Placer County shares history, borders with Folsom

Manmade boundaries may divide the foothills' communities into counties, but a common history brings Placer and Sacramento municipalities together at Folsom.Explored by mountaineers, mined by prospectors and tamed by a railroad, Folsom grew up in the Gold Rush era, like many of its Placer County counterparts. Once separated by forks of the American River, now Folsom and its Placer County neighbors share the Folsom Lake State Recreation Area and the reservoir that covers their oldest mining settlements.Jedediah Smith was the first mountain man to lead a group of trappers into the hills above Sacramento. They arrived in what is now known as Folsom in 1827, and are thought to be the first white men in the territory.They were just the beginning of an influx of emigrants and immigrants that shifted the world's population westward.In the 1840s, William Leidesdorff left New Orleans after a failed romance, heading for the Barbary Coast. He purchased land in San Francisco then, after becoming a Mexican citizen, was granted control over 35,000 acres east of Sacramento that stretched from the valley's edge up into the rocky foothills alongside the American River. He called it Granite City.Around the same time, gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill, upriver at Coloma. Word of the find spread like honey, luring swarms of men and women into the golden hills of the California territory. Mining camps such as Mormon Island and Negro Bar littered the banks of the American River near Granite City.Leidesdorff died before the land was developed, and a man named Joseph Folsom purchased the estate from his heirs. Folsom hired respected railroad planner and engineer Theodore Judah to lay out streets for the emerging town.But Folsom died before his dream was realized. In 1856, the work on the city plan was completed and the land was subdivided into about 2,048 lots that sold quickly. The community was renamed Folsom to honor its founder.Like most cities that developed during that period, Folsom might have faded to a ghost town had it not been for its rail line.In 1855, Judah had designed the Sacramento Valley Railroad, with 22 miles of track linking Sacramento to Granite City. The first commercial railroad built west of the Mississippi, the line eventually was extended to Lincoln, with plans to continue on up to Marysville.Because of the presence of the railroad in Folsom, it also became the terminus for the Pony Express. Mail was shipped by train from Sacramento to Folsom, then a rider would transport the parcels by horseback into neighboring El Dorado County, through Rescue to Placerville.Although the Pony Express service through Folsom only lasted 18 months, it secured the city as an important crossroads. Years later, its newfangled powerhouse that generated hydroelectric energy would cement its importance to the region.The Folsom State Prison added another facet to the city's character. Nearly 60 years later, the Folsom Dam chiseled another shining aspect into the community's profile.With industry, recreation and a strong sense of its place in history, Folsom grew into a well-rounded village. But a population explosion in the foothills in the last two decades of the 20th century, followed by a tremendous construction boom, pushed Folsom out to its city limits.Nudging the Highway 50 corridor, and sporting a new light rail connection to downtown Sacramento, Folsom has blossomed with new homes, business parks, corporate digs, big box stores, small shopping strips and a factory outlet mall. Toss in its zoo, community college campus, parks, trails and watersports venues and it is a city that seems self sufficient.Folsom's city motto is "Where the past meets the future". It's also where Placer and Sacramento counties have always come together.