Template:Wp-Manteca, California-History

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Manteca is a city in the Central Valley of California, located east of San Francisco. It was founded in 1861 by Joshua Cowell. Cowell claimed around and built houses on what is now the corner of Main and Yosemite, where Bank of America now stands. In 1873, the Central Pacific Railroad laid track directly through the area. The residents wanted to refer to their new train station as "Cowell Station", but there was already a Cowell Station near Tracy. The residents agreed to change the name of the community, choosing "Monteca" as the new name. This was misprinted as "Manteca" (Spanish for lard or butter) by the railroad,^[1] and the misspelled version was eventually accepted as the name of the town. In 1918, Manteca was incorporated as a city, and Joshua Cowell became its first mayor.

In 1938, photojournalist Dorothea Lange took photos of William & Mary Dimotakis (immigrants from the Greek island of Crete), and their youngest child, son George, on the family farm in Manteca for the Farm Security Administration. The farm, near the industrial park area, is still owned by the Dimotakis family.

Manteca fashions itself the "Family City", and it lies at a crossroads of major highways and railroads. As recently as the 1970s, Manteca existed primarily on agriculture and was still barely a stop between two freeways, Interstate 5 and State Route 99. The continuing rise in Bay Area housing prices caused Bay Area families to look further eastward for more affordable places to live. Since the construction of the 120 bypass portion of State Route 120, Manteca has become a popular choice for these commuters. The 1990s saw an increase in the city's population and the construction of its third high school (Sierra High School), the first two being Manteca High School and East Union High School. The population of Manteca continues to increase, with some housing being constructed on what was once farmland to the north and southeast. Manteca has more than tripled in population since 1980.

Manteca is the home base for the "Not Forgotten Memorial Day Event", the largest commemoration for veterans on the West Coast. The event is held the Sunday before Memorial Day every year. The event draws over 20,000 attendees.

2014 Doxey Park Shooting

On September 1, 2014, two teens, 17 year-old Marcos Garcia and 19 year-old Niko Pinkard were at Doxey Park in northwest Manteca when they were shot at near the northeast corner of the park. Marcos Garcia was shot fatally while Niko Pinkard sustained non-life-threatening injuries to his head.

The man who carried out the fatal shooting, Joe M. Stewart of Lathrop, was not found out until October 2015, when he went to prison on unrelated charges of unlawful sexual intercourse, resisting arrest, and inflicting injury to the parent of a child.