Although the tines of the American River once divided Sacramento and Placer counties, their pasts entwine in the region’s common history.
After gold was discovered near Coloma in the winter of 1848, emigrants and immigrants rushed to the West, often arriving by steamship in what is known today as Sacramento. From there, newcomers commonly visited Sutter’s Fort for provisions and the latest word on gold strikes before climbing up the branches of the American.
They walked, rode on horseback or led pack mules along animal tracks that paralleled the course of the river as they made their way into the foothills. The path passed by clusters of prospectors settling on the banks of both sides of the river to be near their claims.
The rutted road accessed crude settlements such as Mormon Bar, Granite Bar and Beal’s Bar, before wheeling north to meet the Pioneer Trail. The newcomers followed in the steps of early explorers, military scouts and mountaineers who came looking for adventure and opportunities.
William Leidesdorff was one of the first to try to tame the western wilderness. He left New Orleans in the 1840s, heading for San Francisco. After becoming a Mexican citizen, he received a land grant for more than 35,000 acres of land east of Sacramento that stretched from the valley’s rim, along the American River, into the rocky foothills. He planned to transform it into a community called Granite City.
Leidesdorff died before realizing his dream, but the effort was revived when a man named Joseph Folsom purchased the estate. Folsom hired Theodore Judah, a respected railroad planner and engineer, to lay out streets for the new town.
But Folsom never lived to see the project through. In 1856, the city plan finally was completed, with the property subdivided into more than 2,000 building lots. The new citizenry voted to name the city Folsom in his honor.
By that time, the Sacramento Valley Railroad had a line reaching from the River City to Folsom. The first commercial railroad built west of the Mississippi, the tracks were extended into Placer County in 1861 as the California Central Railroad, with plans to carry on to Marysville.
Due to a lack of funding, the CCRR line never went any farther. But the arrival of a railroad in Placer’s north territory helped boost the economy of the agrarian village that developed into the city of Lincoln.
Folsom’s railroad hub continued to expand, making it a prime site for a Pony Express station. For 18 months, riders raced between Placerville and Folsom, toting mail from the mining camps to be sent on by train to Sacramento. The service was discontinued when Placerville became the express’ western terminus.
But Folsom rebounded when the state legislature decided to relieve overcrowding at San Quentin by constructing a maximum security prison near Folsom, where water and stone were readily available. Construction began in 1878; the first prisoner settled in two years later.
Convict labor helped build the first dam on the American River in 1893. Two years later, the plant generated enough power to illuminate lights in Sacramento, 22 miles away.
A more modern dam was erected in 1955 for flood control in the Sacramento valley, resulting in the creation of the 18,000-acre Folsom Lake State Recreation Area. The city had always been a leader in industry: Now it was a frontrunner in recreation.
With 75 miles of shoreline and 80 acres of hiking, biking and equestrian trails, the park supplies an abundance of leisure-time activities, including bicycle camps, family camping, fishing, swimming, boating and waterskiing. There are access points in Folsom, as well as Granite Bay, Loomis and Newcastle on the Placer side of the reservoir.
Today, Folsom is bulging at its city limits, with new homes, business parks, big box stores, diverse retail strips, an historic shopping district and a factory outlet mall. It also holds a zoo, community college campus, parks and 32 miles of bicycling trails that cross into Placer County.
Sacramento and Placer counties come together where Granite Bay and Folsom meet at the river’s edge. With common ties to Gold Rush, railroad and recreation history, the two municipalities always will be bridged by time and space.