Editing Sacramento River (section)

==History==
===Native Americans===
The Sacramento River and its valley were one of the major Native American population centers of California. The river's abundant flow and the valley's fertile soil and mild climate provided enough resources for hundreds of groups to share the land. Most of the villages were small. Although it was once commonly believed that the original natives lived as [[tribe]]s, they actually lived as [[Band society|bands]], family groups as small as twenty to thirty people.<ref>{{cite web
 |last        = Beck
 |first       = Steve
 |url         = http://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/485/files/sutter%20and%20the%20native%20peoples.pdf
 |title       = John Sutter and Indigenous Peoples of the Lower Sacramento Valley
 |publisher   = California State Parks
 |work        = Sacramento Historic Sites Association
 |access-date  = August 8, 2010
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20110224082200/http://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/485/files/sutter%20and%20the%20native%20peoples.pdf
 |archive-date = February 24, 2011
}}</ref> The Sacramento Valley was first settled by humans about 12,000 years ago, but permanent villages were not established until about 8,000 years ago.<ref>{{cite web
 |url          = http://www.sacramentohistory.org/resources_essay.html
 |title        = Sacramento Valley Transportation
 |publisher    = Sacramento History Online
 |access-date  = August 8, 2010
 |url-status   = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20100929171852/http://sacramentohistory.org/resources_essay.html
 |archive-date = September 29, 2010
}}</ref> Historians have organized the numerous separate original native groups into several "tribes". These are known as the [[Shasta (tribe)|Shasta]], [[Modoc people|Modoc]], and [[Achomawi]]/Pit River Tribes of the volcanic plateaus in the north; the [[Wintu]] and [[Hupa]] in the northern Klamath and Trinity mountains; the [[Nomlaki]], [[Yuki tribe|Yuki]], [[Patwin]], and [[Pomo]] of the Coast Ranges; the [[Yana people|Yana]], [[Atsugewi]], [[Maidu]], [[Konkow]], and [[Nisenan]] in the Sierra and their western foothills; and the [[Miwok]] in the south.<ref>{{cite web
 |url        = http://www.sanmanuel-nsn.gov/images/sm_CA-NA-map-big.gif
 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060427064000/http://www.sanmanuel-nsn.gov/images/sm_CA-NA-map-big.gif
 |url-status   = dead
 |archive-date = April 27, 2006
 |title      = California Native Americans Map
 |publisher  = San Manuel Band of Mission Indians
 |access-date = August 8, 2010
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
 |url         = http://www4.hmc.edu:8001/humanities/indian/california/tribemap.gif
 |title       = California Indian Tribal Groups
 |publisher   = California Indian Library Collections
 |access-date  = August 8, 2010
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20100710163720/http://www4.hmc.edu:8001/humanities/indian/california/tribemap.gif
 |archive-date = July 10, 2010
}}</ref>

Most of the Sacramento Valley's native peoples relied on hunting, gathering and fishing, although agriculture was practiced in a few areas. Settlement size ranged from small camps to villages of 30–50 permanent structures.<ref name="NPSSF">{{cite web
 |url         = http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/5views/5views1h90.htm
 |title       = Sutter's Fort
 |publisher   = National Park Service
 |work        = A History of American Indians in California
 |date        = November 17, 2004
 |access-date  = August 25, 2010
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20090213203606/http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/5views/5views1h90.htm
 |archive-date = February 13, 2009
}}</ref> [[Acorn]]s were a [[staple food]], and the Sacramento Valley's riparian zones, which supported seven species of native oaks, provided these in abundance. Native Americans pounded the acorns into flour, which they used to make bread and cakes. Abundant salmon and steelhead runs in the Sacramento River and its tributaries were harvested using fishing weirs, platforms, baskets and nets. The river also provided shellfish, sturgeon, eel and suckerfish
They also hunted waterfowl, antelope and deer which all existed in huge numbers in the rich valley bottom and marsh lands.<ref name="Bakken"/>{{rp|119}} Before European contact, the indigenous population of the Sacramento Valley has been estimated at 76,000 people.<ref name="Bakken">{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Immigration and Migration in the American West|author=Bakken, Gordon Morris and Kindell, Alexandra|publisher=SAGE|volume=1|year=2006|isbn=1-41290-550-8}}</ref>{{rp|119}}

