Sacramento, California Origins and How They Dealt with Floods by Denise M. Colby

I’m very excited to be joining the HHH blog. I’ve been a follower for many years because I love history. Now I will be contributing each month and I couldn’t be more ecstatic. As this is my first blog post, I wanted to share a little about myself, and why I chose this as my first topic.

My name is Denise M. Colby. Born and raised a Californian, I was fortunate to travel up and down this vast state as both a child and adult visiting musuems and towns learning about our rich history. I currently live in southern California, but grew up in the northern part of the state near the state capital of Sacramento, which is where my stories are set.

I love visiting Old Town Sacramento as it feels like a page out of the history books. Even as a kid, I found the stories about why the boardwalks were so high off the ground fascinating. So I thought I would start with a little Sacramento, California history and the flooding the city endured early on.


Sacramento Origins

John Sutter established the original Sacramento city in 1839. He picked the location for his trade business because it was situated near a massive river, making it perfect for trade. The city grew quickly, partially due to the Gold Rush.

Because it was a booming city, it became the state capital in 1854, after going back and forth between San Jose, Vallejo, Benicia (due to flooding and other reasons). Later it moved for one year to San Francisco (due to more flooding) before a more permanent resolution took place in 1863.

a post from the Sacramento History Museum's Instragrams page highlights the 1862 flood that prompted change

(and moved the government to San Francisco for the rest of the year)

Flooding was a problem

The river (called The Sacramento River) flooded several times (1850, 1852, and 1862) wiping out the city each time. They rebuilt, but they couldn’t afford it to flood again. So they came up with several ideas on how to fix the problem.

The main solution? Build up.

And that’s exactly what they did. A massive project which never had been done before. They started with the streets and boardwalks, using bricks and filling in the spaces with dirt. A lot of dirt. Thousands of cubic yards of dirt, brought in by the wagon full.

Then they lifted the buildings. Or some of them. They gave building owners options. Lift your building up a floor, or turn your second story into your first floor.

How did they raise a building? Small jacks and a lot of man power. I read a report that it took forty days to raise one building.

For those that didn’t raise their building, the original doors and entryways were covered with brick to seal it up tight so no water would get in. Then those who lifted their building had their first floor even with the second floor of another.

I took this picture on a trip in 2013 - notice the different heights of the buildings

There were other solutions implemented as well including building levees and redirecting the flow of the rivers that fed into the Sacramento River. But I’ll share those details in a future post.

If you are interested, I found a small video snippet from Bartell's Backroads of this history on YouTube titled Sacramento's hidden history.

Visiting Old Town Sacramento today

If you ever have the chance to visit, there are some buildings that are three stories and some that are only two. A complete mix. And because it was done by hand, no two buildings are raised exactly to the same height. Which is why the boardwalks had to be set up so high from the street in some places so that it reached the doorways. This is also the reason you might have to step down into some of the stores as well.

And the doorways? Some of them are quite large. That’s because the buildings that weren’t raised, now had their taller second story doors (that were for ventilation, light, or for moving larger equipment) as their first floor doors. And the wooden boardwalks built in front of the storefronts had to accomodate the highest entryway, so there is a massive step up in some spots.

All in all, it took almost fifteen years to raise the town somewhere between ten and fifteen feet. And all this variety is one of the reasons Old Town has such a unique charm to it. 

Screenshot of the Old Town Map taken from the website years ago (not sure of year and not able to find it today)

I use this to help me figure out streets and buildings in my stories.

Visitors can walk the wooden boardwalks and cobblestone streets and take an underground tour of buildings they’ve dug up and exposed. There’s a lot to see. Taken from the website because it states it best: In the mid-1960s, a plan was set forth to redevelop the area and through it, the first historic district in the West was created. Today, with 53 historic buildings, Old Sacramento has more buildings of historic value condensed into its 28 acres than most areas of similar size in the West. Registered as a National and California Historic Landmark, the properties in the district are primarily owned by private owners, with individual businesses leasing shops and offices.

If you’d like to learn more about old town Sacramento, you can go to the website and look at their page on its history. I’m having fun incorporating many of these historical points (including a fictional flood) in my stories as my characters walk around Sacramento in 1869 and 1870.

