Time Travel Blog
by guest blogger Denise Colby
Born and raised a Californian, I loved growing up learning about California history. I was fortunate to travel up and down this vast state as both a child and adult, to learn about our rich history. I currently live in southern California, but grew up in the northern part of the state near the state capital, which is where my stories are set. There is so much to share, but I had to contain it to only a few key topics here.
The California Missions
California is home to twenty-one missions up and down the state from Sonoma to San Diego. All fourth graders learn about the missions and many take a field trip to one near their school. The first mission was built in 1769, the last in 1823. All still exist (some had to be rebuilt). As a fourth-grader in the 1970’s, my parents dedicated our spring break vacation touring almost all of them.
The closest one to my childhood home is the Sonoma Mission which is called the Mission San Francisco Solano (include link https://www.sonomaparks.org/location/mission-san-francisco-solano/).
It is located in the downtown square in the city of Sonoma. It’s located near where the Bear Flag Revolt began (June 14, 1846), which was one of the events that led to California becoming a part of the United States in 1850. Today it is part of the Sonoma State Historic Park which also includes other historical locations from those events. Many come to this area for the wines, but it is rich with California history as well.
The Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush took place from 1848 to 1855 when gold was discovered by James W. Marshall, a worker at Sutter’s Mill, in Coloma, California, located north of Sacramento. Reconstructed, you can visit the mill and the ghost town of Colomo to learn all about this significant event, which had a huge impact on the state, at the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park (https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=484).
The California Railroad
The first official California railway was built to support the gold rush in 1856. Others carried people from the main ports of San Fransisco and Los Angeles. In 1869, the First Transcontinental Railroad connecting Sacramento to the eastern states changed everything. What once was only reachable by ship (around Panama), or by wagon train, now could be reached within a mere ten days. I highly recommend a visit the California State Railroad Museum (https://www.californiarailroad.museum) in Old Town Sacramento to learn all about the historical significance of the railroad to California.
The Original Sacramento City
The original Sacramento city was established by John Sutter in 1839. He picked the location for his trade business because it was situated near a massive river. The Sacramento River flooded several times (1850, 1852, and 1862) wiping out the city each time. A massive plan to build on top of the existing city occurred several years after the last flood. Thousands of cubic yards of earth were brought in on wagons to raise the street level.
This area is now called Old Town and visitors can still walk the wooden boardwalks and cobblestone streets.
The original street level can be seen throughout Old Town under the boardwalks. When we toured with my sons’ fourth-grade classes (in 2009 and 2011), they reenacted a one-room schoolhouse experience in one of the buildings under the current city.
California history appearing in my stories
My writing journey began here, in Sacramento. Even though I had visited multiple times, this visit to Old Town and the one-room schoolhouse during my oldest son’s fourth-grade trip birthed an idea. What would’ve it been like to teach in the 1860s? The rules teachers had to follow, as well as the discipline expected to keep students in line were so different than today. Why were the doors to the buildings in Old Town so tall and the boardwalk so raised? Hint: the floods I mentioned above.
I wanted to include these historical elements in a story somehow. As an avid historical romance reader, the desire to write my first story churned in my heart. But it wasn’t until the second trip with my second son, did I actually act on it.
In my debut novel, When Plans Go Awry, Olivia Carmichael is sent to Washton, California to teach in a one-room schoolhouse. There was a real town called Washington across the Sacramento River from Sacramento City. And my fictional town of Washton is loosely based on this town.
The actual town was created by a young widow with five children when she sold several lots of the ranch land to form a town (starting on Washington’s birthday, and thus the name). It even had a post office for a few years before it burnt down. Unfortunately, the post office was never rebuilt. The real Washington location across from Sacramento almost ensured the town’s success (and was even considered as a location for the capitol because a rail line was built from the area of San Francisco to Washington), however, a railway bridge built across the river in 1870 diverted all traffic away from the town.
Everyone ended up bypassing this town and it didn’t survive. I chose to use the name Washton because I wanted to build a fictional town with a different outcome, but also because there is an existing small town called Washington further northeast of Sacramento.
If you’d like to learn more about old Sacramento, you can go to the website and look at their page on its history, https://www.oldsacramento.com/history.
If you are interested in visiting one of the many missions on a visit to California, check out the California Missions Foundation website to see if there is one near you. (https://californiamissionsfoundation.org/the-california-missions/)
You can find When Plans Go Awry on Amazon or online at Barnes & Noble.
A Slight Change of Plans, book two in my Best-laid Plans series, releases May 2025.
The story continues in this small town as well as using the underground city in Sacramento.
If you are interested in learning more about me, my books, and the history of California,
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