Sunday, December 13, 2015

Ole’ Town Underground


December 8th, last Wednesday, I had the opportunity to go on the field trip to the town remained in time, that is Old Town Sacramento of course. The purpose of my short trip to this historical place was for one reason and one reason, go back in time, or take a tour under Old Sacramento learning about its history. I was able to recall familiar events, and learn new things about Sacramento that I never knew. This experience allowed me to step into another era, and still get a feel of what a Context Seminar would be like. Here is what I experienced as I was on this trip.

We arrived to Old Sacramento at 10:00 am walking towards a brick building which was the Sacramento History Museum. We walked onto the porch of the building and waited until the doors will open. As we waited, we found a large bowl figure sitting in front of the museum. Of course some students, including myself, chose to squeeze in and sit in the bowl artifact as if it were a chair. once we rose up from this artifact, we were instantly directed into the museum where we met our tour guide. We were given headsets plugged into a small radio communicating device to hear our guide from a certain radius with our desired volume. First we stopped a viewing deck to take a look at the Sacramento River to learn about “The Devastating Flood of 1861-62” and how the beginnings of Sacramento evolved to the Capital City of California.

As we continue on our tour, we talk about how the flood taught Sacramento how to survive floods, then we find ourselves at an old looking building with iron shutters on its doors and windows. We wait until the lower level shutter is unlocked by the guide, then we end up in an underground site that exposed old brick walls and columns that has been used since the 1800’s to hold up Sacramento. We also saw old tools, crown molds, and excavation sites that lived for decades. The guide took us to a hallway that showed us how the flood wiped out Sacramento's original ground level. Finally, we left this underground site, and left to another site towards the History Museum.
The 2nd site we entered was actually my favorite because it showed how diverse Sacramento was in the 1800’s. When we walked into the site, we saw old furniture, sewing machines, plates, and an excavation site. The purpose of this site was to show the businesses that Sacramento contained. However, what really caught my attention is the way many people went astray from the laws of America racially and gender wise. For instance, there were tailoring services owned by women which was illegal since women were outlawed to own businesses or land. I really like how I was able to see equal rights movements in a blink of an eye in present time.
David Washington

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