Stockton City Map Poster

About Stockton

Stockton is situated amidst the farmland of a subregion of the Central Valley called the Stockton Plain. In and around Stockton are thousands of miles of waterways, which make up the California Delta. This delta serves as a critical waterway for both north-south and east-west shipping channels on which all inland California cargo ships move when going to or coming from port in Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles/Long Beach, or Sacramento/Stockton. The city was originally founded as "Campbell's Landing" in 1849 by Robert Campbell (a Scotsman who had been born in Argyllshire) and Charles Lux (a Frenchman from Alsace). The two made their first land claim on Rancho Campo de los Franceses Mexican land grant at the confluence of what is now known as Joseph Street and United States Highway 99; they later bought part more than south near present-day Mokelumne River where they established their second town site that also became known simply as "the camp".