Tracy

Sister cities

• Velas

History

Until the 1760s, the area that became the city of Tracy was long populated by the Yokuts ethnic group of loosely associated bands of Native Americans and their ancestors. They lived on hunting and gathering game and fish from local rivers and creeks. After encountering the Spanish colonists, the Yokuts suffered from new infectious diseases, which caused social disruption, as did the Spanish efforts to impress them into labor at Mission San José. Mexican and American explorers later arrived, pushing the Yokuts out. The Yokuts people remain, living in small groups with about 2,600 people identifying as Yokut. Along with them, another language group of Native Americans found near Tracy are referred to as the Mono people, numbering around 1,800. Tracy is a railroad town that came from the mid-19th century construction, mainly by Chinese laborers, of Central Pacific Railroad rail lines running from Sacramento through Stockton to the San Francisco Bay Area, beginning 1868 and ending September 1878 with the opening of a new branch and junction. A number of small communities sprang up along these lines at designated station sites, including one at the junction named for railroad director J. J. Tracy. Incorporated in 1911, Tracy grew rapidly and prospered as the center of an agricultural area, even when larger railroad operations began to decline in the 1950s. Competition with trucking and automobiles resulted in widespread railroad restructuring. Tracy is part of the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area, an extension of the Bay Area. In December 1969, the town of Tracy hosted the Altamont Free Concert, held at the later closed Altamont Raceway Park. An estimated 300,000 people gathered at the speedway infield in an event that was plagued by violence…

Geography

Located in the Central Valley, Tracy is near both fertile and (due to a region of hills west of Tracy) infertile agricultural lands. Tracy has a Mediterranean climate. Some of this land (in the east and mostly north of Tracy because of the moist Delta river system) has come under increasing development pressure. The San Francisco Bay Area's vigorous population growth has spilled over into the Tracy area as well as other locations, such as the new town of Mountain House. Tracy passed Measure A in 1990 in an attempt to contain and limit development. In an effort to reduce environmental impacts of the city, it launched the Emerald Tracy Project in September 2009. City spokesman Matt Robinson said that if it succeeds, Tracy will be the second city after Riverside, California to satisfy the state's goal for sustainable communities. Tracy features a semi-arid climate (Köppen BSk), with cool, moist winters and very hot and dry summers, displaying Mediterranean characteristics. December and January are the coolest months, and average around , and there are 19 nights with lows at or below freezing annually, with the coldest night of the year typically bottoming out below . July is the warmest month, averaging ; normally, there are 18 days of + highs and 82 days of + highs. Average annual precipitation is around , which, by definition, results in the area being classified as a semi-desert.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• House Finch

  Haemorhous mexicanus (P.L.Statius Müller, 1776) · Aves
  5,255
• California/Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay

  Aphelocoma californica (Vigors, 1839) · Aves
  4,702
• European Starling

  Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  4,448
• Northern Mockingbird

  Mimus polyglottos (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  4,166
• Eurasian Collared-Dove

  Streptopelia decaocto (Frivaldszky, 1838) · Aves
  4,018
• Black Phoebe

  Sayornis nigricans (Swainson, 1827) · Aves
  3,981
• Common Raven

  Corvus corax Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  3,913
• Red-tailed Hawk

  Buteo jamaicensis (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  3,810

Largest nearby schools

• Mountain House High
  High · Mountain House · 2,142 students · 23.8:1 ratio
• Merrill F. West High
  High · Tracy · 2,108 students · 22.7:1 ratio
• Tracy High
  High · Tracy · 1,768 students · 23.3:1 ratio
• John C. Kimball High
  High · Tracy · 1,607 students · 24.7:1 ratio
• Mossdale Elementary
  Elementary · Lathrop · 1,069 students · 27.4:1 ratio
• River Islands Technology Academy II
  Elementary · Lathrop · 993 students · 27.6:1 ratio
• Hansen Elementary
  Elementary · Mountain House · 936 students · 25.3:1 ratio
• George Kelly Elementary
  Elementary · Tracy · 933 students · 23.3:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 2.54 — 2026-10-15
  10 km ESE of Gilroy, CA
• M 2.6 — 2026-09-27
  26 km WSW of Westley, CA
• M 3.32 — 2026-09-27
  27 km WSW of Westley, CA
• M 2.56 — 2026-09-23
  2 km NW of Hollister, CA
• M 2.51 — 2026-09-19
  10 km ENE of Milpitas, CA
• M 2.53 — 2026-09-17
  2 km ENE of Aromas, CA