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by Tom Evans
Gilds Its Gold-Rusto Days
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Satbamemto, headquarters (or miners during the wild
and woolly dayi of the California (old rush, ia rebuilding IU
historic "West End "
West End was where the gold miners collected their grub
stakes and celebrated their strikes, where mule pack trains
set off with supplies for miners as far away as Idaho, where
Pony Express riders ended their weary ride from St Joseph,
Mo., and where Capt. John A Sutter landed on the banks of
the Sacramento river and started the gold fever.
That was more than 100 years ago. Today the West End has
become a crumbling, blighted 62 -block area of flophouses,
honky-tonks, pawnshops, and overcrowded, substandard
housing units. Worse than that, the area's decay was slowly
spreading into healthy sections of Sacramento
The city fathers decided to do something about It some
thing big. They drew up plana for a complete rehabilitation of
the area, centering on a 15-block Capitol Mall, a $10-million
project of commercial, residential, and public buildings.
Not all the romance of the gold-rush days will vanish under
the wreckers' hammers. The Pony Express office will be left
as a reminder of the city's past. Other historic landmarks also
will remain
One of these is the home of E B Crocker, pioneer California
jurist and a backer of the first transcontinental railroad. Now
the Crocker Art Gallery, the building houses one of the West's
finest art collections
More than 400 families, representing 27 nationalities, and
many businesnes will be displaced, but the city ha offered
financial help and udvice in finding new locations. A number
of businessmen slready have planned to move back into the
revitalized West End
The work began in 1950 and may take more than a decade
to complete, but Sacramento wil) someday have a new "gold
rush" section of which it can be Justly proud!
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