Editing Stockton, California (section)

==History==
[[File:Charles M. Weber.jpg|thumb|left|Carlos Maria Weber founded Stockton when he acquired and settled [[Rancho Campo de los Franceses]].]]
When Europeans first arrived in the Stockton area, it was occupied by the Yatchicumne, a branch of the Northern Valley [[Yokuts people|Yokuts Indians]]. They built their villages on low mounds to keep their homes above regular floods. A Yokuts village named Pasasimas was located on a mound between Edison and Harrison Streets on what is now the [[Stockton Channel]] in downtown Stockton.<ref name="historycity">{{cite web|title=History A Look into Stockton's Past Before the Gold Rush|url=http://www.stocktongov.com/discover/history/hist.html|publisher=City of Stockton|access-date=February 21, 2016}}</ref>

The [[Siskiyou Trail]] began in the northern [[San Joaquin Valley]]. It was a centuries-old Native American footpath that led through the [[Sacramento Valley]] over the [[Cascade Range|Cascades]] and into present-day [[Oregon]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.academia.edu/592072|title=Archaeological Investigations of the Siskiyou Trail Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument Jackson County|access-date=July 16, 2016}}</ref>

The extensive network of waterways in and around Stockton was fished and navigated by [[Plains and Sierra Miwok|Miwok Indians]] for centuries. During the [[California Gold Rush]], the [[San Joaquin River]] was navigable by ocean-going vessels, making Stockton a natural inland seaport and point of supply and departure for prospective gold-miners. From the mid-19th century onward, Stockton became the region's transportation hub, dealing mainly with agricultural products.

===19th century===
[[File:Stockton California circa 1860.jpg|thumb|Stockton, c. 1860]]
[[File:Main Street, Stockton, California, from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views (cropped).jpg|thumb|Main Street, Stockton, c. 1870]]
[[File:CityofStockton1895.jpg|thumb|City of Stockton in 1895]]

====Mexican era====

Carlos Maria Weber was a German immigrant to the United States in 1836. He was born as Carl David Weber (February 18, 1814, in [[Steinwenden]] – May 4, 1881, in Stockton) and then went by Charles in 1836 in the United States, first spending time in [[New Orleans]] and then in [[Texas]]. He then came overland from Missouri to California with the [[Bartleson-Bidwell Party]] in 1841 and began to go by Carlos, when he began working for [[John Sutter]]. In 1842 Weber settled in the [[Pueblo of San José]].

As an alien, Weber could not secure a land grant directly, so he formed a partnership with Guillermo (William) Gulnac. Born in New York, Gulnac had married a Mexican woman and sworn allegiance to [[Mexico]], which then ruled California. He applied in Weber's place for [[Rancho Campo de los Franceses]], a land grant of 11 square [[league (unit)|leagues]] on the east side of the San Joaquin River.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/GR_4157|title=A History of Stockton from Its Organization up to the Present Time | first=George Henry|last=Tinkham |year=1880|page=[https://archive.org/details/GR_4157/page/n430 397] |publisher=W.M. Hinton & Co.}}</ref>

Gulnac and Weber dissolved their partnership in 1843. Gulnac's attempts to settle the Rancho Campo de los Franceses failed, and Weber acquired it in 1845. In 1846 Weber had induced a number of settlers to locate on the rancho when the [[Mexican–American War]] broke out. Considered a Californio, Weber was offered the position of captain by Mexican general [[José Castro]], which he declined; he later, however, accepted the position of captain in the Cavalry of the United States. Captain Weber's decision to change sides lost him a great deal of the trust he had built up among his Mexican business partners. As a result, he moved to the grant in 1847 and sold his business in San Jose in 1849.

