Sacramento County celebrates 175-year milestone, known as its demisemiseptcentennial
SACRAMENTO — Sacramento County celebrated a major milestone on Tuesday. It was 175 years ago — on February 18, 1850 — that Sacramento became a California county.
"Today is the county's demisemiseptcentennial," county spokesperson Kim Nava said Tuesday.
A lot has changed since those early days.
"We had just over 9,000 residents to serve then," Nava said. "Today, we have 1.6 million residents, so things have grown a bit since then."
Sacramento County began with the gold rush boom.
County resident John Jackson's family has lived in Sacramento since the 1800s. He was born here in 1929 and grew up on a dairy farm where Highway 99 is now located.
"I milked cows until I was 20 years old," Jackson said.
The 96-year-old now lives in a senior living home that was once a chickpea farm and said he doesn't mind seeing Sacramento County change.
"Well, I think it's just nature," he said. "I think it's a wonderful place to live."
Over the decades, Sacramento has had a rich agricultural history and helped protect the nation with its now-closed military bases.
It also played a crucial role in transportation, beginning with the Pony Express, later expanding to the Transcontinental Railroad and today's interstate highway system.
"Without Sacramento County, California would be a very different state," Nava said.
Now, Sacramento County is launching a big celebration to mark its anniversary.
"There is going to be plenty of exciting things happening this year including opening a time capsule at the end of May," Nava said.
The county is encouraging Jackson and any other long-time residents to let others know what it's been like living in California's capital.
"Please share any pictures that you have," Nava said. "We've got a website. We want people to share their pictures, their memories of Sacramento County."
Sacramento was one of California's original 27 counties and today, there are 58.
