San Joaquin County History Digest

121 years ago, Benjamin Holt had a bright idea. Read on to learn more about the history of the first Caterpillar tractor, invented and built in Stockton.

A look at 14 places in California where Black businesses and culture thrived.

Read on to learn how the founding of San Joaquin County 175 years ago was due to a huge land purchase for the price of ... $60 in groceries and a horse?

The City of Lathrop project to develop its own police force began almost 5 years ago, and the Lathrop Police Department began law enforcement duties on July 2022. Read on to learn more about the history of the effort and where things stand today.

Stocktonia reports on the Stockton Mobile Community Response Team, which is dispatched to mental and behavioral health incidents as an alternative or addition to police.

The San Joaquin County Historical Museum is accepting applications for this year's docent class.

Volunteers are needed to help staff the Manteca Historical Museum.

A recounting of the purchase of the Tidewater Southern Railway corridor by the City of Manteca and its transformation into a vital local amenity.

Some residents fear development could destroy parts of the historic land.

Members of the board gathered to put forward a resolution that takes responsibility for the history of discrimination against Black San Franciscans.

She toured the world wowing audiences, and she captured the public’s imagination for decades. No, not Taylor Swift; Ellen Beach Yaw, also known as Lark Ellen.

An extinct species of walrus was unearthed in Santa Cruz County, evoking a time when California was teeming with odd creatures that feel closer to fantasy than reality, researchers said.

James Dean’s last stop before he died in a car crash was at Blackwell’s Corner, a gas station in rural Kern County. His memory isn’t the draw it once was.

Lawmakers introduced a package of bills designed to tackle some forms of reparations. The measures may face budget constraints and opposition.

The California Legislative Black Caucus released a list of 14 bills as a first set of reparations for the descendants of African Americans who were enslaved.

Pea Soup Andersen’s, a Buellton, Calif., restaurant just shy of its 100th birthday, closed suddenly. The restaurant's other location, near Interstate 5 in Santa Nella, remains open.

Frank “Larry” Ruhstaller passed away on Dec. 27 at the age of 75.

In a three-part series, the Escalon Times reviews the events of the year just past.

Lodi saw a stormy start to 2023, but ended the year with some history-making appointments.

Under new state laws, five cities will test cameras to catch speeding drivers and cruising bans will be lifted statewide. The first is supposed to improve road safety, but critics of the second say it will endanger the public.

State audits of the University of California and the California State University found both systems have failed to comply with decades-old state and federal laws mandating the return of Native ancestral remains and cultural artifacts. Only UCLA and Cal State Long Beach have returned a majority of their collections.

The Hoopa Valley Tribe announced it is acquiring about 10,000 acres of land in Northern California for $14.1 million. As part of this, the tribe will remove dams along the Klamath River and restore salmon runs.

Water fights have shaped California since its infancy as a state, when its abundance seemed limitless. Now, Californians are being forced to confront limitations, and the state that prides itself on creating the future is now reckoning with its past.

The Fort Independence Indian Community is getting the Mount Whitney Fish Hatchery from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife at no cost in 2024. Native Americans had lived on this land for centuries before the hatchery’s construction.

In conversations about the history and present of Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ communities, the Lavender Heights district in Midtown is often the first area to come to mind.

Political wonks in California, Florida and maybe a few states in between, will be glued to their screens Thursday night to watch Gov. Gavin Newsom and Gov. Ron Desantis square off in a highly-anticipated Blue vs. Red State debate that’s been brewing since the summer.

Hundreds of people are expected at Alcatraz on Thanksgiving morning to commemorate Native Americans occupying the island from 1969-71. The event is known as the Indigenous Peoples Sunrise Gathering.

A statue of Miwok elder William J. Franklin has been installed on California State Capitol grounds. The monument replaces a statue of Father Junípero Serra, which protestors toppled in 2020.

Tribes like the Muwekma Ohlone have been asking UC Berkeley for decades to give back ancestral remains from burial sites around the Bay Area. The school is in the process of repatriating 4,400 remains and 25,000 tribal items.

Robert Irwin, an artist and MacArthur genius grant recipient, died in San Diego at 95 on Oct. 25. Michael Govan, who heads the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, offers a colorful retrospective on Irwin's work.

Camille Dixon, the announcer for Disney California Adventure, and her husband, Bill Rogers, the voice of Disneyland, are moving on from this work. They have been at the parks for more than 40 years combined.

Marc R. Marchini, who combined his vocation as a Union Island farmer and a leader of the California asparagus industry, with service as a school trustee, has been inducted posthumously into the San Joaquin County Agricultural Hall of Fame.