China Slough (also called: Sutter Slough, China Lake, Sutter Lake, Sacramento Chinatown, Sacramento Chinadom, Old Sacramento Chinatown, Yee Fow), is historical site in

Sacramento, California Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat, seat of Sacramento County, California, Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento Rive ...

. The site of the former China Slough is

California Historical Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in the U.S. state of California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meetin ...

No. 594, registered on May 22, 1957. The site of California Historical Landmark China Slough is the northeast corner of 4th Street and I Street in Sacramento at about 401 I Street. Before the China Slough was filled in, the

waterway A waterway is any Navigability, navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation will be of varying importance depending on the nuance of the equivalent word in other ways. A first distinction is ...

ran from 3rd Street to 5th Streets to north of I Street in Sacramento. The site became the

Central Pacific Railroad The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) was a rail company chartered by U.S. Congress in 1862 to build a railroad eastwards from Sacramento, California, to complete most of the western part of the "First transcontinental railroad" in North Americ ...

Sacramento station built in 1910. The 1910 station had a wooden

Trestle bridge A trestle bridge is a bridge composed of a number of short spans supported by closely spaced frames usually carrying a railroad line. A trestle (sometimes tressel) is a rigid frame used as a support, historically a tripod used to support a st ...

built over the China Slough. A new depot was built nearby, the Sacramento Valley Station in 1926 and is now operated by

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

. The China Slough ran almost where the current

train tracks run today.Sacramento's Chinatown, by Lawrence Tom and Brian Tom, 2010

History

The slough was a

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

y slow flowing channel of water off the

Sacramento River The Sacramento River () is the principal river of Northern California in the United States and is the largest river in California. Rising in the Klamath Mountains, the river flows south for before reaching the Sacramento–San Joaquin River D ...

in to the City of Sacramento. On each banks of the China Slough was the old Sacramento Chinatown. Before a Chinese population moved in, it was called Sutter Slough. The first group of Chinese immigrants came to Sacramento from 1849 to 1853, to escape the poor condition in southeastern China. In southeastern China was a famine, a very poor economy, high taxes, due to the

Opium Wars The Opium Wars () were two conflicts waged between China and Western powers during the mid-19th century. The First Opium War was fought from 1839 to 1842 between China and Britain. It was triggered by the Chinese government's campaign to ...

(1839-1860),

Taiping Rebellion The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a civil war in China between the Qing dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The conflict lasted 14 years, from its outbreak in 1850 until the fall of ...

(1850-1864) and Punti–Hakka Clan Wars (1855–1868). From 1849 to 1853 about 24,000 young Chinese men immigrated to California looking to improve their lives. The next group of Chinese immigrants came to Sacramento to help built the

First transcontinental railroad America's first transcontinental railroad (known originally as the "Pacific Railroad" and later as the "Overland Route (Union Pacific Railroad), Overland Route") was a continuous railroad line built between 1863 and 1869 that connected the exis ...

starting in 1863. From 1863 and 1869, about 15,000 Chinese workers helped build the transcontinental railroad. The train tracks started in Sacramento and headed east. The non-Chinese Sacramento pioneers did not want the swampy slough, so the Chinese community was free to live there. They built up the slough into a waterfront town. The Chinese immigrants brought in a host of skills: merchants opened store, cooks opened restaurants, laundrymen opened laundry services, entertainers put on theatre shows, and entrepreneurs served the needs not only in Chinatown but the needs of the city. Sutter Lake was formed with seasonally in the slough with spring and winter flooded. China Slough bathhouses were popular with all. In December 1856, a local ''Chinese Daily News'' (沙架免度新錄, Cantonese transliteration for Sacramento News) was founded by ''Ze Too Yune'' (司徒源), the first Chinese-run overseas Chinese newspaper. In March 1858, the Sacramento Chinese held a local Chinese Regatta in Sutter Lake, Festival of the Dragon Boat, with its

Sze Yup The Siyi (Seiyap or Sze Yup in Cantonese; ) refers to the four former counties of Xinhui (Sunwui), Taishan (Toisan), Kaiping (Hoiping) and Enping (Yanping) on the west side of the Pearl River Delta in Southern Guangdong Province, China. Geo ...

(四邑) Company racing its Sam Yup (三邑) Company, which drew a large crowd lining the levee to view the contest.https://www.sacbee.com/news/bee-curious/article272028357.html The main part of Sacramento Chinatown was located on I Street (the slough's levee road) from Second to Sixth Streets. Flood waters overflowed the levee and into Chinatown and the city a few times between 1850 and

1862 Events January * January 1 – The United Kingdom annexes Lagos Island, in modern-day Nigeria. * January 6 – Second French intervention in Mexico, French intervention in Mexico: Second French Empire, French, Spanish and British ...