====Gold Rush era====

At the start of the [[California Gold Rush]] in 1848, Europeans and Americans started to arrive in the area of Weber's rancho on their way to the goldfields. When Weber decided to try his hand at gold mining in late 1848, he soon found selling supplies to [[California Gold Rush|gold-seekers]] was more profitable.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ci.stockton.ca.us/Awards/WeberAward.cfm |title=Captain Charles M. Weber Award |publisher=City of Stockton – Cultural Heritage Board |date=May 23, 2008 |access-date=February 4, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080322073843/http://www.ci.stockton.ca.us/Awards/WeberAward.cfm |archive-date=March 22, 2008  }}</ref>

As the head of navigation on the San Joaquin River, the city grew rapidly as a miners' supply point during the Gold Rush. Weber built the first permanent residence in the [[San Joaquin Valley]] on a piece of land now known as Weber Point.<ref name="historycity"/>  During the Gold Rush, the location of what is now Stockton developed as a river port, the hub of roads to the gold settlements in the San Joaquin Valley and northern terminus of the [[Stockton - Los Angeles Road]]. During its early years, Stockton was known by several names, including "Weberville," "Fat City," "Mudville" and "California's Sunrise Seaport."<ref name="uopabout">{{cite web|title=About Stockton|url=http://www.pacific.edu/About-Pacific/General-Questions/About-Stockton.html|website=www.pacific.edu|publisher=University of the Pacific|access-date=October 31, 2016}}</ref>  In 1849 Weber laid out a town, which he named "Tuleburg," but he soon decided on "Stockton" in honor of [[Commodore (rank)|Commodore]] [[Robert F. Stockton]]. Stockton was the first community in California to have a name that was neither Spanish nor [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] in origin.<ref name=facts>{{cite web|title=Stockton Facts|url=http://www.visitstockton.org/about-us/fun-facts/|publisher=Stockton Convention & Visitors Bureau|access-date=October 31, 2016}}</ref>

====Chinese immigration====

Thousands of Chinese came to Stockton from the [[Guangdong]] province of China during the 1850s due to a combination of political and economic unrest in China and the discovery of gold in California. After the gold rush, many worked for the railroads and land reclamation projects in the [[Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta]] and remained in Stockton. By 1880 Stockton was home to the third-largest Chinese community in California. Discriminatory laws, in particular the [[Chinese Exclusion Act]] of 1882, restricted immigration and prevented the Chinese from buying property.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/ugly-legacy-latino-couple-finds-racist-covenant-housing-paperwork-n1082476|title=An ugly legacy: Latino couple finds racist covenant in housing paperwork|last=Aviles|first=Gwen|date=November 15, 2019|work=NBC News|language=en|access-date=November 16, 2019|quote=No persons other than those wholly of the white Caucasian race shall use, occupy or reside upon any part of or within any building located on the above described real property, except servants or domestics of another race employed by or domiciled with a white Caucasian owner or tenant,}}</ref> The Lincoln Hotel, built in 1920 by the Wong brothers on South El Dorado Street, was considered one of Stockton's finest hotels of the time. Only after the [[Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act|Magnuson Act]] was repealed in 1965 were American-born Chinese allowed to buy property and own buildings.<ref>{{cite web|title=Spirit of Stockton's Chinatown|url=http://downtownstockton.org/stockton_history.php|publisher=Downtown Stockton Alliance|access-date=February 21, 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160202214924/http://downtownstockton.org/stockton_history.php|archive-date=February 2, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Some State of California and City of San Francisco Anti-Chinese Legislation and Subsequent Action|url=http://teachingresources.atlas.illinois.edu/chinese_exp/resources/resource_2_4.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141107170704/http://teachingresources.atlas.illinois.edu/chinese_exp/resources/resource_2_4.pdf |archive-date=November 7, 2014 |url-status=live|publisher=The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois|access-date=February 26, 2016|year=2006}}</ref>

====Incorporation====

The city was officially incorporated on July 23, 1850, by the county court, and the first city election was held on July 31, 1850. In 1851 the City of Stockton received its charter from the State of California. Early settlers included gold seekers from Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, the Pacific Islands, Mexico and Canada. The historical population diversity is reflected in Stockton street names, architecture, numerous ethnic festivals and the faces and heritage of a majority of its citizens. In 1870 the Census Bureau reported Stockton's population as 87.6% white and 10.7% Asian. Many Chinese were immigrating to California as workers in these years, especially for the [[Transcontinental Railroad]].<ref name="census">{{cite web|title=California - Race and Hispanic Origin for Selected Cities and Other Places: Earliest Census to 1990 |publisher=U.S. Census Bureau |url=https://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0076/twps0076.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120812191959/http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0076/twps0076.html |archive-date=August 12, 2012 }}</ref>

[[Benjamin Holt]] settled in Stockton in 1883 and with his three brothers founded the Stockton Wheel Co., and later the [[Holt Manufacturing Company]].

