Sacto to Chico

Sacto to Chico

From Sacramento I picked my way north toward Chico.

Sacramento yields to ag land somewhat begrudgingly. The little towns are rural, to be sure, but there is a feel of the city close at hand.

I stopped at a fruit stand south of Yuba City run by a Greek family. The gentleman manning the stand told me there is an active Greek community in Sacramento, but it has shrunk lately because of the economic troubles.

At the stand you can buy cherries, stone fruit, berries, watermelons, tomatoes, corn, honey, and olive oil. The cherry harvest here ended about 3 weeks ago, so the ones at the stand are from Oregon, if I recall correctly. Most everything else is locally grown.

The fresh corn was delicious.

From the stand, I could see mountains in three directions. The ones to the north are new–the Sutter Buttes.

They are new in the sense that, while the Coast Ranges and the Sierra have been with me pretty much the whole trip, this odd lump jutting up from the middle of the valley is fresh.

They are also new in the sense that these remnants of volcanos were formed only one and a half million years ago. The Sutter Buttes are just babies compared to the ranges to the east and west. Geologists are still debating why magma bubbled up in this place at that time.

Yuba City and Colusa, seats of government of Sutter and Colusa counties, respectively, have some lovely and grand old buildings.

Administration building for Sutter County, Yuba City.

Sutter County Hall of Records, Yuba City

I was coming up on the southeast flank of the Buttes, but I wanted to visit the burial site of California’s first (and last) president, on the other side, so I jogged west. Looking toward the Buttes, I saw a double row of huge silos. When I stopped for gas, I asked what they were, and learned they are rice silos. There are a bunch of these around, of various shapes and sizes.

Rice silos backed by Sutter Buttes, Sutter.

Huge rice silos in front of Sutter Buttes, Sutter.

Just after resuming my northward course after shifting to the west side of Sutter Buttes, I happened upon more Indian activity: Calusa Casino. It is the sister to Cache Creek in Brooks. This one also belongs to the Wintun people, but a different band.

Calusa Casino

Calusa Casino

I talked to several employees. Very few of them knew any Indians, though they might recognize a few when they visit the casino. This group has around a hundred members. It seems they are struggling not so much to retain their culture as to bring it, Phoenix-like, back to life.

I couldn’t find much trace of California’s native people in the southern part of the Great Valley, but here there are about a dozen Indian casinos within a fifty mile radius.

I left the casino, heading north along the west bank of the Sacramento, still looking for the grave of California’s only president.

My information said it was in Monroeville. Trouble is, there no longer is any Monroeville. I found the marker, though!

Monument commemorating William Brown Ide, California’s first (and only) president. On Hwy 45, west bank of the Sacramento River, 15 miles north of Butte City.

In 1846, just a few years before the great gold rush, a few guys from back in the States decided they didn’t like the idea of California being run by Mexico, so they launched the Bear Flag Revolt. Perhaps the Mexican governor also had his doubts, because the takeover was accomplished with very little resistance.

The revolutionaries needed an interim government until they could arrange for California to be accepted into the Union, so they chose William Ide as President.

Ide died about six years later, in Monroeville, I assume. His actual resting place is unmarked, off somewhere in that field beyond the marker.

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