Local Attractions

California State Railroad Museum

The California State Railroad Museum is a museum in the state park system of California, USA, interpreting the role of the “iron horse” in connecting California to the rest of the nation. It is located in Old Sacramento at 111 I Street. The museum features 21 restored locomotives and railroad cars, some dating back to 1862. The “Sierra Scene” shows a large scale mockup of a construction scene high in the Sierra Nevada representing Donner Pass circa 1867, featuring the locomotive Gov. Stanford. Other exhibits show how the influence of railroads changed American society, influencing travel, commerce and daily life, as well as the lives of railroaders and the diversity of people who work on railroads. Changing exhibits featuring photography, ephemera, and artifacts from the museum’s collection, add depth and incidental information to the overall story of railroad history.

Crocker Art Museum

The Crocker Art Museum, formerly the E. B. Crocker Art Gallery is the longest continuously-operating art museum in the West. Located in Sacramento, California, the Museum hosts one of the state’s premier collections of Californian art. The collection contains works dating from the Gold Rush to the present day, a collection of master drawings, European paintings, one of the largest international ceramics collections in the U.S. and collections of Asian, African, and Oceanic art.

Sacramento Zoo

The Sacramento Zoo is a zoo located in William Land Park in Sacramento, California. It opened on June 2, 1927, with 40 animals. At that time, it occupied 4.2 acres (1.7 ha), which remained the case until the early 1960s when the zoo expanded to its current 14.3 acres (5.8 ha). As of December 2012, the zoo had just over 500 animals on site. The zoo opened as the 4.2-acre (1.7 ha) “William Land Park Zoo” on June 2, 1927, with 40 animals brought together from various local parks, including monkeys, raccoons, birds, and deer. In 1948, the Sacramento Union Newspaper sponsored a drive to raise money to buy the zoo an elephant. In the fall of 1949, SUE (the “Sacramento Union Elephant”), so named by local teenage sisters Jacklyn and Carolyn Bolton via a contest sponsored by the Union, arrived at the zoo, much to the delight of area visitors. In 1955, the zoo bought “Winky”, Sue’s companion.

Sutter’s Fort State Historic Park

Sutter’s Fort was a 19th-century agricultural and trade colony in the Mexican Alta California province. It was built in 1839 and originally called New Helvetia by its builder John Sutter. The fort was the first non-Indigenous community in the California Central Valley. The fort is famous for its association with the Donner Party, the California Gold Rush, and the formation of Sacramento. It is notable for its proximity to the end of the California Trail and Siskiyou Trails, which it served as a waystation.