===20th century===
[[File:Swinton-holt-stockton-1918.jpg|thumb|left| [[Benjamin Holt]] (left) with British Col. [[Ernest Dunlop Swinton]] in Stockton, April 1918. The vehicle on the right is a Holt tractor; on the left is a miniature replica of [[British heavy tanks of World War I|a British tank]].]]
[[File:Stockton CA Sikh Temple.jpg|thumb|First Sikh temple in the United States, built in Stockton in 1912]]

On Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 1904, Holt successfully tested the first workable [[continuous track|continuous track tread]] machine, plowing soggy [[Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta|San Joaquin Valley Delta]] farmland.<ref name="laird">{{cite web|url=http://www.wastehandling.com/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&id=47C5DE563581487B9E4394B939909F9E&tier=4|title=Benjamin Holt (1849–1920): The Father of the Caterpillar tractor|last=Pernie|first=Gwenyth Laird|date=March 3, 2009}} {{dead link|date=March 2018|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> Company photographer Charles Clements was reported to have observed that the tractor crawled like a caterpillar, and Holt seized on the metaphor. "Caterpillar it is. That's the name for it."<ref name="lea">{{cite web |last=Lea |first=Ralph |date=February 16, 2008 |title=Ben Holt pioneered tractors for farming, construction, war |url=http://www.lodinews.com/articles/2008/02/16/features/1_vintage_080216.txt |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091111140403/http://www.lodinews.com/articles/2008/02/16/features/1_vintage_080216.txt |archive-date=November 11, 2009 |access-date=February 27, 2008 |publisher=Lodi News-Sentinel}}</ref>

On April 22, 1918, British Army Col. [[Ernest Dunlop Swinton]] visited Stockton while on a tour of the United States. The British and French armies were using many hundreds of Holt tractors to haul heavy guns and supplies during [[World War I]], and Swinton publicly thanked Holt and his workforce for their contribution to the war effort.<ref>''Caterpillar Times'' report, May 1918, pages 5 to 8.</ref> During 1914 and 1915, Swinton had advocated basing some sort of armored fighting vehicle on Holt's caterpillar tractors, but without success (although Britain did develop tanks, they came from a separate source and were not directly derived from Holt machines).<ref>''Eyewitness, being Personal Reminiscences of Certain Phases of the Great War, Including the Genesis of the Tank,'' by Major-General Sir Ernest D. Swinton. (Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1933) Throughout.</ref> After the appearance of tanks on the battlefield, Holt built a prototype, the [[Holt gas–electric tank|gas–electric tank]], but it did not enter production.

On January 10, 1920, a major fire on Main Street threatened an entire city block. At about 2 a.m., a blaze was discovered in the basement of the Yost-Dohrmann store, which was gutted, and adjacent businesses were damaged by flames and water. Damage was estimated at $150,000.<ref>United Press, “Stockton Is Scene Of $150,000 Fire,” ''Riverside Daily Press'', Riverside, California, Saturday January 10, 1920, Volume XXXV, Number 9, page 1.</ref>

By 1931, the [[Stockton Electric Railroad]] Co. operated 40 [[streetcar]]s over {{convert|28|mi|km}} of track.<ref name="hwd">{{cite book | author=Demoro, Harre W.| title=California's Electric Railways| publisher=[[Interurban Press]]|location=[[Glendale, California]]| year=1986| page=202| isbn=978-0-916374-74-7}}</ref>

