Stockton's population in was , It was named an All-America City in , , , and again in and It lies at the southeastern corner of a large inland river delta that isolates it from other nearby cities such as Sacramento and those of the San Francisco Bay Area. The city is named after Robert F. Stockton , [ 20 ] and it was the first community in California to have a name not of Spanish or Native American origin. It provided easy access for trade and transportation to the southern gold mines.
The University of the Pacific UOP , chartered in , is the oldest university in California, and has been located in Stockton since In , Stockton filed for what was then the largest municipal bankruptcy in US history — which had multiple causes, including financial mismanagement in the s, generous fringe benefits to unionized city employees, [ 21 ] and the financial crisis. Stockton successfully exited bankruptcy in February They built their villages on low mounds to keep their homes above regular floods.
It was a centuries-old Native American footpath that led through the Sacramento Valley over the Cascades and into present-day Oregon.
The extensive network of waterways in and around Stockton was fished and navigated by 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 midth century onward, Stockton became the region's transportation hub, dealing mainly with agricultural products. He then came overland from Missouri to California with the Bartleson-Bidwell Party in and began to go by Carlos, when he began working for John Sutter. As an alien, Weber could not secure a land grant directly, so he formed a partnership with Guillermo William Gulnac. He applied in Weber's place for Rancho Campo de los Franceses , a land grant of 11 square leagues on the east side of the San Joaquin River.