===European exploration and settlement===
[[Image:Frederick_A._Butman_-_Landscape_(Mt._Shasta_and_the_Sacramento_River).jpg|thumb|right|''Mt. Shasta and the Sacramento River'' by Frederick A. Butman (1820–1871)]]
The first outsiders to see the river were probably the members of a [[Spain|Spanish]] colonial-exploratory venture to Northern California in 1772, led by Captain [[Pedro Fages]]. The group ascended a mountain, likely in the hills north of [[Suisun Bay]], and found themselves looking down at the delta of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. However, due to their vantage point, neither Fages nor any of his men saw the Sacramento clearly. They assumed that the San Joaquin, coming from the south, was the largest of the merging rivers they saw. In 1808, explorer [[Gabriel Moraga]], on a journey to find suitable sites for the construction of missions, became the first foreigner to see the river clearly. Judging its huge breadth and power he named it ''Rio de los Sacramentos'', or "River of the [[Blessed Sacrament]]". In the following years, two more Spanish expeditions traversed the lower part of the river, the last one in 1817.<ref>''Exploring the great rivers of North America'', p. 126</ref><ref>{{cite web
 |url         = http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?MarkerID=25880&Print=1
 |title       = Sacramento River Exploration
 |publisher   = The Historical Marker Database
 |access-date  = August 25, 2010
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20101229061853/http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?MarkerID=25880&Print=1
 |archive-date = December 29, 2010
}}</ref>

The next visitors were [[Hudson's Bay Company]] (HBC) [[fur trapper]]s exploring southwards from the disputed [[Oregon Country]], starting in the 1820s. The first organized expedition, led by [[Peter Skene Ogden]], arrived in the area of [[Mount Shasta]] in 1826.<ref name="HaT">{{cite web
 |url          = http://www.museumsiskiyoutrail.org/upper_soda_springs_information/hunters_and_trappers.html
 |title        = Hunters and Trappers
 |publisher    = The Museum of the Siskiyou Trail
 |work         = Upper Soda Springs
 |access-date  = August 25, 2010
 |url-status   = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20110727102145/http://www.museumsiskiyoutrail.org/upper_soda_springs_information/hunters_and_trappers.html
 |archive-date = July 27, 2011
}}</ref> By this time, California was under the control of [[Mexico]], although few Mexican settlers had come to what would later become the state, mostly settling in the small ''pueblos'' and ''ranchos'' along the south and central coast. The HBC [[Mountain man|mountain men]] created the [[Siskiyou Trail]] out of several Native American paths that ran through the mountains between Oregon's [[Willamette Valley]] and the northern part of the Sacramento Valley. In the years to come, this path, which eventually extended from San Francisco to [[Portland, Oregon]] following parts of the Sacramento, [[Willamette River|Willamette]], [[Klamath River|Klamath]], [[Rogue River (Oregon)|Rogue]], and other rivers would become an important trade and travel route.<ref name="HaT"/><ref>Harton and McCloud, p.8</ref>

===Gold Rush===
Although just one of thousands of American emigrants that poured into California over the next few years when California became part of the United States, [[John Augustus Sutter]]'s arrival marked a turning point in the history of the Sacramento Valley, and California as a whole. In 1841, Sutter and his men built a fortress at the confluence of the Sacramento and [[American River]]s and the Mexican government granted him almost {{convert|50000|acre|km2}} of land surrounding the two rivers. Naming it New Helvetia, he created an agricultural empire in the lower Sacramento Valley, attracting several hundred settlers to the area, and relied on Native American labor to maintain his domain. Sutter had something of a two-faced relationship with the many Native American groups in the area. He was friendly with some of the tribes, and paid their leaders handsomely for supplying workers, but others he seized by force to labor in the fields.<ref>{{cite web
 |url         = https://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/s_z/sutter.htm
 |title       = John Augustus Sutter
 |publisher   = PBS
 |work        = The West Film Project
 |year        = 2001
 |access-date  = August 25, 2010
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20100330122128/http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/s_z/sutter.htm
 |archive-date = March 30, 2010
}}</ref><ref>Royce and Wells, p.33</ref><ref>{{cite web
 |url         = http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=485
 |title       = Sutter's Fort State Historic Park <!--SHP is what it says, assuming that means that-->
 |publisher   = California State Parks
 |access-date  = August 25, 2010
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20100826061311/http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=485
 |archive-date = August 26, 2010
}}</ref>

