Travel back in time to Gold Rush Days in Sacramento
August 30, 2007
More than 200 tons of dirt will be dumped onto the streets of Old Sacramento as the annual Gold Rush Days festival "turns back the clock," transforming Sacramento’s historic district into a scene straight out of the 1850s. Costumed re-enactors, Wild West gun fights, musicians playing period instruments, and many aspects of life during the Gold Rush will be highlighted during the four-day event, August 31-September 3. Only horse-drawn vehicles and pedestrians are allowed in the National Landmark District and State Historic Park during the festivities!
One of the highlights of Gold Rush Days is the Embarcadero Tent City, located at the north end of Old Sacramento and representing the first "tent city" that sprang up as the Gold Rush commenced. New to Tent City for 2007 is the introduction of a number of ethnic and cultural components, including period artifacts, storytelling, food preparation, and more. Dancers and musicians will perform according to long-held traditions. Among the ethnicities represented will be European, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, African American, and California Indian.
For guests interested in the West’s military history and its transition from lawlessness to an ordered society, Gold Rush Days offers a variety of military re-enactors, from Buffalo Soldiers to Civil War infantry groups.
In another area of Old Sacramento, watch as Wild West gunfights take place during the day. Although open, armed conflict was fairly uncommon on the streets of California towns during the Gold Rush, dramatic images of gunfights have been etched into our collective memories through the magic of Hollywood Westerns and television shows. Watch as trained “gunfighters” re-enact shootouts reminiscent of old-time TV.
This year’s event also features a variety of re-enactments and activities commemorating the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the Sisters of Mercy in Sacramento. When the Sisters landed on the waterfront in 1857, the city was in crisis with an epidemic of cholera under way. The Sisters of Mercy worked tirelessly and selflessly to ease the suffering of those who were sick and dying; their legacy lives on through today’s Mercy Healthcare network and affiliated hospitals.
Also new this year is a lecture series focusing on how the Gold Rush experience unfolded for various cultures and ethnicities. Listen as storytellers and docents relate how emigrants traveled to California before, during, and after the Gold Rush. Learn how the Gold Rush and statehood inevitably led to the completion of America’s first transcontinental railroad, helping transform California into a diverse and trend-setting land of opportunity.
Gold Rush Days takes place in Old Sacramento, a four-block historic district founded in 1848 that was a major commercial and agricultural center during the Gold Rush. Now it is Sacramento’s most popular destination. Visitors experience everything from wagon trains to stagecoaches, riverboats to the first transcontinental railroad. Old Sacramento sits along the Sacramento River and is filled with dozens of restaurants, shops, and saloons, and is also home to the Crocker Art Museum.