John A. Sutter's Last Days: The Bidwell Letters

Edited by Allan R. Ottley

John Bidwell arrived in New Helvetia (Sacramento) just 2 years after John Sutter as a leader of the very first wagon train to transit the California Trail. He was the most compelling 19th century witness to John Sutter's genius and generosity, employed and associated with Sutter from his 1841 arrival through the gold rush era, while rapidly developing the Sutter land grant encompassing the 5 rivers that produced more than 80% of California's annual watershed in the Sacramento Valley. This book, containing the personal correspondence of both Annie and John Bidwell serves as testimony to the enduring nature of John Sutter's character, life and legacy.

E.B. Crocker and the South Bend Fugitive Slave Case

By Kevin Taylor

The Crocker family is well known in Sacramento history. Charles Crocker was the construction boss of the Central Pacific Railroad, and one of the “Big Four.” Margaret Crocker gave us the Crocker Art Museum. Less known is E.B. Crocker, Charles’s brother and Margaret’s husband. He contributed much to Sacramento, but was also a leading figure in the anti-slavery movement before he reached Sacramento. Here is the story of the courageous man who risked his life to end slavery.

SHS Publications

Golden Notes

Journals

Books

A Legacy in Brick & Iron

By Mary A. Helmich with Kevin V. Bunker

Nine years in the making, with more than 515 pictures and illustrations, A Legacy in Brick & Iron provides a fully comprehensive review of the development of the historic Sacramento railroad shops initially constructed by the Central Pacific Railroad and then fully developed by the Southern Pacific Railroad.

Sacramento Pioneers of Power and Light

By Daniel E. Winkelman, Robert D. Livingston, and Rowena Wise Day

Sacramento Pioneers of Power and Light tells the story of how the Gold Rush led to the development of electrical power. The Folsom Power House was one of the earliest alternating current power plants in the United States. In 1895 it opened and operated as the longest transmission lines of any power plant in North America. It produced power and sent it 22 miles to Sacramento. That was the longest power transmission in the U.S. until that time. Experimental single-phase alternating current power stations were first built in the US in the mid 1880s. Ten years later the work of many engineers culminated into the work at the Folsom Power House, the facility was one of the first equipped with three phase 60 cycle power, the same type of power we use today.