When Plans Go Awry - Book 1 in the Best-laid Plans Series

Olivia Carmichael flees her past to become the schoolmarm in the small ranching town of Washton. Luke Taylor chose a mail-order bride to help care for his sisters, but the beautiful new teacher unsettles his carefully laid plans. As Olivia’s resolve is tested and Luke’s expectations unravel, the meddling town—and its infamous rooster—help them discover God’s plans are better than their own.

When Plans Go Awry is a 2025 Carol Award Finalist in the Debut Category.

Denise M. Colby writes historical romance sweetened with faith, hope, and love. She finds history fascinating and contemplates often how it was to live in the 1800’s. Her debut novel, When Plans Go Awry, is a 2025 Carol Award finalist. Sign up for her newsletter at www.denisemcolby.com or follow Denise on Facebook, Instagram, Bookbub, Pinterest, or GoodReads.

Floodwaters and Foundations on the Eastern Shore

_By Tiffany Amber Stockton

Tucked away in a quiet corner of southeastern Kentucky, my little nook is usually spared the brunt of nature’s wilder tantrums. But my beloved Chincoteague Island? Not so fortunate.

Dancing with the Elements

Let’s start with a geography lesson...with a twist.

Many in the U.S. aren't familiar with the name Delmarva. And I get it. This area often gets overlooked as insignificant. Many regions do, especially if they don't create national impact. But this peninsula is made up of DELaware, plus parts of MARyland and VirginiA. Pretty straightforward, right? Not for everyone, as I've learned. Chalk it up to being raised in the area and surrounded by the regional influences. :)

Years ago, during a family reunion on Chincoteague, I told a relative I was from Delaware. They blinked at me and asked, “Where’s that?” Rather than spell it out, I asked them if they knew the name of the peninsula where they lived, and they said, "Delmarva, of course." I then asked what the name Delmarva meant. Their answer? “That’s the electric company!”

Cue my teenage eye roll.

Eventually, I asked them to name the states that make up Delmarva. Some got Virginia and Maryland right away. Delaware? Crickets. Now, mind you, Delaware isn’t just one of the three. It actually takes up over 60% of the land area. For lifelong residents of the peninsula not to know that? That’s a sad commentary on the state of geographic literacy in our country. But I digress.

Forgotten in the Forecasts

Just as Delaware often gets left out of conversations, so does Delmarva when it comes to national weather reports. Hurricanes are tracked up the Eastern Seaboard with warnings issued for Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, New Jersey, and New York. But Delmarva and the MidAtlantic? Often skipped.

And yet, this region has experienced record-breaking flooding after some of the most devastating hurricanes in U.S. history. One such nor'easter in 1933 permanently severed a barrier island just south of Ocean City, MD and created 2 separate islands. Storms in this area hit quite hard with lasting effects.

Why? Because of how the weather systems collide.

Hurricanes coming from the southeast often clash with cold fronts sweeping toward the coast from the northwest. The result? A swirling, soggy mess that parks itself right over the peninsula, dumping rain for days. Historically, these storm patterns affected everything from local farming to smuggling operations during the Revolutionary War, when blockade runners would navigate Chincoteague Harbor to move goods south.

But when the peninsula turned into a swampy floodplain in late summer, travel became treacherous. There was more marshland than dry ground. One of these storms occurred when the famous horse, Misty, was about to give birth to one of her foals. He was named Stormy, as a result.

Wading Through Chincoteague

Flooding isn’t a freak occurrence on Chincoteague. It’s part of the rhythm of life.

As a kid visiting in late summer, I remember rolling up my jeans and kicking off my sandals to wade through water that sometimes reached our knees...or higher! On stormy weeks, residents would break out rowboats to navigate the streets. Picture this: getting dressed for Sunday meeting, only to pile into a boat instead of a car.

Some folks swoon over the gondolas of Venice, Italy. But I’m not so sure I’d enjoy that as a yearly lifestyle. There’s a fine line between charming and exhausting. And Chincoteague’s flooding can easily tip the scales.