[[File:Chrysopolis (steamboat) 01.jpeg|thumb|alt=Black-and-white photo of a pair of steamboats moored at a dock; smoke is issuing from one of the boat's funnels; the masts of several sailing ships are visible in the background|''Chrysopolis'', one of several large steamboats that served for transportation on the river during the California Gold Rush]]
After the [[Bear Flag Revolt]] of 1846 and the [[Mexican–American War]], in which California became part of the United States, Sutter and other large landholders in California held on to their properties. In 1848 Sutter assigned [[James W. Marshall]] to build a sawmill on the South Fork American River at [[Coloma, California|Coloma]], where Marshall discovered gold.<ref>{{cite web
 |url         = http://www.historynet.com/james-marshall-californias-gold-discoverer.htm
 |title       = James Marshall: California's Gold Discoverer
 |publisher   = HistoryNet.com
 |access-date  = August 26, 2010
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20110612002058/http://www.historynet.com/james-marshall-californias-gold-discoverer.htm
 |archive-date = June 12, 2011
}}</ref> Although Sutter and Marshall originally intended to keep the find a secret, news soon broke attracting three hundred thousand hopefuls from all over North America, and even the world, to the Sacramento River in search of fortunes, kicking off the [[California Gold Rush]].<ref>{{cite web
 |url          = http://www.newsinhistory.com/blog/president-james-polk's-speech-spurs-california-gold-rush
 |title        = President James Polk's Address Spurs California Gold Rush
 |publisher    = NewsinHistory.com
 |date         = May 12, 2009
 |access-date  = August 26, 2010
 |url-status   = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20110213050344/http://www.newsinhistory.com/blog/president-james-polk%E2%80%99s-speech-spurs-california-gold-rush
 |archive-date = February 13, 2011
}}</ref> People flocked to the region by the [[Oregon Trail]]-Siskiyou Trail, [[California Trail]], [[Southern Emigrant Trail]] and various land and/or sea routes through the [[Isthmus of Panama]] and around southern [[South America]] by ship. Steamboats traveled up and down the Sacramento River carrying miners from San Francisco to the gold fields.<ref>{{cite news
 |last        = Nolte
 |first       = Carl
 |url         = https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/When-great-steamboats-plied-our-rivers-and-bay-3263734.php
 |title       = When great steamboats plied our rivers and bay
 |newspaper   = San Francisco Chronicle
 |date        = May 23, 2010
 |access-date  = August 26, 2010
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20100604015408/http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-05-23/news/20910589_1_chronicle-exclusive-paper
 |archive-date = June 4, 2010
}}</ref>
As the miners expanded their diggings deeper into the Sierra Nevada and Klamath Mountains, Native Americans were pushed off their land and a long series of skirmishes and fights began that continued until intervention by the state and national governments.<ref>{{cite web
 |url         = http://www.cfses.org/salmonid/html/people/cali.htm
 |title       = California Statehood
 |publisher   = The Center for Social and Environmental Stewardship
 |work        = Salmonid Habitat Restoration Planning Resource for San Mateo and Santa Cruz Counties
 |date        = October 22, 2003 <!--wrong date? -->
 |access-date  = August 26, 2010
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20110305210202/http://www.cfses.org/salmonid/html/people/cali.htm
 |archive-date = March 5, 2011
}}</ref>

