Okay, so I take that 'nothing' comment back, sometimes you stumble onto something like this. Have to do a double take...
The Historic Grand Island Mansion, circa 1917 -
http://www.grandislandmansion.com/
The delta's historic Grand Island Mansion is a uniquely spectacular Italian Renaissance style villa. The Mansion is the largest private estate in northern California, and embodies the finest features of classical architecture and European craftsmanship.
The four-story, 24,000 square foot 58 room villa is centrally located on Grand Island in the lush delta region east of the San Francisco Bay. The mansion was designed by J.W. Dolliver, the renowned San Francisco architect, in 1917 for Louis Meyers, a native of San Francisco, and his wife, Audrey, daughter of Lubin of the Weinstock Lubin department stores.
Louis Meyers, an Orchardist, built the house as the centerpiece of his Orchard Empire and as a place to entertain his society guests who arrived by riverboat, such as author Erle Stanley Gardiner. The Grand Island Mansion has recently undergone extensive restoration under the direction of Terrence Black, great-nephew of the original architect, making the private estate the premier facility for weddings, receptions, corporate retreats, business conferences and private events. Immediate plans for the future include full spa services in the elegant style of a bygone era.
Guests can entertain in the private English Hunt lounge and bar, overlooking the spacious interior courtyard Colonnade room with fountains, vaulted ceiling and Moorish arches. The historic house was built by the finest craftsmen from Europe and has five marble fireplaces, inlaid parquet flooring, rare handmade tile work throughout, imported wood paneling, luxurious period furnishings and authentic artwork. Other amenities include a heliport, tennis court, basketball court, private docks and classical Italian gardens.
The Mansion has been featured in such publications as National Geographic, Sunset Magazine, Architectural Digest, Playboy Magazine, Victoria's Secret Catalog, and Macy's Furniture Catalog.[/QUOTE]
Never know what you're going to find when out exploring. Then it was off to explore some more.
The story of the levees goes something like this: Padre Juan Crespi' and Pedro Fages arrived in the area in 1772 finding so much water, they thought the Central Valley was actually the Sea of California. However, farmers settling the area discovered the silt deposited by this yearly flooding provided extremely fertile land. Unfortunately, the frequent & unpredictable floods destroyed entire crops, and at times entire towns. The city of Sacramento flooded so many times that the townspeople filled the streets and the first floor of their residences, with dirt. Today in Historic Old Sacramento, a short walk from the state capital building, the streets are actually the level of the second floor of the original buildings.
When Chinese immigrants who built the first transcontinental railroad finished up the job in 1869, this labor force soldiered on by beginning the monumental task to build miles of levees to hold the American and San Joaquin Rivers. All by hand with wheelbarrows and shovels, later to be replaced with the clamshell dredge. The project, like the railroads, was massive. 700 miles worth of rivers, tributaries, sloughs.
It took the Chinese 60 years to build the 700 miles of levees in California's Central Valley, but the result was massive amounts of farmland- over 700,000 acres of river delta, swamps and sloughs were converted. Miles and miles of orchards sprang up. The pictures you see today of these levees are what they built, many of it untouched for the last 100 years.
Sheesh. 
