Sacramento
Sacramento is a mapped river in the YearMaps hydrographic index. River courses organise settlement, agriculture and frontier-making more durably than any political boundary, and this reach is indexed against the dams, lakes and cities within its catchment.
- Feature Class
- River
- Coordinates
- 39.75°, -121.95°
About Sacramento
The Sacramento River (Spanish: Río Sacramento) 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 400 miles (640 km) before reaching the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and San Francisco Bay. The river drains about 26,500 square miles (69,000 km2) in 19 California counties, mostly within the fertile agricultural region bounded by the Coast Ranges and Sierra Nevada known as the Sacramento Valley, but also extending as far as the volcanic plateaus of Northeastern California. Historically, its watershed has reached as far north as south-central Oregon where the now, primarily, endorheic (closed) Goose Lake rarely experiences southerly outflow into the Pit River, the most northerly tributary of the Sacramento.
The Sacramento and its wide natural floodplain were once abundant in fish and other aquatic creatures, notably one of the southernmost large runs of chinook salmon in North America. For about 12,000 years, humans have depended on the vast natural resources of the watershed, which had one of the densest Native American populations in California.
Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Sacramento River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Sacramento in Depth
Course
The Sacramento River originates in the mountains and plateaus of far northern California as three major waterways that flow into Shasta Lake: the Upper Sacramento River, McCloud River and Pit River. The Upper Sacramento begins near Mount Shasta, at the confluence of North, Middle and South Forks in the Trinity Mountains of Siskiyou County. It flows east into a small reservoir, Lake Siskiyou, before turning south. The river flows through a canyon for about 60 miles (97 km), past Dunsmuir and Castella, before emptying into Shasta Lake near Lakehead in Shasta County. The McCloud River rises on the east slope of Mount Shasta and flows south for 77 miles (124 km) through the southern Cascade Range, roughly parallel to the Upper Sacramento, eventually to reach the McCloud Arm of Shasta Lake.
History
The Sacramento River and its valley were one of the major Native American population centers of California. The river's abundant flow and the valley's fertile soil and mild climate provided enough resources for hundreds of groups to share the land. Most of the villages were small. Although it was once commonly believed that the original natives lived as tribes, they actually lived as bands, family groups as small as twenty to thirty people. The Sacramento Valley was first settled by humans about 12,000 years ago, but permanent villages were not established until about 8,000 years ago. Historians have organized the numerous separate original native groups into several "tribes".
Ecology and environmental issues
The Sacramento River and its drainage basin once supported extensive riparian habitat and marshes, in both the Sacramento Valley and the Delta, home to a diverse array of flora and fauna. Due to the reclamation of land for agriculture and the regulation of seasonal flooding, the amount of water-based habitat declined greatly during the 20th century. Other human impacts include the heavy water consumption for agriculture and urban areas, and pollution caused by pesticides, nitrates, mine tailings, acid mine drainage and urban runoff. The Sacramento supports 40–60 species of fish, and 218 species of birds. The basin also has a number of endemic amphibian and fish species.
Geology
By geologic standards, the Sacramento is a fairly young river; the borders of its watershed began to form only a few million years ago as magma welling up below the Earth's crust pushed up by the Pacific Plate colliding with the North American Plate caused the formation of the Sierra Nevada. Although mountains had existed as early as 100 million years ago in this region (before then the land was probably submerged under the Pacific), they were worn by erosion, and the present-day range only formed about 4 million years ago.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Sacramento River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Sacramento: Key Facts
| Length | 644 km |
|---|---|
| Average discharge | 665 m³/s |
| Drainage basin | 71,500 km² |
| Mouth | Suisun Bay |
| Drainage system | Sacramento River basin |
| Tributaries | Pit River, Feather River, American River, San Joaquin River, Cottonwood Creek, Battle Creek, Butte Creek, Clear Creek |
Facts from Wikidata Q335575 (CC0).
Major River Dossiers
Hand-written studies of the great river systems of history.
Connected Reaches
Nearby watercourses in the same drainage network.
Water Bodies in the Catchment
Settlements Along the Reach
Hydraulic Infrastructure Nearby
Surrounding Terrain
Sacramento: Quick Answers
- Where is Sacramento?
- Sacramento is located in United States, at 39.7461° N, 121.9503° W.
- Are there dams on the Sacramento?
- No dam on the Sacramento is recorded in the YearMaps dam index, which covers major structures only.