4 minute read
Discover Dixon
The city was going to be called Dicksonville after pioneer Thomas Dickson, who donated 10 acres of his property for a railroad depot, but a merchandise shipment in 1872 misspelled the name as Dixon.
Almost two years of trying to have the town formally named Dicksonville ended in 1874 when the county recorder filed the name Dixon on new maps. Dixon was a simpler name, he said.
The dairy cows that once gave Dixon the nickname The Dairy City are for the most part gone, though the Heritage Dairy is located a few miles from town. But Dixon is located amid the Dixon Ridge farming area of the Central Valley.
The town’s agricultural heritage draws from some of Solano County’s most fertile soil where farmers grow everything from tomatoes to alfalfa, ranchers run cattle and sheep, and orchardists grow almonds and walnuts.
The annual May Fair, which began in the late 1800s and is the longest continually running agriculture fair in California, helps keep Dixon’s farming heritage alive. Fall brings such attractions as the Cool Pumpkin Patch corn maze. The Dixon Fairgrounds hosts year-round events.
Solano County has a 548-acre area zoned for agricultural services next to Dixon. This area is to be home to processing plants and other businesses that help the farming economy.
Dixon has become more suburban in recent decades, with subdivisions swelling its population of commuters who travel to Davis and the Sacramento area to work.
The city was incorporated in 1878.
Dixon almost became home to a major horse-racing center, but residents voted that down on the grounds they liked their town the way it was. The city also courted the idea of trying to land a movie studio that would have been built on the south side of town and produce family films, but the studio never came about.
But agriculture still looms large. Just look at the city seal, which portrays an orchard and rows of crops in the foreground and buildings in the distance.
Dixon was born in 1851 when pioneer Elija Silvey founded the town of Silveyville, which was located a few miles from present-day Dixon. He set up a hotel and saloon for mule teams traveling between San Francisco and the gold fields in the Sierra Nevada and put up a red lantern to make certain people could find it.
By 1865, Silveyville had about 150 residents and boasted a store, blacksmith shop and a post office, with Silvey serving as postmaster. But the Central Pacific railroad came through in 1868 several miles away and Silveyville died. A new town sprung up along the
railroad tracks, with people moving many of the Silveyville buildings there on rollers.
In a twist of irony, one of the few buildings to survive from Silveyville was a church that was too large to be hauled over the railroad tracks. When a massive fire burned down much of Dixon, the church survived quite literally because it was on the wrong side of the tracks.
The Nov. 19, 1883, fire started in the kitchen of the Centennial Hotel, where the Moose Lodge is now located, and almost completely destroyed the town. Winds up to 60 mph spread the fire and the town’s saloons and six churches were destroyed within hours.
A city ordinance that followed set brick or tin as the building material of choice.
The city is a true Central Valley town amid a county that is considered part of the Bay Area, with more in common geographically with Sacramento than San Francisco. It has the flat expanses of land and hot summer temperatures of the valley.
And, of course, it has the vast expanses of farmland at its borders.
DIXONSpend the day, see some sights
SACRAMENTO VALLEY NATIONAL CEMETERY
SACRAMENTO VALLEY NATIONAL CEMETERY
The Sacramento Valley National Cemetery is the seventh national cemetery built in California and the 124th in the nation. It opened to burials in 2006. It is located on Midway Road between Vacaville and Dixon. The cemetery should serve the needs of the area for the next 50 years. It opened with 14 acres for interment of local veterans and their loved ones, and has steadily expanded. LOCATION: 5810 Midway Road, Dixon MORE INFORMATION: 707-693-2460, www.cem.va.gov/cems/nchp/sacramento.asp.
Solano County DINING GUIDE
Mr. Pickles Sandwich Shop
LA CABANA
325 Main Street • Suisun City (707) 429-5871 • (707) 673-2877 LaCabanaDeSuisun.com
TORTILLA FLATS
646 Hwy 12, Rio Vista 707-374-2564
Huckleberry’s
Southern Cookin’ with a California Twist 3101 Travis Blvd. • Fairfield (707) 427-3800 • huckleberrys.org
4513 Putah Creek Road • Winters (530) 441-2337 • greenrivertaproom.net
Red Lobster
California Burrito
Open 24 Hours 4401 Central Place • Fairfield (707)-803-5410 • eatcaliforniaburrito.com
98 Peabody Rd. • Vacaville (707)-359-6100
1347 E Monte Vista Ave • Vacaville 707-474-4913
BURGERLICIOUS
650 Hwy 12, Rio Vista (707) 374-2020
THE POINT RESTUARANT
Original Mel’s Diner
CAST IRON GRILL & Bar
Evelyn’s Big Italian 704 Texas Street • Fairfield (707) 421-9000
Merchant & Main Grill & Bar
700 Main Street • Suite 104 • Suisun (707) 425-1700 349 Merchant Street • Vacaville (707) 446-0368
