The 1849 view of Sacramento City above shows
a building under construction at the corner of J Street and the levee.
Many visitors commented on the pleasant way in which great oaks and
sycamores bulked up in backyards; many others commented on the
prevailing ague and diarrhoea.
By the time the emigrants arrived at the gold fields, the early birds had moved on from the South Fork of the American River (below) to
greener fields farther away. Yet the river where the first find had
been made was fixed in the popular imagination—and the new arrivals
found that rockers and cradles would yield gold in gulches and on bars
already deserted by the pick and pan men.
