Читать книгу Oregon, the Picturesque. A Book of Rambles in the Oregon Country and in the Wilds of Northern California онлайн

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Historically, the capital city is one of the most interesting towns in the state, since it is the oldest settlement of white men in the interior of California. It had a population of more than ten thousand in 1849, though doubtless the majority of the inhabitants were transient gold-seekers. It was the goal of the greater number of emigrants who came overland during the “gold fever” period and was a famous outfitting point for the prospective miners who rushed here because of the proximity of the gold fields. Ten years earlier a colony of Swiss emigrants, under the name of New Helvetia, was established on the present site of the city by Col. John H. Sutter. It soon became better known as Sutter’s Fort, on account of the solid blockhouse built by the founder, which still stands in good repair, now containing a museum of relics of pioneer days. Sutter employed John Marshall, whom he sent to Coloma, some fifty miles east of Sacramento, to build a mill on the South American river. Here Marshall picked up the famous nugget that threw the whole world into a ferment in the late forties and turned the tide of emigration to California.