As you drive down Garden Highway, just about 16 miles north of Sacramento, you’ll discover an old riverboat down near the Sacramento River. If you don’t know it’s there, the sight may surprise you: a portly vessel, with three levels, rows of white handrails, and a massive red paddlewheel on its stern. When the adjacent river floods, the boat appears to float atop the water. Most of the year, though, it stands in a grassy meadow, empty and abandoned, a relic of a bygone day.
This particular tub is the Spirit of Sacramento, a nod to the city nearby. It’s a roadside curiosity that has caused more than one motorist to pull over and snap pictures. The boat technically stands on private property; a perimeter fence and a homemade sign reading “Stay Out” are designed to ward off trespassers. Yet travelers may wonder where this craft came from and why its graffiti-marked hull should be randomly stranded on the edge of the Sacramento River. Little do they know that this boat was once quite famous — and has a direct connection to iconic movie star John Wayne. If you’re already visiting California’s artsy “City of Trees,” which bursts with green areas and a thriving cultural scene, viewing this unusual landmark from the highway is absolutely worth a side-trip.
The meandering tale of the Spirit of the Sacramento
There’s no plaque or sign to explain the Spirit of Sacramento’s origins, but this quiet monument has quite the backstory. A boatbuilder will tell you that the Spirit of Sacramento was a “snagboat,” a special vessel designed to ram into obstructions in the river and knock them loose. The Army Corps of Engineers commissioned the boat in 1942, when it was known as the Putah. In the 1950s, Hollywood action hero John Wayne bought the boat and used it in his 1955 film “Blood Alley.”
The Spirit doesn’t just appear in “Blood Alley”; it co-stars. The film concerns an American captain in then-modern China. Local villagers free him from a Communist prison and implore him to smuggle a group of refugees to Hong Kong on a stolen paddleboat. In the movie, the Spirit of Sacramento goes by the name Chiku Shan, and many of the scenes take place aboard her decks. Lauren Bacall also headlines the film…