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Sutter Basin Company Records
D-491  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • History
  • Scope and Content
  • Arrangement of the Collection
  • Access
  • Processing Information
  • Acquisition
  • Preferred Citation
  • Publication Rights

  • Language of Material: English
    Contributing Institution: University of California, Davis General Library, Dept. of Special Collections
    Title: Sutter Basin Company Records
    Creator: Sutter Basin Company
    Identifier/Call Number: D-491
    Physical Description: 215 linear feet
    Date (inclusive): 1910-1974
    Abstract: The Sutter Basin Company Records document the draining of 45,000 acres of land along the Sacramento River near Robbins, California, and the subsequent use of the land for farming. The collection includes letters and telegrams from Chicago to Sacramento on all facets of the company, including financing, land sales data, crop data, test gardens, artifacts, maps, blueprints, and ledgers. The collection also includes two boxes of realia.
    Physical Location: Researchers should contact Special Collections to request collections, as many are stored offsite.

    History

    The Sutter Basin Company was founded in 1911 with the aim of developing 45,000 acres of land along the Sacramento River in Sutter County. With funding from Chicago meat packer J. Ogden Armour, a group of businessmen in Sacramento lobbied the state and federal governments to create Reclamation District #1500. The project raised levees on portions of the Sacramento river, constructed the Sutter Bypass, and developmed irrigation canals to re-route the flood waters. Prospective buyers started arriving in 1920 and the Sutter Basin Company continued selling parcels of land until 1946.
    Source:
    Unpublished history by Janet Alonso, Robbins, California

    Scope and Content

    The Sutter Basin Company Records document the draining of the Sacramento River flood plain near Robbins, California, and the subsequent use of the land for farming. The collection includes letters and telegrams from Chicago to Sacramento on all facets of the company, including financing, land sales data, crop data, test gardens, artifacts, maps, blueprints, and ledgers. The collection also includes two boxes of realia.

    Arrangement of the Collection

    The collection is arranged in four series: 1. Records; 2. Ledgers; 3. Maps; 4. Realia.

    Access

    Collection is open for research.

    Processing Information

    Due to the size of the collection and the unclear original order of the records, this collection is arranged by material type and chronologically by year. Manuscript Archivist Liz Phillips processed this collection and created and encoded the finding aid with assistance from student employees Alex Dao and Kelley Liang.

    Acquisition

    Gift of Mohammad A. Gorsi, Janet Alonso, and Steven T. Butler, 2008.

    Preferred Citation

    Sutter Basin Company Records, D-491, Department of Special Collections, General Library, University of California, Davis.

    Publication Rights

    Copyright is protected by the copyright law, chapter 17 of the U.S. Code. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publications is given on behalf of Special Collections, General Library, University of California, Davis as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Reclamation of land -- California -- Sutter County.
    Flood control -- California -- Sutter Bypass.
    Floods -- California -- Sacramento River.
    Agriculture -- California -- Sutter County
    Sutter County (Calif.) -- History
    Sacramento Valley (Calif.) -- History
    Sutter Basin Company -- Archives