San Joaquin County Historical Society and Museum

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San Joaquin County Historical Society and Museum The San Joaquin County Historical Museum showcases the diverse histories of San Joaquin County, CA
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This Saturday, October 17, the San Joaquin County Historical Museum will participate in the Sacramento Archives Crawl! M...
10/15/2026

This Saturday, October 17, the San Joaquin County Historical Museum will participate in the Sacramento Archives Crawl! Meet with archivists from throughout the region at four different locations in downtown Sacramento and learn about the fascinating history that local institutions preserve. You can visit our table from 10am – 4pm at the California State Archives located at 1020 O Street, Sacramento, CA 95814. For more information, visit https://www.sacramentoarchivescrawl.com/crawl-2026.

Photo: Children ring the “New Freedom Bell” in downtown Stockton on August 15, 1987. The United States of America celebrated the 200th anniversary of the United States Constitution in 1897. As part of the festivities, this replica of the Liberty Bell traveled the country, making stops in communities nationwide.
Stockton Record Collection

Thank you to all who attended the 6th Annual San Joaquin County Tractor Fest on Saturday, October 10! This year was anot...
10/12/2026

Thank you to all who attended the 6th Annual San Joaquin County Tractor Fest on Saturday, October 10! This year was another amazing and record-breaking event beacause of YOU!

Nearly 650 people joined us for a day of family fun and education as we worked together to inspire the next generation of farmers, agricultural innovators, and reponsible citizens.

We are grateful for the support of our sponsors: San Joaquin County Farm Bureau Federation, Mulrooney Auction Company, Holt of California, Oak Valley Community Bank and F&M Bank.

We would also like to extend our sincerest gratitude to all of the tractor owners and drivers, as well as our many vendors and community partners: San Joaquin County Farm Bureau, San Joaquin County Ag Commissioner's Office, UC Cooperative Extension, Tokay Colony 4-H, Tokay FFA, Restore the Delta, City of Lodi Watershed Program, Stockton East Water District, Visit Stockton, The Edible Schoolyard Project, San Joaquin County Office of Education, San Joaquin County Delta College Agriculture Department, San Joaquin County Young Farmers and Ranchers, Ty's Gourmet Dogs, Peachy's Food to Go, Rise & Shine Coffee, Michael's Heavenly Sweets, and Dogtown Pumpkins. Special thanks to our docent quilters for creating two beautiful handmade quilts that were raffled to raise funds for our education programs, and to Jim Marsh's Chili Boys and The Fiddletown Preservation Spasm Band who kept our toes tapping all day.

Mark your calendars for October 9, 2027 for the 7th Annual San Joaquin County Tractor Fest and let's keep it growing, together!

Photos courtesy of Evan Hust and Leslie Avansino.

Special delivery from Kautz Farms Ironstone Vineyards for Tractor Fest! Come get up close and have your picture taken wi...
10/08/2026

Special delivery from Kautz Farms Ironstone Vineyards for Tractor Fest! Come get up close and have your picture taken with this amazing machine on Saturday from 9am-2pm!

Our talented docents have created two beautiful custom quilts that will be raffled off at the 6th Annual San Joaquin Cou...
10/08/2026

Our talented docents have created two beautiful custom quilts that will be raffled off at the 6th Annual San Joaquin County Tractor Fest this Saturday, October 10 from 9am-2pm!

Tickets will be $5 each or 6 for $20. The winner will be contacted after the event so you do not have to be present to win. Tickets will only be on sale during Tractor Fest so don’t miss out!

10/07/2026

It’s a beautiful day for a shakedown cruise of the Museum’s 1956 International Harvester TD-6 as we prepare for the 6th annual San Joaquin County Tractor Fest this Saturday, October 10 from 9am-2pm!

This tractor was originally donated to the San Joaquin Delta College Ag Mechanics department by the International Harvester Stockton Plant. It was used by Delta College until 1985 and was gifted to the Museum in 1996. See this and so many more tractors in this Saturday’s tractor parade, starting at 11:30am!

Check out October's Artifact of the Month! This 1936 McCormick-Deering T-20 TracTracTor, built by International Harveste...
10/02/2026

Check out October's Artifact of the Month!

This 1936 McCormick-Deering T-20 TracTracTor, built by International Harvester, was owned by a Japanese American farmer named Akira Oye.

Akira’s parents immigrated to the United States from Japan and settled in Southern California. Akira was born in Los Angeles on February 7, 1914. As a young boy, he was sent to Japan to live with his uncle and receive an education. He returned to the United States in 1931.

In 1940, Akira moved to Stockton where he rented farmland from Dave Zignego. Akira grew a variety of crops, including tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, and cantaloupes.

Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, led to the United States’ entry into World War II. In February 1942 President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which resulted in the forced removal and incarceration of approximately 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, many of whom were American citizens.

