Discover
RIO VISTA W
ater helped give life to this Solano County community and, in 1862, helped to destroy it. That was when the Sacramento River rose and 12 feet of water covered Rio Vista. The community was re-established on higher ground about 2 miles from its original location where the Cache Slough meets the Sacramento River. A wharf was built and the first church, for Catholics, was erected 1862. A Congregational Church was also built the same year. A salmon cannery was among businesses of the river town, which has seen rapid growth recently. Its population nearly doubled between 2000 and 2010 and California State Department of Finance projections foresee continued growth. The Sacramento River often doubled
in films as the Mississippi River – most notably playing a starring role in numerous Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn films dating back to the early 1900s. Dozens of other notable movies – from silent to talkies – brought in famous stars and directors such as William Desmond, John Ford, Cecil B. DeMille, Jackie Coogen and perhaps even John Wayne, when “The Big Trail” was filmed there in 1930. Along with human visitors, wayward Humpback whales occasionally make their way to Rio Vista, attracting enough attention to gridlock the tiny hamlet. The most recent were in 2007 – a mother and calf named Delta and Dawn. Humphrey’s 1985 visit, however, is immortalized on a plaque at the foot of Main Street by City Hall. The Chamber of Commerce likes to note that Joseph Strauss, architect of the Golden Gate Bridge, designed
the community’s largest landmark, the Helen Madere Memorial Bridge, or the Rio Vista Bridge as its known, “situated on the historic Sacramento River with a silhouette of the rolling Montezuma Hills to the south.” Madere was a former Rio Vista city councilwoman. The business group also boasts how Rio Vista “still maintains an easy-going small-town attitude even though it is central to the two largest population centers in Northern California.” Moreover, the community is known to have some of the best sport fishing in the state and is host to the West Coast’s oldest striped bass derby each October – the Rio Vista Bass Derby and Festival. The Rio Vista Airport on the outskirts of town makes flying in for a day of business, lunch or just to explore the area easily accessible. The community is also home to home to “world-class”
Chamber of Commerce: 37 N. Second St., Rio Vista. 374-2700, riovista.org SUMMER 2022
Discover Solano
| 31
