pouredtea and i would have been as criticized just as much. i willing to live with it. i never let it influence me. husband's her political partner from their first campaign. as first lady she attended resident jimmy carter's cabinet meetings, championed women's rights and mental health issues, even testifying before congress. their partnership on health and peacekeeping issues have spanned four decades. at 8:00 carter, tonight p.m. eastern on c-span's original series. first ladies, influence and image. examining the public and private lives of the women who filled the position of first lady, and their influence on the presidency. from our the washington to michelle obama. tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span3. >> all weekend long american

history tv is featuring sacramento california. the central point of the american pacific railroad. was built on the tracks met the union pacific railroad completing the transcontinental railroad. partnerswith our cable we recently visited many sites exploring the city's rich history. sacramento allt weekend here on american history tv. the concept of where sacramento is is really quite ludicrous in many ways. it is a low-lying marshland. it was probably the worst way to put -- place to put a city. but that concept that it was more important for the monetary gain than it was for the long-term, what that caused in the end is how the city had to

change and transform itself. the expansion in the west is a story of disasters. you imagine yourself coming here in 1850 and you ask yourself that question. what i have stayed? what i have come? was it worth it? today we are in the center for sacramento history. these are the original records for the city and county of sacramento and we go from the beginning of the city in 1850 all the way up until present time. i will show you a sample of artifacts that are related to the gold rush here. think about how we connected to gold fields and why sacramento is a destination. we often say that sacramento was the gateway to the gold fields, because you had to come here, of the river, and then go on. if you are coming across the

country you would have come here to get your goods and supplies to then go to the gold fields, even though you came over the mountains. oftentimes you had to get settled first and kind of recuperate from your journey and then go back. gold is discovered in january of 1848 up in paloma. had a landho came grant from the mexican government. he was the first person to settle in california. he had an extensive land grant which gave him 1000 acres. the first item is a painting that was done by a sailor who came here in 1848. you can see this is very low land. marshybasically kind of all around here. the sacramento river, which they did not know at the time, had a tendency to flood.

you have all this greenery here because this was basically a floodplain. this is the very first few, before gold was discovered. you can see there is nothing here. there literally was nothing here. 1848 word has not spread yet that gold has been discovered, but just a few months later in town will set up here. the wholealk about experience of coming to ,alifornia to search for gold you need your supplies. you probably would have had your portrait taken in order to document yourself. one of the important things you would have acquired once you got here was a map to figure out where you needed to go. this was a great map of the gold fields. you can see it says right about here that this is where to look for gold and if you look close many of the streams will say gold has been found here, gold has been found in these streams. this would have been something

very important for someone arriving here in 1849 or 1848. the majority of them arrived in 19 -- 1849. that is why they're called the 49ers. this map would have folded up so it could have fit into their pocket. everything was lightweight, compact, easy to travel with. this would have been an essential tool and it dates from 1849 to show miners were to go. you can see how quickly the business of mining the minors and producing all of these people were quickly making money off of the people who are looking for gold. we have several thousand samples of gold. some of these are embedded in courts, this is a gold neck it. this is fools gold, which if you look at the difference, a lot of people would find this and think that it was gold. it is pretty and shiny and nice but it is not the same thing.

a lot of people were sold by this -- fooled by this. eventually you would have plaster mining, hard rock mining where they literally drill into drill the gold out of the walls of the hills. and then hydraulic mining where they use large water cannons to fire at the mountains to break it down and released the gold. all of these things would have major environmental impact. another thing that was discovered was that mercury, or quicksilver, attracted gold. they decided that it would be good to put mercury into the water to attract gold. they did not realize that mercury was poison. a number of miners actually got mercury poisoning. wasnot sure -- mercury something that was also used to shape hats, there is that old term as mad as the hatter.

er was mad because he was smelling the fumes of mercury. the minors also became crazed. sutter and his son, who was put in charge, hired another gentleman to help get his father out of debt. the way to do that was to some of the land that he had. what they did is they hired u.s. military personnel, three of them. wo would go on to become famous, one was general ordered, ,ord ordered -- ford ordered and the other was general sherman. they were ordered to plot out grid.rit -- the lots were sold and setters

that we will sell them for $200 each. you can see strategically that the city was located on the sacramento river and the american river. right here is the beginnings of the city. if you were coming in from san francisco, for example if you brought a steamship over, came across the ocean, came to san francisco, then you would come up the sacrament to river. this is as far as you would go. it was literally just like san francisco. there was a sea of rivers full -- a river fellowships in 1849 and 1850. that was the beginning and a lot of ways. the first post office and hotels and things like that were all in these abandoned ships that had just been left behind as the miners went off. one of the things that is kind of fun to look at is we have this map that was created. , andis the original city

