Locke, California: persistence and change in the cultural landscape of a delta Chinatown

The focus of this study is the unincorporated town of Locke, California. Locke is a small Chinese community in Sacramento County, approximately sixty-five miles northeast of Oakland and twenty-five miles southwest of Sacramento. The town occupies a one-half square mile area adjacent to and below a stretch of levee along the Sacramento River. According to census data determined in the field in April of 1974, the total town population is eighty-five. The town was founded in 1915 by a group of Chungshan Chinese who were left homeless after a fire devastated the Chinese quarter of nearby Walnut Grove. The town was built on the property of George Locke and the land is still leased from the Locke Estate by town residents.