Editing Tracy, California (section)

==History==
[[File:Iglesia de San Bernardo (Tracy, California) (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|St. Bernard Catholic Church, founded in 1908, and built in a [[Spanish Colonial Revival]] style in 1951.]]
Until the 1760s, the area that became the city of Tracy was long populated by the [[Yokuts|Yokuts ethnic group]] of loosely associated bands of Native Americans and their ancestors. They lived on hunting and gathering game and fish from local rivers and creeks. After encountering the Spanish colonists, the Yokuts suffered from new infectious diseases, which caused social disruption, as did the Spanish efforts to impress them into labor at [[Mission San José (California)|Mission San José]]. Mexican and American explorers later arrived, pushing the Yokuts out.<ref>[http://tracymuseum.org/tracy-history/ Tracy History] tracymuseum.org</ref> The Yokuts people remain, living in small groups with about 2,600 people identifying as Yokut. Along with them, another language group of Native Americans found near Tracy are referred to as the [[Mono people]], numbering around 1,800.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kroskrity |first=Paul V. |date=January–December 2013 |title=Discursive Discriminations in the Representation of Western Mono and Yokuts Stories: Confronting Narrative Inequality and Listening to Indigenous Voices in Central California. |journal=Journal of Folklore Research |volume=50 |issue=1–3 |pages=145–174 |doi=10.2979/jfolkrese.50.1-3.145 |s2cid=144259965}}</ref>

Tracy is a [[railroad town]] that came from the mid-19th century construction, mainly by Chinese laborers, of [[Central Pacific Railroad]] rail lines running from [[Sacramento, California|Sacramento]] through [[Stockton, California|Stockton]] to the [[San Francisco Bay Area]], beginning 1868 and ending September 1878 with the opening of a new branch and junction.<ref name="bee31aug1878">{{Cite news |date=August 31, 1878 |title=The New Railroad Branch |volume=23 |work=Morning Union |issue=3557 |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=MU18780831.2.22&srpos=7&e=------187-en--20--1-byDA-txt-txIN-%22central+pacific+railroad%22+martinez-ARTICLE---1878---1 |access-date=June 21, 2021 |quote=Tide Level Branch of the Central Pacific Railroad, between Oakland and Sacramento, will be started into operation about the 1st of September. This route leaves the Western Division at Tracey, [[Tracy station (Southern Pacific Railroad)|a new station]] located about half-way between Ellis and Bantas; thence it runs to Martinez, and follows the edge of San Pablo and San Francisco bays to Oakland wharf. Ellis Station will be abandoned after Sunday, September 1, and all the buildings at that point are to be moved up to Tracey. ... Sacramento Bee |via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}}</ref> A number of small communities sprang up along these lines at designated station sites, including one at the junction named for railroad director J. J. Tracy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=How Tracy Got To Be Tracy |url=https://tracyrail.org/tracy-california-history |access-date=December 7, 2019 |website=TracyRail.org}}</ref>

Incorporated in 1911, Tracy grew rapidly and prospered as the center of an agricultural area, even when larger railroad operations began to decline in the 1950s. Competition with trucking and automobiles resulted in widespread railroad restructuring. Tracy is part of the [[San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area]], an extension of the Bay Area.

In December 1969, the town of Tracy hosted the [[Altamont Free Concert]], held at the later closed [[Altamont Raceway Park]]. An estimated 300,000 people gathered at the speedway infield in an event that was plagued by violence among attendees, many of whom were drunk or drugged. Artists featured included the British [[The Rolling Stones|Rolling Stones]] and the California bands [[Santana (band)|Santana]], [[Jefferson Airplane]], [[the Flying Burrito Brothers]] and [[Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young]].

Tracy was the headquarters of a branch of the [[American Nazi Party]]. Increased activity was reported by the media in 1972, with the appearance of graffiti spray-painted Nazi [[swastika]]s and the words "White Power". A surplus army [[2½-ton 6×6 truck]] with swastika symbols was seen carrying neo-Nazi recruits around town. Members handed out flyers printed with "Join the National Socialist White People’s Party" and a Tracy-based [[post office box]] mailing address. The television program ''[[60 Minutes]]'' aired a report in 1978 titled "The California Reich" with an interview of a Tracy resident who was a neo-Nazi leader. After about a decade, most of the city's neo-Nazis moved to [[Oroville, California]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Matthews |first=Sam |date=August 18, 2017 |title=The faded history of Tracy neofascists |url=https://www.ttownmedia.com/tracy_press/our_town/the-faded-history-of-tracy-neofascists/article_7207338c-8387-11e7-b4f6-3f61a6846a65.html |access-date=October 1, 2022 |website=Tracy Press}}</ref>

On August 7, 1998, a [[tire fire]] ignited at S.F. Royster's Tire Disposal south of Tracy at 29425 South MacArthur Drive, near Linne Road. The tire dump held more than 7 million illegally stored tires and was allowed to burn for over two years before it was extinguished. Allowing the fire to burn was considered to be a better way to avoid groundwater contamination than putting it out.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Z9o0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=LSEGAAAAIBAJ&pg=6405,5839950&dq=tracy+tire+fire&hl=en Rubber Threat: Tracy tire fire highlights old problem.] ''Lodi News-Sentinel''. August 18, 1998.</ref> The cleanup of chemicals released by the fire cost $16.2&nbsp;million. The chemicals were found to have contaminated groundwater in the region.<ref>Breitler, Alex. [http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-139973811/byproducts-1998-tire-fire.html "Byproducts from 1998 tire fire found in water".] ''Record''. December 20, 2005.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=California Integrated Waste Management Board |title=Removal Action Summary Report, pp.28–29 |url=https://www.envirostor.dtsc.ca.gov/public/deliverable_documents/4871686637/combined-rpt-RA_summ-Nov06-revfinal-09025.pdf |access-date=September 12, 2010 |publisher=California Department of Toxic Substances Control}}</ref>