Sutter

The town of Sutter started out as South Butte, a small farming community with a post office located near the present Sutter Cemetery site. In 1888, the San Francisco-based Sutter County Land and Improvement Company mapped the 175-acre “Sutter City.” An elementary school opened in August of 1888, and a high school began on the building’s second story in 1893. The town boomed and then went “bust” due to company mismanagement. “City” was later dropped from the town’s name.

Historic Points of Interest

  • Located at 2234 California Street in Sutter is the Felts Building, built in 1890 with thick brick walls. It was an old store and an early post office.
  • At the corner of California and Nelson Streets in Sutter was the Native Daughters of the Golden West Hall, Local 226, built in 1888. It was originally designed for, but never used, as a bank. Now privately owned, it housed a meat market at one time, and magic lantern shows took place on the second floor.
  • The Sacramento Northern Railway Depot is at 1600 Acacia Avenue in the parking lot of Close Lumber. It has been repurposed, and the tracks were removed. The track here connected Yuba City, Meridian, Colusa, and Live Oak.
  • In Sutter County, the larger railroad stations had an agent with facilities for handling freight and were located at Meridian, Sutter, Live Oak, and Yuba City. The Sacramento Northern Railroad was originally the Northern Electric, with service from Yuba City to Colusa and from Yuba City to Chico. The tracks had three rails; the two outside rails were for the train wheels, and the middle or “hot rail” was for electricity. The Sacramento Northern Railway never had steam engines, only electric, which were converted to diesel in the early 1940s.
    Learn about Sacramento Valley’s First Electric Railroad here – page 4
  • On Butte House Road, between Oak Street and Cypress on the north side, is the site of the Butte House, which was a stagecoach stop. Butte House Road was known as the Marysville – Colusa Road. The Butte House was a stop along the way, and people began referring to the road leading to South Butte (the previous name of the community of Sutter) as Butte House. The South Butte Post Office was located there in 1871. It also served as a stage stop, bar, and hotel. The watering trough marks the location of the Butte House, which burned many years ago. 
    Learn more about traveling to the Butte House here – page 4
  • East of Oak Street on the south side of Butte House Road is the Watering Trough. The trough was erected between 1910-1914 by the road districts. To defray the costs, sponsors were solicited through newspaper advertisement. On the sides of the trough, names of various local business establishments were engraved in cement. Water was siphoned up from a well below the trough by a hand pump.
    Learn more about the Watering Trough here – page 19
  • The Sutter Cemetery is at 7200 Butte House Road and served as Sutter County’s main burial site. The earliest grave recorded is from 1857. A small grammar school was once located in the center of the cemetery. Whenever a funeral was held, school was dismissed for the day.
    Read more about The Graveyard at Butte Mountain here – page 13
    A full index of the Sutter/South Butte Cemetery is available here.
  • Along nearby Pass Road is the Fremont Monument. General John C. Fremont camped in this area for eight days in 1846 from May 30th to June 8th, just before the Bear Flag Rebellion. He called the Sutter Buttes “the Buttes of Sacramento” and “The Three Buttes.” Fremont led the Sacramento River massacre, Klamath Lake massacre, and Sutter Buttes massacre against Indigenous peoples of California. The present monument was erected April 15, 1923 by the Bi-County Women’s Club Federation.
  • At 7982 Pass Road on the south side is the Brittan House, which was built in 1869 by 49er George E. Brittan. The house, built of hand-cut stone from the Buttes, took seven years to build. Brittan was a county supervisor. He donated land for the elementary school in Sutter, which bears his name.

Resources

To learn more about the history of the town of Sutter, check out these articles: