The Markeroni Blog
The blog of Markeroni, the Gentle Art of Landmark-Snarfing

This blog is part of Markeroni, the Gentle Art of Landmark-Snarfing, a site where you can find out information about historical markers and historic sites, and log your visits there. To find out more, please visit!

Last weekend AmberLee and I headed out on snarfari. Actually, the excuse to drive out to Old Sacramento came in the form of a Geocaching gather, but after the gather was over we left to run slightly amok in the nearby city. ;)

1. From where we parked, there’s this peculiarly-shaped gateway that takes you down to Old Sacramento.

2. As you go through the underpass, a mural gives a fairly detailed timeline of Sacramento’s development. It’s so big, in fact, that I split it up into several different landmarks.

3. This was the first building we saw as we got up the other side. We were actually quite unprepared so I don’t really know if it’s a snarf or not, but it’s certainly historic. ;)

In its basement can be found the Center for Living History, which is where you go if you want to spend the summer dressed in period costume, accosting the tourists. :)

4. Here’s the monument to Theodore Dehone Judah, along with Mr. Penguin, who looks just as austere. I have to admit to thinking that Theodore, a pioneer and engineer who played a significant part in the building of railroads going west, looks a bit like God opening the clouds in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

5. This is a marker for a Blue Star Highway. These markers are all over the country, put up by the Garden Club of America, to honor veterans.

6. Ooh look! An old-time trolley is coming to get us.

7. Old Sacramento is definitely set up as a tourist trap, but it has its merits. Here’s a biker bar with a row of shining chrome out front. Sorry, but there has to be a gratuitous bike picture. ;)

8. I think the building at the far side of the shot is the actual building where the pony part of the Pony Express ended. Opposite is a “wall o’ snarfs” with about eight different plaques, many of them saying much the same thing. If I got this right, the Pony Express mail went on from here by river to San Francisco, which is why there’s an almost identical wall o’ snarfs there, too.

9. There’s a gorgeous statue of the Pony Express, all full of motion and speed. Not bad for a solid stone object.

10. Here’s one of the plaques, a California state historic landmark, on the wall o’ snarfs. The reason I’m holding up my GPS is because I figured that if I photographed the waypoint on the unit with the landmark I’d actually be able to pair the two up afterwards and save tons of time by not trying to give my waypoints names that will mean something to me when I finally get round to logging the landmark.

It mostly worked–I need to make sure I don’t get too many reflections and that the close-ups aren’t too close-up.

11. We then left the area and went to Sutter Fort. Sutter’s men discovered gold so it’s all their fault that there was a Gold Rush. He wasn’t a very nice person, apparently.

12. Joint snarfing–AmberLee and I put our mascots on the same marker for the Colusa road, which ran from here to Sutter’s Mill which, oddly enough, is in Colusa. I understand that there’s another plaque there, too.

13. And finally, the famous Sutter’s Fort, which is one of the landmarks our Governator is proposing to close while we deal with a several billion dollar deficit. Nice.

Don’t you love our pretty blue January sky?

Does running around looking for aged buildings and monuments appeal, especially while wielding a penguin? If so, feel free to join Markeroni. It’s what we’re for. ;)

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1. Greatful Livin
   
2. Deb
   
3. Sue
   
4. Nicholas
   
5. Puss Reboots
   
6. Danger Kitty
   
7. Ellen B
   

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