On Hwy-99 and I-5, 46 miles South of Sacramento. Sited at the junction of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, Stockton grew rich and strong as a gold-rush supply centre, miners and mining machinery coming ashore at its deep-water harbour on the way to the Gold Country.

Except for some mildly interesting murals depicting the community’s growth and ethnic diversity inside the 1920s City Hall, Downtown Stockton has little appeal. Nearby, at 1201 Pershing Avenue, the Haggin Museum (http://hagginmuseum.org)has – of all things – a strong selection of 19thC European art alongside the more predictable stash of ageing farming tools. A better way to pass an hour, though, is by strolling the campus of the University of the Pacific – a private university with a history stretching back to 1851 – with the aid of the free walking tour pamphlet available from the information desk inside Burns Tower, off Pacific Avenue a few miles north of Downtown.  

Detour – Locke and the Sacramento Delta

 Between Stockton and I-80, the tiny towns and islands forming the Sacramento Delta make for an intriguing detour. For a taste, drive 18 miles north from Stockton on I-5 and turn east onto Walnut Grove Road, passing Walnut Grove on the way to Locke. Described as the last rural Chinatown in the U.S., Locke’s frail-looking wooden buildings and sidewalks were erected in 1915 for a 2,000-strong Chinese community, many of whom were employed building levees on the delta. Up until the 1940s, many non-Chinese arrived in Locke each weekend to gamble and utilize the town’s brothels and opium dens. The Dai Loy Museum (www.locketown.com/museum.htm) occupies the premises of one former gambling club and there is more memorabilia – and a magnificent collection of moose heads – at Al’s (http://www.locketown.com/als.htm), a restaurant-cum-bar that has long been the fulcrum of local life. Some elderly Chinese, looking as frail as the buildings, still live here and seem somewhat bemused by Locke’s growing popularity as a tourists’ photo opportunity.