#4 Old Town Sacramento and the Delta King

 May 2, 2023

When I changed trains in Sacramento last year I promised myself if I ever came back I would stay one night.  When I researched the old town area, I saw the Delta King come up, that I had thought was just a restaurant.  It turned out to be a beautiful old riverboat that is both hotel and restaurant.  I got a room for much less than at a nearby Embassy Suites.  Before leaving Denny's, I called and asked if I could drop off my luggage with them so I could walk around until the 4:00 check in.  They said that was fine, so I got another uber ride there. 

Built in 1927, the Delta King plied the river until 1941.  It also served the US Navy during WWII, and some other things until in the 1950s, when it was anchored at the Sacramento waterfront.  It was refurbished and brought back to its former glory and now serves as a boutique hotel, restaurant, and even a wedding venue. 

When I arrived at 8:00, they actually had a room available that I could check into right away.  I was so pleased!  My room was waterside on deck four.  It was compact and charming, though not plush.  I was rather fascinated by the oak tank toilet up on the wall.

The river was high, with a swift current.  Large branches and other debris were continually floating down in the brown-green water.  Downriver a bit is the solid looking tower bridge.  Originally blue, in 1976 as a bicentennial project, it was painted yellow to match the gold leafed cupola on the nearby state capitol building.

There were nice sidewalks on it so I walked across to take some pictures of the waterfront.

Upriver is a pretty, modern building that reflects the coloring of the ever-changing cloudy sky.

On a pier in front of that building there are a bunch of sea lions that barked incessantly throughout much of my stay. 

Sacramento was a major gold rush town, and the old town still has that flavor.  Many of the original buildings are there.  Due to huge floods through the years the buildings have been raised up many feet so that some have weird cellar areas. 

Cute shops and trendy eateries have replaced the dry goods and other stores.  It appears at some point in recent history they have attempted to revitalize the old town.  Many of the streets are cobbled, and sidewalks are wooden.  Garbage cans and other utility items are hidden inside wooden crates.  Sadly though, many shops were closed, and windows boarded.  I went to visit this cute schoolhouse museum, but it was an empty shell now.

There’s a tiny pocket-size park in town commemorating the birthplace of The Pony Express in 1860.  Sculpture Thomas Holland captured so well the intense expression on Sam Hamilton’s face as he set out on that first adventurous ride.

On one end of old town are two museums that had caught my eye last year.  One on trains, and one more general California and Sacramento history.  I ate fish and chips at a picnic table while I waited for a large school group to finish up their visit. 

The Railroad museum was large, and with three stories.  Of course, with full size trains inside it would have to be pretty big.  I explored on my own for an hour as I hadn’t been made aware of a guided tour.  Thus I just hit the highlights and read some of the signage.  When I was about to leave they announced a tour, but I didn't have the energy to start over.

There was a display of the driving of the Golden Spike, the last commemorate spike that united east to west with the completion of the transcontinental railroad May 10, 1989, in Promontory Summit, Utah.  I remembered as a teen we took a long side trip in very hot weather to view a reenactment of this event.  Us kids were sweating away in our shorts and t-shirts, while the actors wore wool uniforms.

One notable thing is that thousands of Chinese came to work on the railroad, but got little recognition.  They had some nice displays showing them at work.

Prior to the Civil War period, rails were set at a variety of gauges.  In 1862, Abraham Lincoln set a standard gauge of 56 ½ inches.  It took a few years for the odd rail dimensions to be respiked to that gauge.

The classic vintage locomotive, as drawn in storybooks, had a large vase shaped smokestack up near the front, and an open cab behind it.  I’ve often read stories or watched movies about the soot that covered the passengers, but never thought about how difficult it may have been for the crew sitting directly behind it.  

The early, small engines weren’t such a problem, but as they grew larger, to pull bigger loads, they produced enough smoke to be a problem for the crew.  In the early 1900s a cab forward locomotive was designed that solved the problem.

There were so many trains and displays to admire and explore.  A few of the trains you could climb into the cab.  

The third floor of the museum was all about model trains.  It was all about the history of them as well as the different companies that competed for the market.  Extensive collections of the various scale models were set up in cases, as well as expansive displays. 

Leaving the train museum, I walked back to the shops and got an indulgent double scoop of ice cream to eat at a wooden barrel table.

The other museum was also quite large, but I was rather tired and sleepy, so I just made a cursory tour.  There was quite a bit of Sacramento history, especially related to the extensive flooding of the American and Sacramento Rivers that nearly wiped the town out a few times. 

And then there was quite a lot about the gold mining in the area.  Below are scales that were used for measuring the gold.  These scales were taken from camp to camp to help miners determine their value.

My maternal grandfather worked on a gold dredge in Sumpter, Oregon many years ago.  In recent years I visited the tiny museum there, so I recognized this big piece of iron as a bucket from one such dredge. 

The museum was closing by the time I left.  I went back to the riverboat for dinner.  In the evening, after I was already in my pajamas, I slipped out to enjoy the lights along the river.