Stockton

About Stockton

Stockton was founded in 1849 by Charles Weber, a German immigrant who laid out a town on his land at the edge of the San Joaquin River delta and named it for Commodore Robert F. Stockton. During the gold rush it became the supply point for miners heading to the southern mines, and riverboats linked it with San Francisco. Its deep-water port, far inland, still ships the crops of the Central Valley around the world.

Stockton has been shaped by people from everywhere. Chinese, Filipino, Mexican, Japanese and Italian families came to work its farms and canneries, and in 1912 Sikh immigrants built the first gurdwara in the United States here. Downtown keeps the 1910 Hotel Stockton, the restored Bob Hope Theatre and a waterfront where Weber Point hosts concerts and festivals.

The city's cultural gem is the Haggin Museum in Victory Park, while the University of the Pacific adds a handsome brick campus with its tall Burns Tower. Families love Pixie Woods, a storybook park for children. Around the city spreads the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a maze of waterways perfect for boating, fishing and scenic drives.