By June, 1865 the Placerville & Sacramento Valley Railroad had only reached Shingle Springs and, although it is now connected to the main road that carried nearly all of the freight and passenger traffic to and from the silver mines…
Charles Lincoln Wilson – The Sacramento Valley Railroad, Part IV
The agreement to bring the railroad to Placerville happened just a few months after Leland Stanford, now Governor of California, had lifted the first shovelful of dirt to start the building of the Central Pacific Railroad east from Sacramento. Unfortunately,…
Charles Lincoln Wilson – The Sacramento Valley Railroad, Part III
Though the Sacramento Valley Railroad had reached Folsom on January 1, 1856, it was not yet completed. The original plan was to continue to Marysville, but like always, money was the problem. Even with the four engines pulling trains loaded…
Charles Lincoln Wilson – The Sacramento Valley Railroad, Part II
Showing the ingenuity that helped build California, at a point approximately 20 miles from Sacramento a Mr. Anderson took the subcontract to grade and build the embankment for the new railroad. He had prospected the area before and knew that…
Criminal Annals, Part 9: The Placer Times – Indian Problems
The first newspaper published in Sacramento, California, the “Placer Times,” ran weekly from April 28, 1849 to April 13, 1850, and tri-weekly until June 7, 1850 when it ceased publication. Its founder and editor was Edward C. Kemble, who was…
Criminal Annals, Part 8 – The Hanging of “Irish Dick”
In Part 7, the two writers introduced us to a person named Richard Crone, who was also known as Irish Dick, Bloody Dick and a few other names. He was hanged from the famous Placerville tree a couple of years…