![]() ![]() Water scarcity, it turns out, isn’t the only menace that stalks the California valleys that stock our supermarkets. You’ve probably heard that ever-more more frequent and severe droughts threaten the bounty we’ve come to rely on from California. It all amounts to a food-production juggernaut: California generates $46 billion worth of food per year, nearly double the haul of its closest competitor among US states, the corn-and-soybean behemoth Iowa. Tucked in amid the almond groves and vegetable fields are vast dairy operations that confine cows together by the thousands and produce more than a fifth of the nation’s milk supply, more than any other state. “Such a desolate scene I hope never to see again,” he wrote: “Most of the city is still under water, and has been for three months … Every low place is full-cellars and yards are full, houses and walls wet, everything uncomfortable.” The “better class of houses” were in rough shape, Brewer observed, but “it is with the poorer classes that this is the worst.” He went on: “Many of the one-story houses are entirely uninhabitable others, where the floors are above the water are, at best, most wretched places in which to live.” He summarized the scene:Īnd as if that weren’t enough, California is also a national hub for milk production. He found a city still in ruins, weeks after the worst of the rains. He marveled at the massive impromptu lake made up of “water ice cold and muddy,” in which “winds made high waves which beat the farm homes in pieces.” As a result, “every house and farm over this immense region is gone.”Įventually, in March, Brewer made it to Sacramento, hoping (without success) to lay hands on the state funds he needed to continue his survey. “The floor of their one-story house was six weeks under water before the house went to pieces.” Steamboats “ran back over the ranches fourteen miles from the river, carrying stock, etc., to the hills,” he reported. “An old acquaintance, a buccaro, came down from a ranch that was overflowed,” he wrote. In the 10 weeks leading up to January 18, 1862, the city got “thirty-two and three-quarters inches and it is still raining!”īrewer went on to recount scenes from the Central Valley that would fit in a Hollywood disaster epic. In a normal year, Brewer reported, San Francisco received about 20 inches. The surveyor gaped at the sheer volume of rain. Yet in modern-day California-a region that author Mike Davis once likened to a “Book of the Apocalypse theme park,” where this year’s wildfires have already burned 1.4 million acres, and dozens of fires are still raging-the nearly forgotten biblical-scale flood documented by Brewer’s letters has largely vanished from the public imagination, replaced largely by traumatic memories of more recent earthquakes. The cataclysm cut off telegraph communication with the East Coast, swamped the state’s new capital, and submerged the entire Central Valley under as much as 15 feet of water. They also provide a stark look at the greatest natural disaster known to have befallen the western United States since European contact in the 16th century: the Great Flood of 1861–1862. His letters home, chronicling his four-year journey up and down California, form one of the most vivid contemporary accounts of its early statehood. Redfin is redefining real estate and the home buying process in Sacramento with industry-leading technology, full-service agents, and lower fees that provide a better value for Redfin buyers and sellers.The task of completing the fieldwork fell to the 32-year-old Brewer, a Yale-trained botanist who had studied cutting-edge agricultural science in Europe. If you're looking to sell your home in the Sacramento area, our listing agents can help you get the best price. Our Sacramento real estate stats and trends will give you more information about home buying and selling trends in Sacramento. Redfin has a local office at 1180 Iron Point Road, Suite 150, Folsom, CA 95630. Our top-rated real estate agents in Sacramento are local experts and are ready to answer your questions about properties, neighborhoods, schools, and the newest listings for sale in Sacramento. Use filters to narrow your search by price, square feet, beds, and baths to find homes that fit your criteria. Find your dream home in Sacramento using the tools above. Sacramento is home to approximately 466,259 people and 304,773 jobs. Sacramento is a minimally walkable city in Sacramento County with a Walk Score of 49. In addition to houses in Sacramento, there were also 93 condos, 16 townhouses, and 74 multi-family units for sale in Sacramento last month. In the past month, 390 homes have been sold in Sacramento. ![]()
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