Sacramento

John Sutter built the fort, but his son laid out the town. The city’s own cemetery guide credits John Sutter Jr. with planning and founding Sacramento in 1848, and Sutter’s Fort survives in Midtown as what State Parks calls the oldest restored fort in the West. The riverfront blocks those plans produced became the western end of three national systems at once: the Pony Express, the telegraph line across the continent and the first railroad across it.

The site had one flaw, which was water. Stanford’s rowboat trip in 1862 was the famous version of it, and the state parks system records that he later had his own house raised a full story to keep it dry. The Sacramento History Museum dates the wider project to the 1860s and 1870s, when streets and buildings alike were lifted to get clear of the floods. Old Sacramento’s sidewalks still sit over the voids that left behind.

The Legislature has met in the domed Capitol since 1869, and the building is less old than it looks. CalMatters columnist Dan Walters writes that in the late 1970s the 19th-century interior was gutted, the walls were held up by steel columns, and a new building went up inside the old shell. Its rear addition has a stranger history still: the original apse came out in 1949 for an annex, and that annex was torn down in 2023 for the replacement now under construction.

Old Sacramento is the city’s original 1850s business district, a National Historic Landmark since 1965, with more than 50 historic buildings along the river. They include the 1849 Eagle Theatre, the 1853 B.F. Hastings Building, which once housed the California Supreme Court, and the 1855 Big Four Building. The district’s oddest feature is the level below it, which the Sacramento History Museum opens on its Underground Tours.

*Fees subject to change, please check sachistorymuseum.org for updated information.

*Fees subject to change, please check californiarailroad.museum for updated information.

Frank Fat’s has been serving a few blocks from the Capitol since 1939, started by a Chinese immigrant who had worked as a dishwasher, and it won a James Beard America’s Classic award. The James Beard Foundation says it was once known as the Third House, and that the 1987 tort-reform pact between lawyers, insurers, doctors and business interests, the Napkin Deal, was written on the back of a napkin here.

Gunther’s Quality Ice Cream at 2801 Franklin Boulevard says it still makes ice cream from an original 1940s recipe with a higher butterfat cream than commercial brands use.

21 breweries within 10 miles of Sacramento, 5 of them brewpubs with a kitchen.

Brewpub locations from Open Brewery DB (MIT)

*Fees subject to change, please check parks.ca.gov for updated information.

4 more Highway Heads places lie within about 180 miles of Sacramento in a straight line — far enough that most are a night away rather than an afternoon.

• Golden Gate BridgeCaliforniaabout 75 mi
• San FranciscoCaliforniaabout 75 mi
• Carson CityNevadaabout 100 mi
• RenoNevadaabout 110 mi

Budget a weekday if the Capitol matters. Old Sacramento and the Railroad Museum fill most of a day on their own, and neither depends on the day of the week, but a weekend-only visit cannot include the Capitol interior.

Capitol construction runs through about fall 2027. Lawmakers said in December 2025 that the annex rebuild was 50% complete. The State Capitol Museum says to call the tour office at 916-324-0333 with questions, and State Parks warns that access may vary.

Season: the National Weather Service’s September 2026 summary for Sacramento lists a normal September high of 88.5°F, so late-summer afternoons run hot. The salmon run reaches the American River in fall.

Sutter’s Fort in Midtown is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Adults pay $5^* and ages 6 to 17 pay $3^*.

*Fees subject to change, please check parks.ca.gov for updated information.

*Fees subject to change, please check fairytaletown.org for updated information.

*Fees subject to change, please check californiarailroad.museum for updated information.

Old Sacramento Underground Tours

Address

Sacramento History Museum, 101 I Street, Sacramento, CA

Hours

Seven days a week; about one hour; start times on the museum’s ticket calendar

Admission

Adults $30; ages 6–17 $25; 5 and younger free; $1.50 processing fee per transaction; non-refundable^*

Reservations

Tickets sold online or by phone at 916-808-7059

California State Capitol

Free. Mon–Fri 9 a.m.–5 p.m., closed weekends and most holidays. Public tours on the hour 10 a.m.–4 p.m., 35 people, first come, first served

Link

sachistorymuseum.org · capitolmuseum.ca.gov

*Fees subject to change, please check sachistorymuseum.org for updated information.

We checked fees, opening hours, reservations, closures, operating status and seasonal opening on 2026-11-01. These change without notice — confirm with sachistorymuseum.org, parks.ca.gov, californiarailroad.museum, fws.gov, cityofsacramento.gov, capitolmuseum.ca.gov, locke-foundation.org, fairytaletown.org, wildlife.ca.gov, capradio.org, oldsacramento.com, mlb.com and forecast.weather.gov the week you travel.

Straight-line distance from Sacramento, not drive time.

• Sacramento Executive (SAC) — 5 miles
• McClellan Airfield (MCC) — 8 miles
• Sacramento International (SMF) — 9 miles