Sailor Bar is an amazing place to walk, bike and experience the American River in Fair Oaks, Ca.  It's a 114 acre river bar that feels wild and wonderful, yet holds the secrets and scarring of 100 years of gold mining history. It's a walker's paradise!

Sailor Bar extends from the Hazel Bridge along the north side of the American River, to the rise of the Fair Oaks Bluffs near Olive and Natoma Avenues. It's easy to get a 3 - 5 mile hike in by wandering around the many twisted and turning trails through gold mine tailings, along the river's edge, around the fishing pond, and under towering oaks.

You can get to Sailor Bar from 4 access points.  Both Olive and Illinois Avenue have public parking.  Illinois also has a boat ramp. Additionally you can park at the ends Kenneth Avenue or Emperor Drive where there is a trail access.

Once at Sailor Bar, there are rocky service roads and dirt trails winding along the rivers edge, along the bottom of the bluff, and through past mounds of rocky mine tailings.  For nearly 100 years, from the 1850s til the 1940s this area was mined by gold miners seeking their fortune. In fact, it is named after the sailors who reportedly jumped ship to stake their claim along the banks of the river. First with gold pans, followed by rockers, Long Toms, sluice boxes, and finally bucket line dredges, the area is thought to have unearthed $125,000,000 in gold. That's 125 Million - quite a chunk of change!

During their heyday, bucket line dredges churned up the river bed, sorting and sifting rocks, filtering out the gold, then dumping the left over rocks into tailings - scalloped linear rock piles that give a wierd texture to the terrain. They are particularly bizarre to see in an aerial photo.

Recently, however, the rock pilings have been put to good use. A gazillion salmon swim up the American River each year to spawn - lay their eggs.  Since 1955 the Nimbus Dam upstream of Sailor Bar has stopped the poor fish from reaching their spawning grounds in the headwaters of the river.  

The Nimbus Fish hatchery was built below the dam to capture the returning fish. On the way, many will spawn in the shallow gravel beds of the river, before being captured at the hatchery.  The daming of the river stopped the natural flow of gravel downstream, and the gravel beds are diminishing.

Aha, said the fishery people.  We've got gravel, and the fish need it.  So from 2008 through 2010, the Gravel Augmentation Project has placed over 33 tons of gravel in the river, creating cozy spawning beds for our fishy friends. I can't say it has left much of a dent in the gravel of Sailor Bar, but the fish are happy.

So enjoy a walk around Sailor Bar.  It is truly a walk through history, and a wonderful natural playground right in the heart of Fair Oaks.