Stockton is the site of the first [[Sikh]] temple in the United States; [[Gurdwara Sahib Stockton]] opened on October 24, 1912. It was founded by Baba Jawala Singh and Baba Wasakha Singh, successful Punjabi immigrants who farmed and owned {{convert|500|acres|0|abbr=on}} on the Holt River.<ref>{{cite web|title=History of Stockton Gurwara|url=http://sikhcentury.us/stockton-gurdwara-history/|access-date=September 22, 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927184319/http://sikhcentury.us/stockton-gurdwara-history/|archive-date=September 27, 2013}}</ref>

In 1933, the [[Port of Stockton|port]] was modernized, and the Stockton Deepwater Channel, which improved water passage to [[San Francisco Bay]], was deepened and completed. This created commercial opportunities that fueled the city's growth. [[Ruff and Ready Island Naval Supply Depot]] was established, placing Stockton in a strategic position during the [[Cold War]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Historic California Posts: Stockton Ordnance Depot |url=http://californiamilitaryhistory.org/StocktonOrdDepot.html |website=californiamilitaryhistory.org |publisher=The California State Military Museum |access-date=September 11, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171214014614/http://californiamilitaryhistory.org/StocktonOrdDepot.html |archive-date=December 14, 2017 |url-status=usurped}}</ref> During the [[Great Depression]] the town's canning industry became the battleground of a labor dispute resulting in the [[Stockton Cannery Strike of 1937|Spinach Riot]] of 1937.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cdsun.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/cornell?a=d&d=CDS19370427.2.62#|title=The Cornell Daily Sun 27 April 1937 — The Cornell Daily Sun|website=cdsun.library.cornell.edu|access-date=July 16, 2016}}</ref>

[[File:Stockton, California. Part of the Stockton Assembly center as seen at noon on a hot day. This cent . . . - NARA - 537725 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Partial view of the Stockton Assembly Center]]
During [[World War II]], the Stockton Assembly Center was built on the San Joaquin County Fairgrounds, a few blocks from what was then the city center. One of 15 temporary detention sites run by the [[War Relocation Authority|Wartime Civilian Control Administration]], the center held some 4,200 [[Internment of Japanese Americans|Japanese-Americans removed]] from their West Coast homes under [[Executive Order 9066]], while they waited for transfer to more permanent and isolated camps in the interior of the country. The center opened on May 10, 1942, and operated until October 17, when the majority of its population was sent to [[Rohwer War Relocation Center|Rohwer]], Arkansas. The former incarceration site was named a California Historical Landmark in 1980, and in 1984 a marker was erected at the entrance to the fairgrounds.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Stockton%20%28detention%20facility%29/ |title=Stockton (detention facility) |publisher=Densho Encyclopedia |access-date=August 8, 2014}}</ref>

In 1979, the development of a residential area in Stockton at a burial ground of the tribe unearthed two hundred [[Miwok]] remains. In an attempt to prevent the further desecration of the burial grounds, a descendant of the people initiated a legal case which became ''[[Wana the Bear v. Community Construction]]'' (1982). The decision ultimately sided with the development company, which was heavily criticized by Native Americans as a display of [[ethnocentrism]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Echo-Hawk |first=Walter |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/646788565 |title=In the Courts of the Conqueror : the 10 Worst Indian Law Cases Ever Decided. |date=2010 |publisher=Fulcrum |isbn=978-1-55591-788-3 |location=New York |oclc=646788565}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/817236389 |title=The future of the past : archaeologists, Native Americans, and repatriation |date=2001 |publisher=Garland Pub |others=Tamara L. Bray |isbn=978-1-136-54352-4 |location=New York |pages=15 |oclc=817236389}}</ref>

In September 1996, the [[Base Realignment and Closure|Base Realignment and Closure Commission]] announced the final closure of Stockton's Naval Reserve Center on Rough and Ready Island. Formerly known as [[Ruff and Ready Island Naval Supply Depot]], the island's facilities had served as a major communications outpost for submarine activities in the Pacific during the Cold War. The site is slowly being redeveloped as commercial property.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.recordnet.com/article/20100815/A_BIZ/8140312|title=Ready, no longer Rough|access-date=July 16, 2016}}</ref>