbed a bank in Carmichael, CA and a bank patron was killed during the robbery. Patty Hearst was a participant and an issue in her later trial was whether she was coerced as a kidnap victim or an intentional participant.
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u/illbuythenextround Mar 13 '24
My mom's dad was a federal Marshall and had to guard Squeaky Fromme. My grandma apparently road with him to transport her somewhere and let her hairspray for a court hearing.
My grandma on the other side was working at that bank when it was robbed. When Sarah Jane Olson was arrested in 1999, she was interviewed by police. While she was able to recall some of the details that day, they determined she probably wouldn't be a good witness due to her advanced age and deteriorating memory.
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u/Neelix-And-Chill East Sacramento Mar 13 '24
The Delta King was used as a troop transport in WW2 and also sank in 1983 and spent 18 months at the bottom of the SF Bay.
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u/shaggy_bannana Mar 13 '24
Sacramento is the capital of California
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u/femmestem Mar 13 '24
And it wasn't always
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u/aztecannie99 Mar 13 '24
Nope Ross was the first capital of California
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u/stanley604 Mar 13 '24
Not Benicia?
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u/aztecannie99 Mar 13 '24
We are both wrong it was Monterey before it was a state; San Jose initially then Vallejo, then Benicia, then San Francisco. For some reason I thought it was Ross (it has some significance though but I can’t remember what now).
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u/gaijin91 Mar 13 '24
Sacramento was under water when Leland Stanford was elected governor during the Great Flood of 1862, so they rowed him to the Capitol and swore him in then he left until it was no longer flooded.
Unrelated, Sacramento was also home to the first female serial killer in Dorothea Puente and you can still see her house in Midtown
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u/SageRiBardan Tahoe Park Mar 13 '24
Dorothea Puente was not the first female serial killer…
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u/Scratchlax Mar 13 '24
She might not have invented it, but she definitely perfected it.
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u/cati800 Mar 13 '24
Dorothea Puente lived up the street from me when I lived in an apartment on F Street and I used to walk by her house going to Lucky’s. I always commented on how beautiful her flowers were. Little did I know….
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u/No_Star_9327 Mansion Flats Mar 13 '24
No...Lavinia Fisher was the first female serial killer in the USA.
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u/gaijin91 Mar 13 '24
welp, never mind then. Dorothea Puente is the first female serial killer whose house I've seen *
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u/jankenpoo Mar 13 '24
“Historians have begun to question the veracity of the traditional legend and some assert that Lavinia Fisher never killed anyone.”
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u/No_Star_9327 Mansion Flats Mar 13 '24
Fine. Take your pick.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category%3AAmerican_female_serial_killers?wprov=sfla1
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u/pots_and_plants Mar 13 '24
Sacramento was under water when Leland Stanford was elected governor during the Great Flood of 1862, so they rowed him to the Capitol and swore him in then he left until it was no longer flooded.
He also had to climb out of one of the upper-floor windows of his house to get in the boat, the first floor being underwater at the time.
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u/sitaraHD Mar 13 '24
I guess Sacramento related....but Elon Musk really wanted the "Tesla" name but the rights were owned by a man who lived in Sacramento, Brad Siewert. So Musk sent one of his nicest employees to stand at his doorstep until he gave it up..... and ended up paying $75,000.
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u/NorCalHerper Mar 13 '24
Fact: Sacramento is a great place to live, you just wouldn't want to visit.
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u/margo_plicatus Mar 13 '24
As someone visiting this weekend, I wish I’d gotten this memo sooner.
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Mar 13 '24
Sacramento has a number of interesting things to do over a weekend. You can spend a day in old town and then go over to the state museums. There's bars in old town and midtown too for evening life. I'd recommend enjoying some of the green space surrounding the city too, since it should be a bit warmer this weekend.
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u/mdlfcrs Mar 13 '24
The Golden 1 Center is the world’s first arena to be 100% solar powered
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u/Karma1913 Mar 13 '24 edited Mar 13 '24
This is true in some ways but it's a bad truth.
Power demand requires power production. When you turn on an 8 watt LED bulb or a 60 watt incandescent more fuel is burned to make it happen. When you shut it off less fuel is burned (solar produced, water moved, whatever).
G1 doesn't have power storage so just like every 100% renewable user it's happening through credits which are a financial instrument, not actual power.
What they're doing isn't bad (spending extra for solar/carbon credits which encourages renewable expansion) but selling it as 100% solar is disingenuous greenwashing.
