SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Every city in America ought to emulate what I discovered about the capital city of the nation’s most populous state.

There’s a district here called Old Sacramento — or Old Sac, as the locals refer to it. It sits on the rain-swollen Sacramento River adjacent to downtown Sacramento.

It contains a seemingly endless array of shopping opportunities. The district also offers train rides aboard Sacramento Southern trains that take tourists on rides through the city.

Oh, and then they have museums. I toured one of them, the Sacramento History Museum, which chronicles the development of the city on a floodplain, which narrators told me was a rare task to complete in the mid-19th century.

The city, of course, sits in the middle of the Gold Rush country of 1849, when Americans flocked here in search of their fortunes. Some of them succeeded; most didn’t.

There’s also a railroad museum at the end of Old Sac. I didn’t have time to walk through it. Maybe next time.

What astounds me is the level of development that has enlivened this district, with its old storefronts that have been rehabilitated and renovated. They sell lots of sweets, coffee, trinkets, souvenirs. The streets in Old Sac are lined with shops and plenty of good eating and drinking establishments.

It’s done to honor the city’s rich history. Man, oh man. I need to return here and take in more of what Old Sac has to offer.

Back to my initial point, which is that each American community has a history. We ought to cherish the events that built our communities. Sacramento has done that with its Old Sac district.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com