Nearly all goods traveling to Sacramento and the California Gold Rush came by boat from the Bay Area. In the early 1860s businessmen grew tired of paying taxes at the Sacramento Embarcadero (port). In 1862 Freeport Railroad Company was created with the idea of building a new port that was free of taxes. Hence “Freeport.” The idea was to build a railway that bypassed Sacramento connecting with the Sacramento Valley Railroad at a midway point between Sacramento and Folsom. The newly formed town boomed for three years with populations reaching 300–400.
Passages that mention Freeport, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Sacramento County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present1923 · page 245Read the page →
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The Freeport road originated in a plan to divert the northern and eastern trade from Sacramento by building wharves, etc., at Freeport and a railroad from there to some point on the Sacramento Valley road. The road-bed was graded for a distance of nine miles from Freeport, and the track laid. It was intended as part of the Sacramento Valley road, and was
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History of Sacramento County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present1913 · page 196Read the page →
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The Freeport road originated in a plan to divert the northern and eastern trade from Sacramento by building wharves, etc., at Freeport and a railroad from there to some point on the Sacramento Valley road. The road bed was graded for a distance of nine miles from Freeport, and the track laid. It was intended as part of the Sacramento Valley road, and was purchased with it by the Central Pacific and the track taken up.
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An illustrated history of Sacramento County, California1890 · page 223Read the page →
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The Freeport Railroad Company was formed in 1862 or '63, for the purpose of building a road from Freeport, connecting with the Sacramento Valley Railroad at a point midway between Sacramento and Folsom, the idea being
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History of Sacramento County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present1923 · page 120Read the page →
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Freeport, eight miles from Sacramento on the river, was the place from which the Freeport Railroad Company projected its road in 1862-1863 to connect with the Sacramento Valley Road, and enjoyed quite a shipping trade to the mines for several years. A. J.
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Freeport, 1864 to 1952
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
2013
