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Modesto History, California

Unravel the history of Modesto, CA US

Modesto is located in San Joaquin valley of California. Modesto is basically a station on the railroad which connects the wonderful cities of Los Angeles and Sacramento. This place was founded in 1870 and is named after William C. Ralston who sponsored several projects in early California. On the naming ceremony of the Modesto, a Spanish railroad worker said that Ralston is “Muy Modesto” which meant he is very modest and thus the place was named as Modesto. It is still a matter of debate that if the story related to naming the place Modesto is fact or is just a myth. The truth however is that nobody i.e. no citizen of Modesto is sure of how the place got the name Modesto.

Modesto, CA US was built in 1884 and the population in the year 1880 was 1000 but by 1900, population of this city increased to over 4500. Historical records show that with the passing time population in Modesto kept on increasing and it reached to 100,000 in 1980 and about 200,000 in the year 2001. In 1910, population of Modesto was recorded 4034 but after a decade it increased to 9241. In the next ten years, population increased to 13,842 which was 49% more than what was recorded ten years back and it was considered as the greatest population growth which was rare in any other city of northern California. In 1940, population again noticed a record increase as then the recorded population was 16,830.

Historical records of Modesto show that it was a kind of Willoughby city. The city of Modesto was originally founded by central pacific railroad. Modesto got expanded after advent of commuters from the San Francisco bay area. Earlier the roads of Modesto were made of dirt where one could hardly ride a bicycle on fast speed in the middle of road as dirt obstructed the glance of riders. Besides bicycle, horseless carriages were popular modes of travel in the past times. Prior to the advent of horseless carriages, horse and buggy were the popular means of traveling for the citizens of ancient Modesto.

There is an interesting history behind the official slogan of Modesto i.e. “water wealth contentment health” as a competition was held in the year 1911 so as to determine the official slogan of Modesto and the slogan which won was “nobody’s got Modesto’s goat” but the second place entry i.e. “water wealth contentment health” was finally chosen as the official slogan of Modesto. The official slogan of the place Modesto “water wealth contentment health” is commemorated in many photographs and phot exhibits and is usually celebrated in the downtown Modesto.

In 1871 Modesto was chosen as the county seat of Stanislaus region and after that it became the major trading ground for Stanislaus County. Modesto was incorporated in the year 1884 and in the same year federal government took major steps to improve water supply to the surrounding lands by organizing irrigation districts in which cattle and grain growing was given paramount importance. In 1904, the irrigation fight was won and the irrigation targets were accomplished successfully. After 1904, the era of development and colonization started rapidly and Modesto along with the county grew into a metropolitan city.

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