On December 27, 1849, Henry Treichler arrived in San Francisco after traveling a very arduous journey from Baton Rouge, Louisiana to California by way of the Isthmus of Panama. Treichler was born in 1821 in Zurich, Switzerland and migrated to the United States in 1845 looking for opportunity and a better life. It is while residing in Louisiana where he heard the news of the gold in California. Upon arriving in San Francisco, he quickly traveled to the gold region. Treichler mined for gold at the Auburn mines and on the Yuba River where he amassed enough wealth to purchase some choice property near the waterfront on I Street in Sacramento. By 1856, Treichler and his business partner Thomas Pfeiffer managed a wooden hotel, called the Mechanics’ Exchange, on the south side of I Street between Front and Second Streets. The hotel catered predominantly to workers at the Sacramento Iron Works across the street (where the California State Railroad Museum is today). After Treichler and Pfei...