Author: William C. DillingerPublisher:
ISBN: 9781887815000
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 176
Book Description
A History of the Lower American River
Author: William C. DillingerPublisher:
ISBN: 9781887815000
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 176
Book Description
Lower American River
Author: Sacramento Public Library AuthorityPublisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1467105945
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 128
Book Description
Flowing through Sacramento County, the American River has long been a dynamic neighbor to those living along its waters. As the American River flooded, its banks were leveed, and its course was corrected to allow for further settlement and industry. Sacramento, in a feat of civic engagement, raised its business district above the floodplain, echoing the earthen mounds the Nisenan people used to raise their homes. Massive dredgers tore the riverbed in search of California's famous mineral. Railroad tracks, and later roads, were built to accommodate for more and more people living along its banks. The American River pressed those banks, but the residents of the Sacramento Valley persisted and created a vibrant capital for one of the world's largest economies.
The Lower American River
Author: Lucinda WoodwardPublisher:
ISBN: 9781887815130
Category : American River (Calif.)
Languages : en
Pages : 134
Book Description
River City and Valley Life
Author: Christopher J. CastanedaPublisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
ISBN: 0822979187
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 418
Book Description
Often referred to as “the Big Tomato,” Sacramento is a city whose makeup is significantly more complex than its agriculture-based sobriquet implies. In River City and Valley Life, seventeen contributors reveal the major transformations to the natural and built environment that have shaped Sacramento and its suburbs, residents, politics, and economics throughout its history. The site that would become Sacramento was settled in 1839, when Johann Augustus Sutter attempted to convert his Mexican land grant into New Helvetia (or “New Switzerland”). It was at Sutter’s sawmill fifty miles to the east that gold was first discovered, leading to the California Gold Rush of 1849. Nearly overnight, Sacramento became a boomtown, and cityhood followed in 1850. Ideally situated at the confluence of the American and Sacramento Rivers, the city was connected by waterway to San Francisco and the surrounding region. Combined with the area’s warm and sunny climate, the rivers provided the necessary water supply for agriculture to flourish. The devastation wrought by floods and cholera, however, took a huge toll on early populations and led to the construction of an extensive levee system that raised the downtown street level to combat flooding. Great fortune came when local entrepreneurs built the Central Pacific Railroad, and in 1869 it connected with the Union Pacific Railroad to form the first transcontinental passage. Sacramento soon became an industrial hub and major food-processing center. By 1879, it was named the state capital and seat of government. In the twentieth century, the Sacramento area benefitted from the federal government’s major investment in the construction and operation of three military bases and other regional public works projects. Rapid suburbanization followed along with the building of highways, bridges, schools, parks, hydroelectric dams, and the Rancho Seco nuclear power plant, which activists would later shut down. Today, several tribal gaming resorts attract patrons to the area, while “Old Sacramento” revitalizes the original downtown as it celebrates Sacramento’s pioneering past. This environmental history of Sacramento provides a compelling case study of urban and suburban development in California and the American West. As the contributors show, Sacramento has seen its landscape both ravaged and reborn. As blighted areas, rail yards, and riverfronts have been reclaimed, and parks and green spaces created and expanded, Sacramento’s identity continues to evolve. As it moves beyond its Gold Rush, Transcontinental Railroad, and government-town heritage, Sacramento remains a city and region deeply rooted in its natural environment.
Shantyboat
Author: Harlan HubbardPublisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 9780813113593
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 372
Book Description
Shantyboat is the story of a leisurely journey down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans. For most people such a journey is the stuff that dreams are made of, but for Harlan and Anna Hubbard, it became a cherished reality. In their small river craft, the Hubbards became one with the flowing river and its changing weathers. This book mirrors a life that is simple and independent, strenuous at times, but joyous, with leisure for painting and music, for observation and contemplation.
The American River Insiders Guide to the North Middle and South Forks
Author: Protect American River CanyonsPublisher:
ISBN: 9780991236404
Category : American River (Calif.)
Languages : en
Pages : 416
Book Description
Rolling Rivers
Author: Richard A. BartlettPublisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
ISBN: 9780070039100
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 426
Book Description
An encyclopedia of America's rivers. Hundreds of years' of local history about the nation's rivers and streams.
California Rivers and Streams
Author: Jeffrey F. MountPublisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 052091693X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 378
Book Description
California Rivers and Streams provides a clear and informative overview of the physical and biological processes that shape California's rivers and watersheds. Jeffrey Mount introduces relevant basic principles of hydrology and geomorphology and applies them to an understanding of the differences in character of the state's many rivers. He then builds on this foundation by evaluating the impact on waterways of different land use practices—logging, mining, agriculture, flood control, urbanization, and water supply development. Water may be one of California's most valuable resources, but it is far from being one we control. In spite of channels, levees, lines and dams, the state's rivers still frequently flood, with devastating results. Almost all the rivers in California are dammed or diverted; with the booming population, there will be pressure for more intervention. Mount argues that Californians know little about how their rivers work and, more importantly, how and why land-use practices impact rivers. The forceful reconfiguration and redistribution of the rivers has already brought the state to a critical crossroads. California Rivers and Streams forces us to reevaluate our use of the state's rivers and offers a foundation for participating in the heated debates about their future.
Old Man River
Author: Paul SchneiderPublisher: Henry Holt and Company
ISBN: 0805098364
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 416
Book Description
A fascinating account of how the Mississippi River shaped America In Old Man River, Paul Schneider tells the story of the river at the center of America's rich history—the Mississippi. Some fifteen thousand years ago, the majestic river provided Paleolithic humans with the routes by which early man began to explore the continent's interior. Since then, the river has been the site of historical significance, from the arrival of Spanish and French explorers in the 16th century to the Civil War. George Washington fought his first battle near the river, and Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman both came to President Lincoln's attention after their spectacular victories on the lower Mississippi. In the 19th century, home-grown folk heroes such as Daniel Boone and the half-alligator, half-horse, Mike Fink, were creatures of the river. Mark Twain and Herman Melville led their characters down its stream in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Confidence-Man. A conduit of real-life American prowess, the Mississippi is also a river of stories and myth. Schneider traces the history of the Mississippi from its origins in the deep geologic past to the present. Though the busiest waterway on the planet today, the Mississippi remains a paradox—a devastated product of American ingenuity, and a magnificent natural wonder.
The Source: How Rivers Made America and America Remade Its Rivers
Author: Martin DoylePublisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393242366
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 396
Book Description
“An original and thought-provoking exploration of the sinuous course that water has carved through our economic and political landscape.” —Gerard Helferich, Wall Street Journal In a powerful work of environmental history, Martin Doyle tells the epic story of America and its rivers, from the U.S. Constitution’s roots in interstate river navigation, to the failure of the levees in Hurricane Katrina and the water wars in the west. Through his own travels and his encounters with experts all over the country—a Mississippi River tugboat captain, an Erie Canal lock operator, a project manager buying water rights for farms along the Colorado River—Doyle reveals the central role rivers have played in American history and how vital they are to its future.