Local history buffs were treated to a rare peek back into the region’s past on Saturday as four separate sites played host to 22 different archivist groups in Downtown Sacramento.

The 1st Annual Sacramento Archives Crawl, held concurrently at the California State Archives, the California State Library, the Central Library’s Sacramento Room and the Center for Sacramento History, showcased old photographs, books, art, and other tangible links to this area’s remarkable story.

Organizers performed an excellent job at producing an event that was not only educational, but fun as well. Percipients were given a passport, and instructed to get a special stamp at each respective site. Once you received your third stamp, you were given a reward of four Buffalo Brewery drink coasters.

The tour guides were pleasant and enthusiastically helpful while providing a vibrant narrative. All in all, the entire event was easy to navigate and very well managed, an accomplishment that is very respectable seeing how this was their first go-a-round.

Amanda Graham, an archivist at The Sacramento Room, told me that the point of the event was to draw out people that normally might not  consider visiting an archive.

“With today’s level of traffic I would estimate that over 200 people have attended, which is much more people than we normally get to come out to an archives open house event.” Graham says.

“People are getting a look at stuff that’s mostly stored in vaults and locked rooms. It’s some of the really cool stuff.”

Graham says plans are already in the works to bring it back next year.

If you’d like to learn more about the crawl, visit www.sacarchivescrawl.blogspot.com