Akira and his family were sent first to Rowher, Arkansas, and later to Tule Lake, California, near the Oregon border. Families were allowed to take only what they could carry, forcing many to sell their remaining possessions or give them away. Some entrusted their property to friends or neighbors in the hopes that they would be able to retrieve their items once the war was over.

The Oye family was fortunate enough to have their friend, Frank Piccardo, look after the T-20 tractor and other farm equipment while they were incarcerated. When the Oye family returned to Stockton in 1946, the tractor and farm equipment were waiting for them. This was rare, as not all Japanese families received their property back when they returned after the war.

The tractor stayed in the family until it was donated to the San Joaquin County Historical Museum in 2015. The tractor was restored to running condition by Museum volunteers. It is a reminder of both the resilience and power of community in times of injustice and uncertainty.

We invite you to see this and other historic tractors on display and in action at the 6th annual San Joaquin County Tractor Fest on Saturday, October 10 here at the San Joaquin County Historical Museum!

It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it! Preparations are well under way for the 6th annual San Joaquin County Trac...
09/22/2026

It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it! Preparations are well under way for the 6th annual San Joaquin County Tractor Fest, taking place on October 10 from 9:00am - 2:00pm.

We would like to extend a big thank you to for allowing us to borrow one of their tractors with a scraper as we do some much-needed post-construction dirt work and get the tractor show area ready. We are privileged to have a great partner like San Joaquin County Parks and Recreation!

Do you own a classic (or modern) tractor that you want to show off? Entries for Tractor Fest are due this Friday, September 25th! Visit https://sanjoaquinhistory.org/news-and-events/upcoming-events/ to download the entry form today.

The 6th Annual San Joaquin County Tractor Fest is presented by the San Joaquin County Historical Society & Museum in partnership with the San Joaquin County Farm Bureau and is sponsored by Holt of California, Mulrooney Auction Company, Oak Valley Community Bank, and F&M Bank.

09/09/2026

San Joaquin County's Filipino American legacy is now on display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History through November 2027.

The San Joaquin County Historical Society and Museum contributed over a dozen artifacts, including a steamer trunk belonging to local Filipino immigrant Enrique Andales, a complete band uniform from Stockton's historic Daguhoy Lodge, and "bango tags", the numbered identification tags issued to Filipino workers on Hawaiian sugar plantations instead of their names.

By the 1940s, Stockton, California, was home to the largest Filipino population outside of the Philippines. In the neighborhood known as "Little Manila," a generation of manongs, early Filipino labor migrants, many of them single men who had traveled from the Philippines to Hawaii's sugar plantations and eventually to the farms of the Central Valley, built a vibrant community and laid the cultural foundation for generations of Filipino Americans to follow.

San Joaquin County Historical Society and Museum Executive Director Phillip Merlo and the San Joaquin Council of Governments OG recently traveled to Washington, D.C. to see artifacts preserved from Stockton displayed in the Nicholas F. and Eugenia Taubman Gallery.

Learn more about the exhibit:
https://sanjoaquinhistory.org/news/artifacts-from-san-joaquin-county-historical-museum-now-on-display-in-new-smithsonian-exhibit/

Did you know San Joaquin County actually predates California statehood?On this day in 1850, California became the 31st s...
09/09/2026

Did you know San Joaquin County actually predates California statehood?

On this day in 1850, California became the 31st state. Nearly seven months earlier, on February 18, 1850, San Joaquin County was established as one of the state's original 27 counties.

Our region quickly became central to the Gold Rush. Stockton, once known as Tuleburg, grew into a major supply and transportation hub for miners heading to the Southern Mines, helping fuel the growth of the young state.

Today, San Joaquin County continues to grow from those early roots, shaped by generations of diverse communities and anchored by the agriculture, waterways and cities that define our region.

Happy 176th Admission Day, California! 🌱

Join us on Monday, October 26 at 5:30pm in the Julia Harrison Micke Memorial Building at Micke Grove Park for the San Jo...
09/08/2026

Join us on Monday, October 26 at 5:30pm in the Julia Harrison Micke Memorial Building at Micke Grove Park for the San Joaquin County Historical Society & Museum's fall historical dinner and membership meeting. Enjoy a delicious dinner from Peachy's Food to Go featuring harvest apple and candied walnut salad, roasted seasonal vegetables, savory garlic and herb rice pilaf, and creamy garlic and wild mushroom chicken, all paired with w**e provided by Michael David Winery.

After dinner, noted historian and author John Boessenecker will speak about his new book, Bring Me the Head of Joaquin Murrieta: The Bandit Chief Who Terrorized California and Launched the Legend of Zorro.

Tickets are $40 per person and there is a $5 per car fee to enter Micke Grove Park (free for members). To attend, please RSVP and pay by Friday, October 16. Call (209) 331-2055 or email [email protected].

Address

11793 N Micke Grove Rd
Lodi, CA
95240

Telephone

+12093312055

Website

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