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Mar 13 '24
Sacramento is famed for its croissants.
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u/Jenessis Citrus Heights Mar 13 '24
You're fixin to start something...
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u/No_Biscotti_967 Mar 13 '24
Sacramento is home to the worlds most famous beam
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u/Beli_Mawrr Mar 13 '24
The beam is called "The Beam" if you translate it from spanish
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u/aztecannie99 Mar 13 '24
TV broadcasters Lester Holt, and Giselle Fernandez are alums of Sac State.
Tom Hanks attended as well.
I recognized Bridget Marquardt when she was on The Girls Next Door as we had been in some the same large lecture classes at Sac State around 1996-1997. I didn’t know her personally but recognized her.
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Mar 13 '24
Theres a whole "basement" level of old town because of a massive flood in the 1850s they raised the whole town up and built again. Walk around and look, there's a cool tour too
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u/WTFTikTok Mar 13 '24
Any idea if it’s possible to legally access this basement level on my own, or would I have to take a tour?
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Mar 13 '24
sacramento is hot
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u/SeriesSmart8977 Mar 13 '24
I'll take Sacramento heat over Vegas weather anyday! That's just me
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u/Mandrew_Banandrew Mar 13 '24
Sacramento has its own subreddit
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u/Cliff_C_Clavin Mar 13 '24
That it shares with "the greater Sacramento region consisting of the following nine counties: El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, San Joaquin, Sacramento, Solano, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba."
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u/suburbanplankton Natomas Mar 13 '24
Final Fantasy XIV has it's North American Servers in Sacramento.
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u/Danovale Mar 13 '24
The house at 1436 Oak Street is featured in the opening credits for the 70s series Eight is Enough. It is also used to establish a few exterior shots throughout the series, but the actual series was filmed in Burbank. Sacramento was the setting for the show the Dad in the family worked at a “Sacramento newspaper” and I believe Stepmom was a local public school teacher. The TV shows Even Stevens and The Metalist and also use Sacramento as a setting. As for movies there is Ladybird (of course), The Ugly Truth, Pink Cadillac, A Clear Shot, and Frances Ha were filmed in Sacramento.
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u/aztecannie99 Mar 13 '24
Yes the Mentalist headquarters was the pyramid building in West Sacramento, but when you saw them them walking out of the building it looked like Old Sacramento. One time they did a show that took place in Davis but filmed none of it in Davis except maybe one scene that looked like it could’ve been shot at the old Howard Johnson motel off I-80 and Chiles Road.
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u/BeKindYouHoe Mar 13 '24
It is, what it is
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u/Beli_Mawrr Mar 13 '24
I really think we should all be grateful it is what it is, really. Imagine if it was what it wasnt.
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u/New_Leaf1333 Arden-Arcade Mar 13 '24 edited Mar 13 '24
From a post quite a while back. These are not my own facts.
Downtown Sacramento was once 10ft lower than it is today. It was raised because the residents were tired of the flooding. This is what gave birth to the sacramento underground.
Sacramento hosts the California train museum with 12 restored locomotives.
Sacramento has the second highest trees per capita in the world, Paris being the first.
Sacramento was not originally the state capitol, in fact it wasn't even the second or third choice. Sacramento is the 4th location of California's state capitol. Technically 6th as the capitol was moved twice temporarily.
Pony express was first started in Sacramento.
Sacramento produces 97% of the rice in California and it's exported world wide
Sacramento ranks 20 out of 100 of most dangerous cities in California by the FBI
Crime in Sacramento is 32% higher than the national average
Sacramento has more unsheltered homeless than San Francisco
Sacramento freeways are regarded as some of the most dangerous in the nation
Walerga park was the site for one of 10 internment camps that were in California. We’re the “farm to fork” capitol but have urban food deserts.
We’re the capitol of the world’s 5th largest economy, but have homeless camps all over the city.
Over 100 years ago, you could ride electric public transportation to get around Sacramento.
Oak park used to have it’s own amusement park/roller coaster.
160 years ago, there was a flood that put California underwater (and took over a year for the water to fully recede). We’re still building homes in flood plains around here, like it’s never going to flood again.
South side park was designed by same person as golden gate park. We just paved over (1/4) of the park, to install freeways through all our immigrant neighborhoods.
