Laser Cutting the Five Capitals of California

Introduction

The former capital of California, Monterey, now is more famous for its fish than its nearly century-long part in history. It has a population of about 30,000, but its aquarium gets 2 million annual visitors. I've been a few times, but when I visited earlier this year, I skipped the more modern touristy parts and saw a different side of town, including the 1827 Customs House. At the time it processed all goods shipped into California.

Starting in 1777, Monterey became the capital of the Spanish territory Alta California. After Mexican independence, it transitioned to new rule in 1821. Then after the Mexican-American war the American flag first flew over Monterey in September 1846.

In remarkably good timing for the Americans, gold was discovered in California in January 1848, leading California's rapid population growth and its fast track to statehood. During a short, around five-year period, California would have five different capitals.

The first constitutional convention met in Monterey in September 1849, but soon after on December 15 things moved to San Jose for the first legislature session (about a year before California was admitted as a state in September 1850). This gave a fresh start away from the old Mexican capital.

San Jose

However, the move was apparently rushed, as no Capitol building was yet finished. As will become a theme, the legislature apparently did not have good luck with water, as devastating rains arrived in the winter of 1849-1850.

With everyone unhappy with the conditions in San Jose, state Senator Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo offered to donate land for a new capital on his property.

Vallejo

California's new capital was to be built on land from Senator Vallejo's ranch. There was a grand vision for a capital building, a governor residence, and several public institutions.

However, when the legislature arrived in Vallejo in January 1852 the building was incomplete and senators struggled to find housing. Within a month senators fled to Sacramento, only returning briefly in 1853 to vote to move the capital "permanently" to Benicia.

Benicia

Unlike the previous capitals, Benicia had an actual capitol (building). When locals learned of the legislature's unhappiness in Vallejo, they built a red brick capitol in just four months. The legislature convened there in February 1853, but Benicia was simply too small. Sacramento courted the government aggressively, offering free use of its courthouse and even free moving services. In February 1854, the legislature voted to leave. The Benicia capitol survives today as a State Historic Park and is the only pre-Sacramento capitol still standing.

Sacramento

Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers, the Sacramento was the gateway to the gold fields and developed the infrastructure like hotels, steamship service, stagecoaches that previous capitals lacked. Governor Bigler signed the act making Sacramento the permanent capital on February 25, 1854. The California State Capitol, with a 220-foot dome modeled after the U.S. Capitol, was completed in 1874.

San Francisco?

For a brief period the legislature met in San Francisco. In late 1861 and early 1862 there were heavy rains and the Sacramento River overflowed its banks. At the conclusion of the 1862 session the legislature returned to Sacramento. (Library, 2025). Some sources list it as a capital and some do not.

Thus, depending on if you count Monterey and San Francisco, California had between 4 to 6 Capitals.

The Concept

For a gift for a California historian friend, I wanted to create a beautiful representation of this history. Here I'll share some of the design process and how I built it.

Recently I got temporary access to an xtool M1 laser cutter, and knew I wanted to build something with it. I started with a loose idea for a layered laser cut map showing each of the capitals over time. As I did research and gathered supplies the idea evolved.

Finding beautiful Historical Maps

During background research I came across a pdf on the California state library which showed a 1863 map with some of the capitals superimposed.

With a bit of digging, I found an original image from David Rumsey's awesome collection of old historical maps. I could not find a black and white version -- apparently these kinds of maps were printed and then hand painted, where the surviving high quality ones were painted. I loaded the image into Affinity, and adjusted color balance and manually dodged out regions to get a better look.

Gathering Supplies

I was doing this last minute, so had to work with whatever I could get at a local crafts store. I found some 24"x8"x1/8" sheets of Basswood as well as a 6"x6" wood frame. The 24" sheets were too big for the 15" bed of the laser cutter which creates an unfortunate predicament. In an ironic twist I had the xtool machine but no power saw, so I snapped the boards in half with my foot, and then did the rest with frickin' lasers.

Cutting The Parts

I narrowed in to something that could fit on the 6"x6" frame. I first engraved a zoomed in crop of the map on a square. I hand traced the coastline as an SVG and then used that to laser cut out the land. I laid out some stars on the map, drew out connecting paths, and then laid them out for cutting. The idea is each star would go up a layer through time. Vallejo and Benicia stars would float in the air, supported by the path from San Jose and to Sacramentowhich was supported by what I called the "Sac Stack" of 4 stars.

Assembly

I superglued the parts together, and also decided to engrave a little descriptive plate for the corner and a back commemoration. Some of the stars were a bit small, but I managed to only slightly superglue my fingers together!

Finished Design

Here's some shots of the finished design.

Reflections for Improvements

There's a few changes I'd probably do if I made it better.

• Use thinner materials for the star layers. Right now it raises a bit awkwardly high.
• Use a nicer wood than basswood. Total cost of materials was under $30, counting some extra wood for test parts. With some more time to order materials, I could make it look a bit nicer.
• Possibly explore original vision of having the frame raised each layer. This would create more overall depth rather than just the stars floating.

Conclusions

Laser cutters are really cool! It was a fun project that I think turned into a nice piece.