===Post-Gold Rush development and effects===
The influx of migrants brought foreign diseases like [[malaria]] and [[smallpox]], which American Indians had no immunity to. These diseases killed off a large proportion of their population within a few decades of the arrival of Sutter and the following settlers,<ref>{{cite book |last        = Cook
 |first       = Sherburne Friend
 |title       = The conflict between the California Indian and white civilization
 |publisher   = University of California Press
 |year        = 1976
 |isbn        = 0-520-03142-3
 |pages       = [https://archive.org/details/conflictbetweenc0000cook_r5y2/page/18 18–20]
 |url         = https://archive.org/details/conflictbetweenc0000cook_r5y2/page/18
 |access-date = April 16, 2014
 }}</ref><ref>''Exploring the great rivers of North America'', p. 129</ref> the start of the [[gold rush]], not to mention the numerous battles fought between the settlers and native bands as well as the forced relocation of some of the tribes to [[Indian reservation]]s in several places scattered around the Sacramento Valley, mainly in the Coast Ranges.<ref>{{cite book|last=Baumgardner|first=Frank H.|title=Killing for land in early California: Indian blood at Round Valley: founding the Nome Cult Indian Farm|publisher=Algora Publishing|year=2005|isbn=0-87586-365-5|pages=209–212|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=plDuAcIiQmwC|access-date=April 16, 2014}}</ref> In the early 1850s, several treaties were signed between the U.S. government and the Native Americans involving their relocation onto a reservation in the Sierra foothills; this promise was broken. Therefore, in 1863, the tribes from the area surrounding the middle Sacramento and [[Feather river]]s, the Konkow group, were removed and marched forcibly to the [[Round Valley Indian Reservation]] near the [[Eel River (California)|Eel River]]. A total of 461 people were forced from their homes, but only 277 made it to the reservation; the others perished of disease, starvation or exhaustion.<ref>{{cite web
 |url         = http://mendonews.wordpress.com/2008/03/11/feather-river-indians-sentenced-to-trail-of-death-the-chico-to-covelo-forced-march-of-1863/
 |title       = Feather River Indians Sentenced to Trail of Death: The Chico to Covelo Forced March of 1863
 |publisher   = Emerald Triangle News
 |access-date  = August 26, 2010
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20110718102453/http://mendonews.wordpress.com/2008/03/11/feather-river-indians-sentenced-to-trail-of-death-the-chico-to-covelo-forced-march-of-1863/
 |archive-date = July 18, 2011
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
 |url=http://www.maidu.com/ourhistory/ethno-history.html 
 |title=The ConCow Maidu Trail of Tears 
 |publisher=Konkow Valley Band of Maidu 
 |work=History of the KonKow Valley Band of Maidu 
 |access-date=August 26, 2010 
 |url-status=dead 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101112001702/http://www.maidu.com/ourhistory/ethno-history.html 
 |archive-date=November 12, 2010 
}}</ref>

[[Image:Historic American Buildings Survey Roger Sturtevant, Photographer Mar. 29, 1934 GENERAL VIEW - Hydraulic Mine, Downieville, Sierra County, CA HABS CAL,46-DOWNV.V,1-1.tif|thumb|right|Environmental damage caused by hydraulic mining near [[Downieville, California|Downieville]], on the [[North Yuba River]]]]
As mining developed from simple methods such as panning and sluicing to a new form of commercialized extraction, [[hydraulic mining]], profits from the petering gold rush made a second leap, earning more profits than placer miners in the early years had ever made.<ref>{{cite web
 |url         = http://www.ncgold.com/History/BecomingCA_Archive26.html
 |title       = Pressure Builds to End Hydraulic Gold Mining
 |last        = Baumgart
 |first       = Don
 |publisher   = Nevada County Gold
 |access-date  = August 27, 2010
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://archive.today/20120904015048/http://www.ncgold.com/History/BecomingCA_Archive26.html
 |archive-date = September 4, 2012
}}</ref> The city of [[Sacramento, California|Sacramento]], founded on the original site of Sutter's fort, began to flourish as the center of an agricultural empire that provided food to feed the thousands of miners working in the hills as well as a place of financial exchange of all the gold that was mined. Sacramento was officially established in 1850 and was recognized as the state capital in 1854.<ref>{{cite web
 |url         = http://capitolmuseum.ca.gov/uploadedFiles/Capitol_Museum/Teachers/statecaps.pdf
 |title       = California's State Capitols 1850–present
 |publisher   = California State Capitol Museum
 |date        = May 2000
 |access-date  = August 27, 2010
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20100819063811/http://capitolmuseum.ca.gov/uploadedFiles/Capitol_Museum/Teachers/statecaps.pdf
 |archive-date = August 19, 2010
}}</ref> As the economy of the Sacramento Valley grew, the [[Southern Pacific Railroad]] established tracks along the river to connect California with Oregon following the ancient path of the Siskiyou Trail, in the 1880s and 1890s.<ref>Harton and McCloud, pp. 26–27</ref> Many parts of the railroad were treacherous, especially in the mountainous areas north of [[Dunsmuir, California|Dunsmuir]].<ref>Harton and McCloud, pp. 27–31</ref>

