Sactown Series: Sutter's Fort

There is always an adventure to tempt you out there in the world. But I find there exist quite a few hidden in your own backyard. Since my backyard is California's capital, Sacramento (otherwise known as Sacto, Sactown, River City or the Indomitable City), I've decided to do a series on its local gems to punctuate my global travels. Hopefully it will either inspire a visit here or spark curiosity as to your own city/village.

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A fur trapper hard at work.

When I was little, Sutter's Fort was the field trip every kid in class looked forward to. People in pioneer outfits weaving and leather stamping and handling molten metal and firing canons was about as exciting in my mind as being told we were going to the moon. The Fort does everything it can to make you feel like you're stepping back in time to the point where you can sense the wildness and opportunism in your bones.

I remember after school, about a month after one such trip, I decided to try to sell some rocks I'd collected in my driveway, as though I, too, were a Sutter's Fort peddler. A nickel a rock was the going rate on the playground, and I sold out in about an hour. Yep, I would have done just fine in what some refer to as the West's first mini-mall. If you wanted guns, they had 'em. Furs, you betcha. Quilts, yup. Saddles, oh hell yes. While Sutter, the man, may have been a controversial figure, his legacy was the gold rush, agriculture and California as we know it. Not bad for someone who ended up bankrupt.

If you want to plan a visit to the Fort, my strategy for the day would be as follows... Start out at Temple Coffee in Midtown (only blocks from the Fort) for some delicious farm-to-cup coffee and enjoy it while in their outdoor garden. Then it's off to the Fort for an inexpensive and rewarding ticket to Sacramento's past. I would follow this up with a stroll through the fort's surrounding garden (I'm told the grape vines in the middle of the pond are the originals from Sutter's time - i.e. seriously old vines) and a pop into the nearby State Indian Museum. Finally, it's a late lunch/early dinner and craft cocktails at Hock Farm - a new and yummy restaurant in Midtown named after Sutter's vast empire of a farm and specializing in seasonal farm-to-fork dining.

And, FYI, the going rate for my hand-curated backyard stones is now $5 a pop.