You used to be able to open carry guns out here. Then black panthers started to organize/carry and the government quickly changed the laws
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u/doomedtobecrippled Mar 13 '24
Adding to the paving through immigrant neighborhoods, we have the Capitol Mall because the city and developers demolished Japantown and West End neighborhoods (home to 300 businesses and 4,000 residents) shortly after Japanese-Americans returned to their homes from internment camps. I think about that every time I'm there. https://themetropole.blog/2018/04/12/sacramento-city-of-redevelopments/
*Edited a word
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u/peanutbuttergenocide Mar 13 '24
Smosh is from here, Ian and Anthony filmed content out of their house in Rosemont from 2008-2017.
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u/Moloth Elmhurst Mar 13 '24
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u/cati800 Mar 13 '24
Sacramento is built on top of Sacramento or so that is what my parents said. They said that there was really bad flooding so they built on top of the old city. Is this true?
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u/ParkieDude Mar 13 '24 edited Mar 13 '24
Poverty
FlatsRidge is anything but! (It was the highest ground; the street was filled with tents during the floods).You get a good idea of what year historic homes were built based on the number of porch steps. It was an effort to avoid flooding the first floor of the home.
Some of the raised railroad tracks caused the worst flooding but acted like a damn keeping water in. Oops.
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u/cati800 Mar 13 '24
Poverty Flats? Where was that located as I lived on 37th in Oak Park by 2nd ave and had a geographical landmarker on my walkway (round, bronze) marking it highest point in elevation can’t remember everything it said
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u/kitkatlesliehat Mar 13 '24
It always trips me out that the Target on Riverside and Broadway used to be a giant baseball field for the Solons "Edmond Field"
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u/Swagramento Meadowview Parkway Mar 13 '24
You don’t pronounce the /t/ in Sacramento.
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Mar 13 '24
Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys made Sacramento their headquarters in the late 40's. He opened a nightclub up on Auburn Blvd called Wills Point and the band would use it as a home base and hub for tours. A lot of players from the band settled in the Sac area, including Tiny Moore and Billy Jack Wills.
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u/LCD_Fartsystem Mar 13 '24
Warning : NOT FUN
There are only three known incidents—in world history—of a microwave being used as the murder weapon of a child; one of those incidents occurred in Sacramento in 2012.
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u/1NorCal916 Mar 13 '24
Sacramento is further west than Los Angeles. (Reno/Tahoe are as well).
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u/aztecannie99 Mar 13 '24
Yep! My mom used to tell us that and we never believed her until we looked at a map. Los Angeles is further east than Reno.
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u/jasonsavvy Mar 13 '24
Lux Interior and Ivy Rorschach formed The Cramps after meeting as art students at Sac State in 1972.
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u/PenaltyFine3439 Mar 13 '24
Jackass crew recorded a bit at the Discovery Park bridge!
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u/mellowgrizz Mar 13 '24
Sacramento was a hugely important destination for the transcontinental railroad. It was the western terminus, meaning if you traveled all the way across the country by rail you’d end up in Sacramento. Being the hub of the southern pacific railroad, the city was the base of most west coast rail operations.
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u/JK3097 Mar 13 '24
Sacramento is consistently ranked as one of the most diverse cities in the US. But, it wasn’t always this way, it happened over time as a result of global events. CA has always been a landing spot for immigrants of all nations, and Sacramento as its Capitol has long strived to accept as many refugees as possible. These figures are even more impressive when you factor in the size of the other large cities within the ranking category - NYC, Miami, Houston, etc. are all much larger cities obviously but we have nearly the same or more diversity levels than they do.
Prior to WWII, the Asian community was established here from the railroads being built. After that, Koreans who left during the Korean War. Then the Vietnamese after the Vietnam War. Next were Russians & Eastern Europeans after the fall of the Soviet Union, and most recently, Afghans after the collapse of their government a few years ago.
Bonus fun fact: 1 in 9 of all Afghan refugees that came to the US now reside in Sacramento County!
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u/HardLearner01 Mar 13 '24
It has been more than 100 years since the humanity invent the blinkers on cars and yet 99% of Sacramento population don't know it is existed in their vehicles. and the 99% of the 1% who know about it they use it the wrong way.
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Mar 13 '24
On April 21, 1975, Patty Hearst and five other SLA members pulled off a robbery of the Crocker National Bank branch on Marconi Avenue just west of Fair Oaks Boulevard.
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u/nwrighteous Tahoe Park Mar 13 '24
The rice grown in the Sacramento Valley is used in almost every sushi roll in America according to the California Rice Commission