The Aftermath and Adaptations

Of course, it’s not all whimsical boat rides and soggy socks. Flooding brings real danger. Property loss, structural damage, and sometimes even loss of life. That’s why so many homes and buildings on Chincoteague are built elevated, with raised foundations or full-blown stilt systems, much like beachfront homes all across the coastlines.

When storms destroy, rebuilds happen. Elevation has now become a way to survive.

Rain Boots and Resilience

Having grown up all around the Chesapeake Bay, I’ve seen my share of hurricanes, nor’easters, and relentless downpours that stretch for days.

My most recent visit to Chincoteague? Pony Penning Day. Unlike the last time I visited and had to trudge around the island with soaked shoes and mud-splattered legs, this time the weather cooperated with blue skies and warm temperatures. The ponies? Totally unfazed. The soggy marshland is their playground.

And it’s not just summer rains that cause trouble. Winter storms combined with high tides have also brought eerie sights. Ice floating in flooded streets. Snow meeting saltwater. Frozen sheets of water. A frosty floodplain.

Chincoteague takes it all in stride, just like the ponies. The islanders adapt, rebuild, and press on. It’s part of their story. And thanks to family roots and muddy memories, it’s part of mine, too.

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN:

* Have you ever experienced flooding where you live? How did your community adapt or prepare for future storms?

* If you lived on Chincoteague Island, would you embrace the “boat-to-church” adventure or head for higher ground?

* Do you know the geography of your own region? What fun or surprising facts could you share that most people overlook?

Leave answers to these questions or any comments on the post below.

** This note is for our email readers. Please do not reply via email with any comments. View the blog online and scroll down to the comments section.

Come back on the 9th of each month for my next foray into historical tidbits to share.

---

BIO

Tiffany Amber Stockton has embellished stories since childhood, thanks to a very active imagination and notations of talking entirely too much. Honing those skills led her to careers as an award-winning and best-selling author and speaker, while also working as a professional copywriter/copyeditor. She loves to share life-changing products and ideas with others to help them just get rooted and live a life of purpose.

Currently, she lives with her husband and fellow author, Stuart Vaughn Stockton, along with their two children, two dogs, and five cats in southeastern Kentucky. In her 20+ years as a professional writer, she has sold twenty-six (26) books so far and has agent representation with Tamela Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. You can find her on Facebook and GoodReads.

Freeze, Flood and a Crazy Stunt

On to more disasters...
     Why is that such a fun sentence to write? Must have something to do with it being history and not the present. The poor pioneers had so many obstacles thrown at them. It helps me to imagine being in the moment with them, surrounded by the challenge, the only option to go through. There is hope in that somehow…because they survived.

     Most of us have warm insulated houses with hot water heaters, stoves, washing machines, microwaves, dishwashers and phones. And what about cars? Our ability to cope and recover from some of the same incidents the pioneers faced is greatly increased. Probably because of what they learned and put into place.
 
     The weather can be a challenge from time to time. Some states freeze. Some states deal with tornadoes. Some states are desert dry. And others flood.
So here is the setting: Oregon City, Oregon during the winter of 1861-62. 
Oregon is know for rain, rain, and more rain, lots of water and big rivers.
Introducing the Willamette River. Oregon City was built up below the Willamette Falls, which is the largest waterfall in the Pacific Northwest by volume and the 17th widest waterfall in the world. It is 1,500 feet wide and 40 feet high. Found by the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1806. Hometown to John McLoughlin who was a Hudson Bay Company official. Here is a picture or two of the river so you can see how wide it is. The Willamette is a happy place for many salmon and steelhead during its usual mild weather moments. 

     But not in 1861. The temperatures dropped.
 
     And the river froze. It froze solid.
 
     As far as I can tell it has only happened one other time since then, in 1929.
This river is huge ranging from widths of 330 to 660 feet across. And it froze completely through.
 
     So what did our resilient settlers do?
 
     They continued to trade of course.
 
     They drove their wagons full of trade goods right across the top of the water, by-passing the normal ferry, and saving themselves buckets of money.
Talk about an opportunity. All that was well and good until it warmed back up and all that ice melted…and it continued to rain.

     Water, water, and more water.
 