all of these pins represent saloons. you can see there are more than three or four per block or in a half or a quarter of a block. mark twain, when he was here in , described sacramento as a city of saloons. he said you can go into any door and ask for a beer and someone would hand it to you. the breweries were established as early as 1848 because they had to dig deep in the ground in order for the beer to ferment over the summer months. this is a good example. it is an all male population and this is how they occupy their time, by drinking and gambling and dancing and other sorts of things. one of the things that is kind of interesting is there have -- has been a mess of the people came to the gold rush were and thate and poor

they were basically not very bright. the reality is that a large percentage of the people who came were well educated professional people. if you think about it, it was a very expensive thing to go do. your ship, to travel here by ship, which could take anywhere months, waso four expensive. if you came overland to investment of a wagon and all of a verypplies would be expensive journey. you had a lot of professionals who came. you had doctors and lawyers and merchants and bankers. you had a very diverse group of people. the other thing is, thinking about the journey, how long it takes to get here and how unknown california is from anywhere else. way they had to communicate back and forth was

through letters. that was so important to them because that was the closest way that they could get into some communication with their families. here are examples of some of these letters. you can see this is the city of sacramento. some of the stationary -- stationery was produced here which would actually have images of the sacramento post office. this is a way for them to show their families but it looks like here. , noe is no telegraph television, no telephone, no internet. was the central place where they would have come . when they found out that mail would -- had arrived they would rush to get there and oftentimes waited days. some of these letters describe -- they say i am writing to you every day because i am not sure what letter will get back to you because the mail was not fixed at all.

it is not until the railroad comes through in 1868 in 1869 that mail is really coming through on a regular basis. these letters, they are pouring out their hearts to their families, talking about how much they missed them. but they are also describing what california was like. how beautiful it is and how dangerous it is. sometimes they are saying things like don't let my brother come here, i know he wants to come. it is such a hard way to live. other times they are saying this is a great place, you need to bring the rest of the family out here. particularly for african-americans this was a place -- because california came in as a free state -- we do have some letters of african-americans writing, this is the best place you can come to have a chance to make a living and make it on your own. people came here for different reasons. a lot of them came as minors -- miners and then decided it was

really hard. in the letters a lot of times they will say they have changed their minds. as a storekeeper for example you could make money mining the minors. are documents that tell us what life is like. they tell us the personal experiences. they talk about loneliness, hope, and the basic campbells of these individuals were thinking when they came out here. you have got all of these people swarming in two and area and they are going to need some type of entertainment. popular,was extremely but actually sacramento established its first theater in 1849. a reproduction of it exists in old sacramento today. it only stated business if you short months because the flood of 1849 came and wash away. but that tradition of theater was so dominant here. it drew a lot of actors and

performers to come here. a lot of those performers that would get their start here would then go on to become some of the most famous entertainers in the country throughout the 19th century. booth.mple is edwin his brother is probably more famous, john wilkes booth, but at the time edwin booth would become the most famous. edwin had been traveling with his father for about four or five years by the time the gold rush happened, and they wanted to come out to california because it was a place for entertainers to make money. his father booked the two of them on a ship, they came to california, they did their performances, and it was time -- when it was time to go back edwin said i am staying here. has been knownys for this. a place for you to reinvent yourself. you can come out here and become a totally different.

and none of the rules applied. , andd said i can stay here sacramento was one of the first places he performed without his father. asis listed on this playbill young marlowe in "she stoops to conquer." there were multiple theaters. the theater here is the sacramento theater. he went on to become the most famous male actor in the united states, up through the 19th century. he was friends and had performed many times in front of lincoln, and also his secretary of state. he really transitioned, up until that point actors were considered lowlifes and not anybody would want in your house. gentleman and he was very well-respected.

stewart's daughter writes about him coming to their house and how infatuated with him he was -- she was because of his dark, wavy hair. he established himself. california and then went on to have this national reputation. one of the things that is great like ours isories that they are used by scholars and public citizens. there are literally thousands of books and essays and documentaries that have come out of. will continue to come out of here. these letters tell us what life was like. they give us the personal experiences. they let us know where people were coming from. directories that date from 1849 and 1850, and in them it says where people are from. document it from there and sometimes even lists .thnicity all of these things help us get to know the people who came here. sacramento was the center of all of that.

we were an incredibly diverse place -- we are still an incredibly diverse place. all of these artifacts and stories are part of these collections and help us to understand ourselves better throughout the weekend, american history tv is featuring sacramento, california. our cities toward recently traveled there to learn about its history. learn more about sacramento, and ater stops on our tour c-span.org. you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend, on c-span 3. all persons are admonished to give their attention. >>