[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 106 (Friday, June 20, 2025)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E591]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  HONORING CITY OF LATHROP, CALIFORNIA

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. ADAM GRAY

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, June 20, 2025

  Mr. GRAY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the City of Lathrop, 
California, as it celebrates its 35th anniversary.
  Lathrop was little more than a schoolhouse and a store before the 
construction of the Central Pacific Railroad around 1870. When the city 
of Stockton and Leland Stanford had a disagreement about where the 
railroad should be placed, Stanford worked around the problem and 
Stockton by building a new town along the railroad's new route. The 
station he built was originally known as Wilson's Station but was 
eventually renamed Lathrop in 1869 to honor his wife and her brother 
Charles Lathrop who was a civil engineer on the Central Pacific 
Railroad. That year, the San Joaquin River Bridge at Mossdale in 
Lathrop was finished, completing the last westbound link of the 
Transcontinental Railroad to the Pacific Coast.
  Lathrop saw a boom during World War II when Permanente Metals and the 
Sharpe Army Depot came to town. Permanente produced aircraft parts and 
magnesium bombs, while the Depot became one of the major army supply 
depots in the Western United States. The Depot remains a major employer 
in San Joaquin County and serves as the U.S. Army's western 
distribution center for repairs and spare parts.
  Housing tracts were constructed during postwar years, and Lathrop 
became home to large industrial employers including BEST Fertilizer, 
now operated by Simplot and producing pesticides and fertilizers, and 
Libbey-Owens-Ford which produces auto glass. Residential growth 
accelerated through the seventies and eighties, Lathrop became a 
municipality in 1989, and the current General Plan Program began one 
year later.
  Since then, Lathrop has focused on intelligently planned growth and 
development, reflected in the building of two master-planned 
communities: River Islands and Stanford Crossing. Lathrop launched its 
first police department in 2021 with 43 sworn officers and a community 
resource division. With its current population of 39,857, Lathrop has 
been designated two years in a row as California's ``Fastest Growing 
City with a Population Over 30,000'' by the California State Department 
of Finance.
  Lathrop has a family friendly environment, fiscally responsible city 
government, and first-rate facilities for education and health.
  It is my great privilege to honor and celebrate the 35th anniversary 
of the small city where the Transcontinental Railroad was completed and 
which continues to be at the crossroads of commerce. Let us all join in 
recognizing the City of Lathrop.

                          ____________________