A Little About California
The Cosumnes River Valley

Welcome to California!  Contrary to belief, the song "California, Here I Come" is not the official state song.  The official state song is "I Love You, California" written by F.B. Silverwood.

Gold was discovered in California in 1848 by John Marshall near the small town of Coloma, at Sutter's Mill, on the American River.  Some towns which barely had a population in the 'hundreds' quickly boomed to the cities of thousands as word spread of the discovery.  Ironically, as the gold rush diminished so did the population and many of the towns returned to 'towns' of barely 'hundreds' and some were abandoned entirely, thus turning into "ghost towns".  The gold rush and furry to get some type of law and order in California might have rushed statehood; California was officially made the 31^st state on September 9, 1850 and Sacramento was named her capitol.

The gold rush sparked the adventure in many people and they headed west to claim their 'fame' and fortunes.  Unfortunately, the gold rush and 'rush' to make millions was devastating to the natural resources and Native American tribes that lived in the state.   California is still feeling some effects of the gold rush today in towns where mining was prevalent; the land is filtered with byproducts of mining, asbestos and arsenic.

By 1868 California was finally linked to the rest of the United States with the finish of the Transcontinental Railroad.  Californian, Theodore Judah was an early 'mastermind' of the railway and is credited to finding a route through the Sierra out of California.  Judah found four investors, who later would become known as the Big Four, Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, Charles Crocker and Collis P. Huntington.  They found a company called the Central Pacific Railroad of California. Judah and the Big Four would go round and round about the the building of the railway.  Since Judah was a perfectionist, he want a grand railway to be built and built the right way; whereas the Big Four just wanted it built no matter what.  When the golden spike was hammered in place by Leland Stanford on May 10, 1869 in Promontory, Utah, Judah was not present.  Theodore Judah would never live to see his dream completed; he died enroute to the East in attempt to find another set of investors.

This is just a little information about the beginning of our state.  Check back soon for a section on further reading about the history of California.

The Cosumnes River Valley and the Sloughhouse Surrounding Area

The area surrounding Sloughhouse is often referred to as the "Cosumnes River Valley".  The Cosumnes River runs right through the town of Sloughhouse.  Sloughhouse was actually a hotel built by an early settler, Jared Sheldon on Deer Creek in 1850.  Today, the Sloughhouse Inn is no a longer a hotel but, a restaurant.  Pictures of Sheldon, William Daylor and Thomas Rhoades adorn the halls of the Inn.  Jared Sheldon married Catherine, a daughter of Thomas Rhoades.  William Daylor married Rhoades daughter, Sarah.

William Daylor originally told Sheldon of the Cosumnes River Valley.  Sheldon, a naturalized Mexican citizen, was given a grant of land by the government in Monterey, Mexico.  The grant of land was known as the Ochumnes or Sheldon Grant.  The area was populated by Native Americans, Miwoks, who became workers for Sheldon.  Sheldon soon planted the area around Deer Creek by seeds supplied by John Sutter.  The first harvests were bountiful and Jared Sheldon and William Daylor quickly saw the need and built a  grist mill.  Unfortunately this also required a dam to be built.   Gold miners, outraged at the fact a dam was to be built, wrote Sheldon letters and had several meetings with him to protest the building of the dam and telling him their diggings would be flooded.  Sheldon, despite the protests, built the dam in 1851 and the miners diggings were flooded.  To protect the dam, his mill and land, Sheldon built a fort.  Miners soon captured the fort and attempted to blow up the dam unsuccessfully.  Sheldon returned with his men and began a battle with the miners who were still trying to destroy the dam.  Sheldon's men fired the first shots and soon two of Sheldon's men along with Sheldon, himself, were killed. 

Today, other than the Inn, there is no reminder of the grist mill other than the landmark. 

Keep checking back for more history to be added .

Take a picture tour of some of the Cosumnes River Valley and the Sloughhouse Area

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All rights reserved. No portion of these pages may be reproduced without permission.   If you request additional information, please contact the webmaster at Sloughhouse AGS . The information on this page was written by members of our group using various documented history of our area.