History

Like much of Eastern Sacramento County, the lands that Easton comprises have a rich history, having once been used as active gold fields. The Natomas Company mined the site for gold from the late 1800s until well into the next century, using dredges that created long rows of rock mounds, called tailings, up to 70 feet high. Many of these formations still exist on site today. Later, some parts of the land were then used for agriculture, such as cattle grazing.

No longer suitable for agricultural production, the more than 12,000-acre site became the home of Aerojet-General Corporation (Aerojet) in the 1950s. From gold mining to agriculture to pioneering the aerospace frontier, the success story of this site carries on. Aerojet continues as one of the nation’s leading rocket motor and missile propulsion companies. More than 1,500 employees work at the Aerojet Rancho Cordova campus.

Over the last 50 years, only a small part of the land has been actively used for aerospace operations. Today, with advances in technology, the traditional amount of “buffer” land is no longer necessary, making much of the land—approximately 6,100 acres—available for the creation of the Easton boroughs.