Stockton is a city in and the county seat of San Joaquin County in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. Stockton is the most populous city in the county, the 11th-most populous city in California and the 58th-most populous city in the United States. Stockton's population in 2020 was 320,804. It was named an All-America City in 1999, 2004, 2015, and again in 2017 and 2018. The city is located on the San Joaquin River in the northern San Joaquin Valley. 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.
Image: Downtown Stockton California
Image: Fox California Theater Stockton, CA
Image: Hotel Stockton Stockton, CA (cropped)
The San Joaquin River is the longest river of Central California. The 366-mile (589 km) long river starts in the high Sierra Nevada, and flows through the rich agricultural region of the northern San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suisun Bay, San Francisco Bay, and the Pacific Ocean. An important source of irrigation water as well as a wildlife corridor, the San Joaquin is among the most heavily dammed and diverted of California's rivers.
San Joaquin River near Vernalis
Crossings of California State Route 99 and the Union Pacific Railroad along the northern border of Fresno. The early stages of construction of California High-Speed Rail's San Joaquin River Viaduct is also visible.
The San Joaquin at Mendota Pool during the high flows of April 2006
Headwaters of the Middle Fork San Joaquin River, just downstream of Thousand Island Lake