It was not long after Sacramento surpassed a population of 10,000, then the [[Great Flood of 1862]] swept away much of it (and almost everything else along the Sacramento River) and put the rest under water. The flood waters were exacerbated by the sediments washed down by the millions of tons by hydraulic mining, which filled the beds of the Sacramento, Feather and American rivers up to {{convert|7|ft|m}} in Sacramento and also covered thousands of acres of Central Valley lands.<ref name="hydraulicmining">{{cite web
 |url=http://www.learncalifornia.org/doc.asp?id=526 
 |title=Hydraulic Mining and Controversy 
 |publisher=learncalifornia.org 
 |access-date=August 27, 2010 
 |url-status=dead 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101030024957/https://learncalifornia.org/doc.asp?id=526 
 |archive-date=October 30, 2010 
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
 |last1        = Taylor
 |first1       = W. Leonard
 |last2        = Taylor
 |first2       = Robert W.
 |url          = http://www.redlandsfortnightly.org/papers/Taylor06.htm
 |title        = The Great California Flood of 1862
 |publisher    = Fortnightly Club of Redlands
 |access-date  = August 27, 2010
 |url-status   = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20101226020223/http://www.redlandsfortnightly.org/papers/Taylor06.htm
 |archive-date = December 26, 2010
}}</ref> A flood in 1875 covered the city of [[Marysville, California|Marysville]] and when it subsided the town's streets were filled with debris and rocks washed down from the "hydraulicking" going on upstream.<ref name="hydraulicmining"/><ref>{{cite web
 |url          = http://museumca.org/goldrush/fever19-hy.html
 |title        = Giant Gold Machines – Hydraulic Mining
 |publisher    = Oakland Museum of California
 |work         = Gold Fever!
 |year         = 1998
 |access-date  = August 27, 2010
 |url-status   = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20100620064914/http://museumca.org/goldrush/fever19-hy.html
 |archive-date = June 20, 2010
}}</ref>

Repeated floods and increased demand for Sacramento River water saw a plethora of massive changes to the environment beginning in the 20th century. An early project was undertaken to raise the entire city of Sacramento about {{convert|11|ft|m}} above its original elevation.<ref>{{cite web
 |last        = Mendick
 |first       = Jonathan
 |url         = http://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/28148/The_lowdown_on_Sacramentos_underground
 |title       = The lowdown on Sacramento's underground
 |publisher   = Sacramento Press
 |date        = May 26, 2010
 |access-date  = August 27, 2010
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20110722075611/http://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/28148/The_lowdown_on_Sacramentos_underground
 |archive-date = July 22, 2011
}}</ref><ref name="floodtimeline">{{cite web
 |url         = http://www.safca.org/floodRisk/index.html
 |title       = Flood History/Overview
 |publisher   = Sacramento Regional Flood Control Agency
 |access-date  = September 8, 2010
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20031204190045/http://www.safca.org/floodRisk/index.html
 |archive-date = December 4, 2003
}}</ref> This was followed by much bigger engineering projects to control and store the floodwaters of the Sacramento River; the building of these public works would radically transform the river during the 20th century.<ref name="floodtimeline"/>