. The Sze Yup Association was set up to greet new Chinese immigrants as they departed ships and helped them find housing and jobs, some trained to head to the gold mines, called ''Gam Saan'' (gold mountain). Other such Chinese organizations were formed in California also, like the Suey Sing Association. Sze Yup Association set up a charity house in China Slough and owned other China Slough buildings. In China Slough, Sacramento was often called in Cantonese ''Yee Fow'' (二埠, Second City), as San Francisco was called ''Dai Fow'' (大埠, The Big City). Like other early pioneers town, the China Slough buildings and houses were make of wood. There were a number of fires that burnt parts of the China Slough. China Slough was rebuilt after each fire. The July 1854 fire burnt much of downtown China Slough. After the July 1855 fire, that was let to burn by the city, the Sacramento Board of Trustees passed an ordinance requiring new buildings be built with bricks. Much of the China Slough was rebuilt with brick buildings. In 1880, the city cut off the China Slough from the Sacramento River, ending the China Slough fishing industry and making the water stagnant and smelly. The

Chinese Exclusion Act The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was a United States Code, United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law made exceptions for travelers an ...

of 1882, stopped new Chinese immigration and reinforced hostilities to Chinese. In 1909, The City of Sacramento found a way to close the China Slough, a new

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

and train tracks would be built on the China Slough. All the Chinese buildings and house closed and the town was buried. Filling in of the Slough started in 1863 from sand from the

American River The American River is a List of rivers of California, river in California that runs from the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada mountain range to its confluence with the Sacramento River in downtown Sacramento. Via the Sacramento River, it ...

and was complete in 1910, when a new

railyard A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or ...

and

station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

were built. The last land fill and elimination of the China Slough was 1919. Chinatown moved south to Front Street and spread out from the closed down China Slough. When the Sacramento

Capitol Mall The Capitol Mall or Capitol Mall Boulevard is a major street and landscaped parkway in the state capital city of Sacramento, California, United States. Formerly known as ''M Street'', it connects the city of West Sacramento, California, West Sac ...

was built in 1965 some of the Front Street Chinatown was displaced. There is a small area around I Street and J Street that makes up the modern Sacramento Chinatown, including the 1959 Confucius Temple of Sacramento. The Yee Fow Museum in Sacramento and Yee Fow Center for History, work to preserve the Sacramento Chinatown history. *China Slough companies Some of the China Slough firms: *Canton Chinese Theater *Moor's Opera House starting in 1879 *Sze Yup Association offices *Sze Yup Association charity house *''Chinese Daily News'' (沙架免度新錄) 1856-1858 *Five cigar factories *Two shoe making shops *Wholesaler Wah Hing *Wholesaler Ye Chung *Wholesaler Tong Wo Yaun *Wholesaler J. Henare and Co. *15 grocery stores *Two fish markets, Tong Sung Fish, Capitol Poultry and Fish Market *Plate factory *Produce markets, including: Fulton Market, Lincoln Market, Quopng Fung *Bathhouses *Three restaurants *Six barber shops *Seven physicians offices *Four butcher shops *Two slaughter yards *Bing Hong Tong club *Yang gambling houses *43 laundries (citywide) *Pawnshop *Joss house Chinese Temple moved to 915 Third Street *Christian Church, Rev. J. Lewis Shuck *Congregational Christian Mission *Gee Kung Tong Chinese Christian Mission *Two drug stores *Three Tailor Shops *Que Lup Wah Gong Tong School *Wah Hun Hawk How School (Chinese Baptists)

Population

While

United States census The United States census (plural censuses or census) is a census that is legally mandated by the Constitution of the United States. It takes place every ten years. The first census after the American Revolution was taken in 1790 United States ce ...

, before 1860, did not count the China Slough or Chinese in Sacramento County, by 1860 the China Slough and Chinese in Sacramento County were recorded: *1860 1,731 *1870 3,595 *1880 4,892 *1890 4,371 *1900 3,2541900 U. S. Census Washington, 1901 p. 565

Gallery

Sacramento ca 1855.jpg, Sacramento in 1855 File:K Street, Inundation of the State Capitol, City of Sacramento, 1862.jpg, Great Flood of 1862 China_Slough_I_Street_great_flood_of_1862.jpg, China Slough and the railroad construction project along I Street during the great flood of 1862 Sutte_Lake_map_of_Sacramento,_California_in_1880.jpg, Map of Sacramento, California in 1880 with Sutter Lake and Central Pacific RR station; China Slough had been cut off from the Sacramento River (left) in 1880. Sacramento Valley Station.JPG, Sacramento Valley Station, on the site of the former China Slough Sacramento Valley Station platforms, October 2018.jpg, Sacramento Valley Station tracks follow the path of the former China Slough. File:Sacramento Chinatown Mall Paifang.jpg, Sacramento Chinatown Mall Paifang in 2013 File:Sacramento Chinatown 溯源堂 - panoramio.jpg, Sacramento Chinatown 溯源堂 in 2012

References

{{Authority control Sacramento, California 1849 in California 1849 establishments in California California Historical Landmarks History of Sacramento County, California Wetlands of California Chinatowns in California Asian-American history of California

History

Population

Gallery

See also

References