History

Yuba-Sutter history begins with the Nisenan people, who lived in the area for thousands of years before Europeans arrived, and includes many interesting historical figures.

1806-1808: Spanish army lieutenant Gabriel Moraga led the Spanish army through the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys, becoming the first European to see the Sutter Buttes and displacing native people everywhere he went.
1841: John Sutter established Hock Farm, a few miles south of what is now South Yuba City.
1847: The Donner_Party arrived in the Yuba-Sutter area after its misadventures on the Overland Emigrant Trail.
1849: The Gold Rush brought a flood of gold miners to the area, establishing new towns and destroying ecosystems. Mine tailings fell into the rivers, raising the beds of the Yuba River and Feather River and consequently increasing flood risks to this day.
1850: California became a state, and Marysville was incorporated as one of its seven orginal cities. The original town of Linda was laid out near Hammonton.
1852: The town of Linda was moved to its current location. Its original location was later buried under mine tailings, and remains buried to this day.
1851: Two huge fires destroyed most of Marysville, causing over half a million dollars in damages. James Pierson Beckwourth forged the safest trail through the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range to Marysville, but Marysville reneged on its agreement to pay him for it.
1852-1854: The original Bok Kai Temple was built in Marysville, almost two blocks upstream from the current one.
1858: The California State Fair was held in Marysville, in the area bounded by B Street, C Street, 5th Street, and 6th Street.
1868: Angry farmers in the Marysville/Yuba City area form the Anti-Debris Association, protesting the fact that gold mining corporations upstream are dumping so much debris into the rivers that the rivers are overflowing and destroying their land.
1872: Thompson's Seedless Grape was propagated for the first time, slightly west of Sutter.
1874: Wheatland was incorporated as a city.
1880: The current Bok Kai Temple was built in Marysville.
1884: The Anti-Debris Association wins its case against hydraulic mining corporations.
1886: Marysville and Wheatland violently drove all their Chinese residents out of town in February, and Nicolaus did the same in March, as a wave of anti-Chinese racism intensified across California. Chinese people had previously been tolerated as railroad construction laborers, because the job of building railroads was too dangerous (often fatal) for white people to want to do it. But when railroad building was complete and Chinese laborers began seeking other forms of work, white people drove them out of town.
1888: Edward Park Duplex was elected mayor of Wheatland, becoming the first black man to be elected mayor of a western United States city.
1894: W. T. Ellis, Jr. was elected mayor of Marysville. He would become known as the father of Marysville's Levee system.
1895: The Marysville River Pumps were installed.
1908: Yuba City was incorporated as a city.
1913: The Wheatland Hop Riot at Durst Ranch led to improved conditions for Migrant Farm Workers.
1924-1939: The Women's Improvement Club of Marysville commissioned Robbie McLaren, the designer of Golden Gate Park, to turn the current site of Ellis Lake from a slough into a more enjoyable lake.
1933: The first annual Marysville Stampede and Flying U Rodeo was held.
1938: W. T. Ellis, Jr.'s autobiography, Memories: My Seventy-Two Years in the Romantic County of Yuba, California, was published, providing one of the best records of Marysville's early history. It is now freely available online in its entirety.
1947: Live Oak was incorporated as a city.
1955: Marysville is evacuated due to a flood that destroys the former bridge over the Yuba River on D Street in Marysville. The current E Street Bridge is built to replace it, one block west of the original.
1959: The first annual Harvest Hoedown was held.
1985: The first annual Bike Around the Buttes was held.
1988: The first annual Highland Games and Celtic Festival was held.
1991: The first annual Wear and Remembrance Vintage Clothing Fair was held.
1994: The first annual Twin City Slickers Cattle Drive was held.
1995: Cardboard boat races were added to the annual Great American Regatta.
1999: The first annual Yuba-Sutter Juneteenth Celebration and the first annual Marysville Peach Fest were held.

For details about specific historical figures, see Historical Figures.

2nd and 4th Saturdays of Every Month: Henry Delamere, Official City Historian of Marysville, conducts history talks and discussions at Amicus Books Literary Arts Center and Bookstore, 413 D Street, Marysville.

February: Bok Kai Festival and Parade (late 19th century)
April: Wear and Remembrance Vintage Clothing Fair (multiple eras)
May: Canteen Dance (World War II)
October: Beckwourth Frontier Days (Gold Rush)

Yuba Historical Society
Wheatland Historical Society

Community Memorial Museum of Sutter County
Mary Aaron Memorial Museum
California State Indian Museum
California State Railroad Museum

Bok Kai Temple
Chinese Pyre
Overland Emigrant Trail
Silver Dollar Saloon
Bidwell Mansion
Donner Memorial State Park
Empire Mine State Historic Park
Folsom Powerhouse State Historic Park
Governor's Mansion
Juan Bautista De Anza National Historic Trail
Leland Stanford Mansion
Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park
Old Sacramento
San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park
Sutter's Fort

Yuba Historical Society
Wheatland Historical Society
YubaRoots.com
Sutter County History: A Brief History of Yuba City
Sutter County History: A Brief History of Pleasant Grove
History of Yuba County, California by Thompson & West, 1879
"Sutter County History" from A Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California, 1891
Yuba County Biographies from History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, 1924