On the corner of J and 2nd Streets, a man with a sheriff's star and gun holster slung around his waist cupped his hands and loudly announced, "Citizens of Sacramento! The mayor of Sacramento has an announcement!" If you were expecting Kevin Johnson to address the growing crowd of bystanders, you were sure to be disappointed. Saturday's Gold Rush Days hosted plenty of important Sacramentans, circa 1850. The free four-day event took over Old Sacramento with 200 tons of dirt and about 200 reenactors in 1850s-style garb. Attendees milled around the Embarcadero Tent City, a field of canvas tents that featured 1850 institutions such as a blacksmith, lace-maker, tinsmith, dentist, Mormon batta

Sacramento gamblers tired of driving to Las Vegas to get their gaming fix can breathe a sigh of relief. The Sacramento History Museum is bringing the games to Old Sac with the first-ever Gold Rush Gambling Day. Although the dealers may be playing Three Card Monte instead of Texas Hold 'Em and the sinning might give way to educational outreach, it still promises to be a fun day. The event, which will be held on Aug. 22 at 1 p.m. at the Sacramento History Museum (101 I St.), is one of the weekend events that the museum holds every second and fourth Saturday. It is expected to last about one hour. The day will begin with a lecture about Gold Rush-era gambling games and life in the typical s

Sacramento's Italian community is known to produce gourmet food, but there's much more to the community than Biba, Sofia's and Hot Italian. With this weekend's Festa Italian opening Saturday and running through Sunday at The Croatian Culture Center, we take a look back at the role Italian immigrants and their descendants played in Sacramento's history. Italian Americans have a long history in the Sacramento area. Agriculture and food processing are just some of the many successes of Italian Americans who settled in the area in the early 1850s, but their successes are hardly limited to that. Early Italian Americans Many of the earliest Gold Rush settlers who migrated in the "Mother Lode

  Gold Rush Ghosts Saga: A Haunting in Arnold By Paul Dale Roberts, General Manager/Ghostwriter Date: October 17, 2008, Friday. Briefing at Paul's Home conducted at 1900 hours. Arrival Time at Arnold Residence: 2200 hours. Time investigation Seance Ended: 0400 hours. Debriefing for the Occupants/Investigators at 0415 hours. Conducted by Lead: Paul Dale Roberts. Arrival time back to Elk Grove: 0530 hours. Nancy Bradley - Celebrity Psychic of Ghost Girls www.ghostgirls.net and Robert Reppert of Gold Rush Ghosts www.goldrushghosts.com receive a phone call from Amy Lynn and Vincent Scotto. A frantic Amy explains to Nancy that her home is haunted. Nancy explains to me what the situation is a