History of Stockton, California
Stockton is a city in California and the county seat of San Joaquin County (the 5th largest agriculture county in the United States). According to 2005 estimates by the California Department of Finance, Stockton has a population of 289,800 and is the 13th largest city in California. Stockton is also the fourth largest inland city in California, behind Fresno, Sacramento and Bakersfield. According to the California State Department of Finance January 6, 2006 estimate, 668,265 people live in the Stockton Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Stockton was named after Commodore Robert F. Stockton and was founded in 1849 and incorporated on July 23, 1850. The area now known as Weber Point is the same spot where Captain Charles Maria Weber built the first permanent residence in the San Joaquin Valley after acquiring 49,000 acres through a Spain land grant. Soon after, he established this spot as a stop for California Gold Rush on their way to the Sierra Nevada (US).
Encompassing Interstate 5, California State Route 99 and California State Route 4, Stockton is strategically located about 80 miles east of the San Francisco Bay Area and 40 miles south of Sacramento the capital of California. Stockton is surrounded by the rich and fertile lands of the California Central Valley and is home to the largest inland seaport in California. In and around Stockton are thousands of miles of waterways, canals, and rivers that comprise the California Delta.
In the past decade, Stockton and the nearby communities of Tracy, Manteca and Lodi have experienced a population boom. This is largely due to thousands of people settling in the area to escape the relatively high cost of living of the San Francisco Bay Area. This influx of new residents, however, resulted in a sharp increase in the cost of living of Stockton, although it is still significantly lower than any San Francisco Bay Area city of comparable size.
Stockton was twice named an All-America City, in 1999 & 2004.
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