Pittsburg's name changed with the work on the waterfront

Pittsburg’s name has changed with its work. The city sits where the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers meet, and the early local story reaches back to Rancho Los Medanos. During the Gold Rush era, the land was bought by Col. Jonathan Drake Stevenson and Dr. William C. Parker.

By 1855, the waterfront settlement was a fishing village with about 500 residents. By the 1870s, fishing and canning had become major parts of local life. That waterfront setting is still important when you look toward the marina and Delta.

Coal changed the name and the rhythm of the town. After coal was found in the southern foothills, the community became known as Black Diamond. Coal cars traveled along present-day Railroad Avenue to the waterfront coaling station, where ships carried the coal to market.

The name Pittsburg came later. The town incorporated as Black Diamond in 1903, then voters changed the name to Pittsburg in 1911, nodding to the eastern steel city. Industry kept shaping the place, and during World War II, Camp Stoneman became the main West Coast embarkation point for many soldiers heading to the Pacific theater.

That layered history gives Pittsburg more depth than a commute map or marina stop can show. It is a Delta town, a fishing place, a coal place, an industrial place, and a wartime departure point, all in one city name.