     Oregon City had so much rain fall that the water level on the lower side of the Willamette Falls came up and closed the distance between the top level and the bottom level. The overall level of water came up 75 feet. Normally a forty foot drop, each side of the river came close to even—flattened so much it tempted Captain S. R. Smith of the St. Claire to risk floating over it’s edge.

 
     Captain Smith had a hankering to switch from upper-river trade to lower-river trade. Since there were no locks built to transport the boat easily, he tried to reduce the cost and the time it would take to have his boat lugged over land by taking advantage of the flooding. He talked his engineer buddy, Alonzo Vickers, into joining him. (We all need a crazy and willing to help friend like that.)
     
     They made their preparations and over the falls they went. 

 
      And they almost made it. (Horse shoes and hand grenades right?)
They would’ve made it if the tiller rope, which connects the steering wheel to the rudder, hadn’t broke in the swift waters.
 
     The St. Claire careened over the falls and down the river fast. It couldn’t make the bend. It crashed up onto the bank and slid into a house next to the Catholic church.
     
      Wouldn’t that be a shock to the homeowners?
 
      Those same flood waters swept away George Abernathy’s house, mill, and store which were some of the first buildings built in the City and the first site the early Oregon Trail Survivor’s found.
 
      He sold his soggy property and moved to Portland, playing a key role in that city’s development.
 
     They eventually did get the boat back in the water. But the flood waters took out Linn, Canemah, Clackamas, and Multnomah cities as well as most bridges and Ferries. So much destruction. The entire City of Linn was wiped off the rocky shore. Only two homes and a warehouse was left.
 This is the town that was wiped away:

    But the settlers are nothing if not resilient. “We will rebuild.” And usually they build better.
 
     Within a few short years, in this exact spot, there was a woolen mill built. And by 1869 The Oregon City Woolen Mill was using the power of the falls to produce shipping a million pounds of wool a year to help support the Civil War.
Hope. Hope is always worth paying attention to. And sometimes the best thing you can do to see the hope is to look back and see what happens after the hard times and troubles hit. Can any of you look back and see goodness our of a season of hardship? Please tell. I’m in a season were I would love to borrow your hope.
Thank you for stopping by. Below is a little more about me. 

I started a podcast. If you are a podcast listener and you need a dose of joy-meets-common sense, come on over to Life Caraphrased.

Cara Grandle is a Historical Romance Novelist who prefers to write about the early settlers of the Pacific Northwest. Think trappers and loggers and scroungy-backed woodsmen. She is represented by the Steve Laube Agency. Cara leads the author4TheAuthor writers group on Facebook, home to 190 writers. Together they're pressing back on busy and making a space for their dreams. 

Cara is currently out on submission. Follow her journey on her Facebook author page. Prayers much appreciated.

Water, Water, Everywhere

Carla Stewart here.

I'm a fan of mixing real life events from history with plots and characters that I make up. The technique gives verisimilitude to stories and enriches them, giving your stories "bones". It can be virtually anything, but on a recent trip with my husband, we saw the evidence of a fairly recent event that I'm sure will be the fodder for many stories in the future. I'm speaking of the Nashville flood of 2010 where the Cumberland River crested at nearly 52 feet, the highest since the 1930s. Much of Nashville had flood damage with major flood waters in the OpryLand Resort area and Grand Ole Opry House. 

Max and I took the backstage tour of the Opry, and after viewing the stars dressing rooms, we were directed to the "family room", the Opry version of television land's "green room". In this vast, comfy room, though, there is a reminder of a darker time for the Opry. Look closely on the left side of the picture. There's a dark line about halfway up that looks like a decorative element, but what it is is the line of the floodwaters that filled the Opry Hall in 2010. The factoid would make a nice addition in a story, don't you think?

This stuck with me because I had used a similar incident to the Nashville flood in the book I have coming out next summer. It's just a mention a few times in the novel of the 1927 Mississippi flood that I discovered as one of the events near the time of my story. I used it to show that ladies and church societies worked to provide relief for the victims who were not only left homeless, but had to live in deplorable conditions.

