Sacramento

City, capital of California, U.S., seat (1850) of Sacramento county, in the Central Valley, where the Sacramento and American rivers meet. John Augustus Sutter established the colony of New Helvetia in 1839 on the site, a Mexican land grant, and between 1840 and 1842 built a palisaded trading post known as Sutter's Fort. His community, initially populated by fellow Swiss immigrants, prospered