Out of curiosity, I searched for significant floods in the US over the last 100 - 150 years. Any of these would be great fodder for plot/story ideas and looking at pictures even gives more wings to the imagination. I can imagine tent cities, panic as the storms rage, families torn apart or children separated from their parents, political chaos as rebuilding begins, the nursing/care of those who are wounded (budding love affairs, anyone?), triumphant reunions for those who were thought to be lost and are found. Here are some of the more significant ones with photos:

Johnstown Flood, May 1889

House with tree through window in Johnstown, PA flood. Photo courtesy of Wiki Commons

Place: Johnstown, Pennsylvania. 
Flood details: Ten inches of rain fell in a little less than 24 hours, causing a local dam to break. The result? A wall of water 30 feet high raced to town at speeds of up to 40 miles per hour. As telephones were in their infancy, there was no warning system. 
Death Toll: More than 2,200

Galveston Hurricane, September 8, 1900

Carrying bodies of hurricane victims. Photo courtesy of Wiki Commons.

House tilted from Galveston Hurricane. Photo courtesy of Wiki Commons

Place: Galveston Island which all but disappeared during the hurricane surge. 
Details: Category 4 hurricane. Storm surge of 16 feet on an island whose highest point was only nine feet. Property damage est. at $30 million.
Death toll: Estimates death range between 6,000 and 12,000 (of 40,000 Galveston inhabitants) 

The Great Flood of 1927

Cairo, Illinois highway underwater. Photo courtesy of Wiki Commons.

Oswego, KS - far from the Mississippi River but still flooded from torrential rain. Photo courtesy of Wiki Commons.

Refugees living in Tent Cities after being displaced by flood. Photo courtesy of Wiki Commons.

Place: along the Mississippi River at several locations. One of the most powerful natural disasters of the 1900s. Following several months of unusually heavy rain, the Mississippi spilled from her banks. It was over 80 miles wide at some locations.

Details: A levee failure at Mounds Landing, Mississippi, resulted in river flow with the force of Niagara Falls. An area the size of Connecticut was under water. Ten feet of water covered towns up to 60 miles away from the river. Even after 5 weeks, the area around Mounds Landing was covered with 100 feet of water. Affected area: 27,000 square miles (The size of New England). 
Damage: Over 130,000 homes were lost and 700,000 people were displaced. Property damage estimated at 350 million dollars (equivalent to approx. 5 billion dollars today).  
Death toll: 246

Other more recent floods include: 

Black Hills Flood, 1972

Over a six-hour period on June 9, 1972, 15 inches of rain filled Rapid Creek in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Canyon Lake Dam was breached, flooding the town of Rapid City. 
Damage: 1,355 homes destroyed. Property damage more than $160 million
Death toll: 238 deaths, 357 injuries.

The Great Flood of 1993

For 81 consecutive days in 1993, the Mississippi River stayed at flood stage - became known as "the flood that came and stayed forever" 
Details: $15 billion in damage. Thousands of people evacuated. Flood waters covered over 17,000 square miles of normally dry land.
Death toll: 50 people

Hurricane Katrina, 2005

One of the most debilitating natural disasters to ever hit the United States, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005 and its effects are still felt, more than eight years later. More than 80 percent of New Orleans flooded, and the waters did not recede for weeks. The costliest natural disaster in U.S. history—New Orleans and the surrounding communities suffered $81 million in damages—also killed more than 1,800 people.

I'm not sure about you, but I can almost feel caked-on mud, thirst from having water all around but not knowing if it's suitable to drink, slimy crawly things in the water, and the worst agony - separation/not knowing about your loved ones. 

While I've never been in a flood and hope never to be, by taking a trip in my imagination, I can conjure up a host of story ideas replete with action and drama. 

Stay warm and dry, my friends! Next month I'll talk about something really fun! 

Chat Time: Have you ever been in a flood? Can you share your experience? Do you like to read stories that have weather/natural disasters in them?

Carla Stewart is the award-winning author of five novels. With a passion for times gone by, it is her desire to take readers back to that warm, familiar place in their hearts called “home.” Her newest release is The Hatmaker's Heart. In New York City’s Jazz Age, a naïve, but talented young hat designer must weigh the cost of success when the rekindled love with her childhood sweetheart is lost and her integrity in the cutthroat fashion world is tested.

Learn more about Carla at www.carlastewart.com