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Tinsley Island
Tinsley Island is a small island in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, in San Joaquin County, California, next to the Stockton Deepwater Shipping Channel. It was created in the 1930s, when dredging to improve the navigability of the San Joaquin River cut it off from Roberts Island. Since 1958, it has been owned by the St. Francis Yacht Club. In 1960, the club transported a lighthouse from San Francisco Bay to serve as its clubhouse, and in the same year began an annual "Stag Cruise"; as of 2024, the club still owns the island and maintains a clubhouse there.
Tinsley Island is part of San Joaquin County, California, and managed by Reclamation District 2108. Its coordinates are 38°02′16″N 121°29′45″W / 38.03778°N 121.49583°W, and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) measured its elevation as 0 ft (0 m) in 1981. Directly to the southeast is an island complex comprising Fern, Headreach and Tule Islands; to its south is McDonald Island, to its west is Medford Island, and to its northwest is Ward Island. Directly to the north is the Ward Cut (a section of the Stockton Deepwater Shipping Channel), and beyond that is the Empire Tract. It is 12 mi (19 km) miles northwest of Stockton. It can be seen from the nearby Empire Tract, although from that elevation the only visible part of the island is "lines of trees or tules belying what may exist beyond".
In 1956, Tinsley Island was surveyed by the San Joaquin County Mosquito Abatement District (along with other islands in the Delta region, including Hog, Spud, Headreach and Fern Islands) as a potential breeding location for mosquitoes.
As of 2000, the largest carp that had ever been caught in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta was 47 lb 8 oz (21.5 kg), on April 17, 1958, made by Dave Cain while trolling in Headreach Cutoff by Tinsley Island.
The land that would eventually become Tinsley Island first appears on USGS maps in 1910, as a protrusion on the northern side of Roberts Island. Later, the channel of the San Joaquin River near Tinsley Island was widened and deepened; by March 1934 the work was "more than 50 percent complete". By 1939, it had been separated from Roberts Island by a series of dredger cuts. It was first labeled on a 1952 USGS map of the area.
In 1958, the island was purchased by the St. Francis Yacht Club, an organization started in 1928, for $10,750 ($119,961 in 2025). Their first "cruise" to the island was in 1958, with another in August 1959. At that point, the island was described by the San Francisco Examiner as a "duck pond"; after dredging operations in 1960, it was formed into a fully above-water island with two harbors. Bud Witt was manager of the St. Francis Yacht Club from 1946 to 1960.
In 1960, the club obtained a clubhouse: the Southampton Lighthouse, which had previously been located at Southampton Shoal in San Francisco Bay. The three-story structure, which had been at its previous location since 1906, was planned for removal by the Healy-Tibbets Construction Company; its president, John Marhens, "decided it would be wasteful if not downright disrespectful" to demolish it, and donated it to the yacht club, who paid only $3,000 ($32,649 in 2025) The removal itself involved two marine cranes, and took five hours. It was transported to Tinsley Island on the Crowley Tugboat Company's barge, and was installed there in July.
The club (which was "strictly for members and guests") counted among its members "some of the country's most prominent yachtsmen". In 1964 and 1965, Walt Disney went to Tinsley Island. In 1960, the San Francisco Examiner said the "water skiing, fishing and swimming in the area are excellent". By 1962, one company alone (Stephens Marine of Stockton) had built several unpowered houseboats to be semi-permanently docked at Tinsley Island, where they were attached to water lines and offered "modern conveniences" like thermostat-controlled heating and air conditioning; two of them were more than one story tall. One boat had a hatch that could be opened for fishing in the middle of the living room floor.
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Tinsley Island AI simulator
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Tinsley Island
Tinsley Island is a small island in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, in San Joaquin County, California, next to the Stockton Deepwater Shipping Channel. It was created in the 1930s, when dredging to improve the navigability of the San Joaquin River cut it off from Roberts Island. Since 1958, it has been owned by the St. Francis Yacht Club. In 1960, the club transported a lighthouse from San Francisco Bay to serve as its clubhouse, and in the same year began an annual "Stag Cruise"; as of 2024, the club still owns the island and maintains a clubhouse there.
Tinsley Island is part of San Joaquin County, California, and managed by Reclamation District 2108. Its coordinates are 38°02′16″N 121°29′45″W / 38.03778°N 121.49583°W, and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) measured its elevation as 0 ft (0 m) in 1981. Directly to the southeast is an island complex comprising Fern, Headreach and Tule Islands; to its south is McDonald Island, to its west is Medford Island, and to its northwest is Ward Island. Directly to the north is the Ward Cut (a section of the Stockton Deepwater Shipping Channel), and beyond that is the Empire Tract. It is 12 mi (19 km) miles northwest of Stockton. It can be seen from the nearby Empire Tract, although from that elevation the only visible part of the island is "lines of trees or tules belying what may exist beyond".
In 1956, Tinsley Island was surveyed by the San Joaquin County Mosquito Abatement District (along with other islands in the Delta region, including Hog, Spud, Headreach and Fern Islands) as a potential breeding location for mosquitoes.
As of 2000, the largest carp that had ever been caught in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta was 47 lb 8 oz (21.5 kg), on April 17, 1958, made by Dave Cain while trolling in Headreach Cutoff by Tinsley Island.
The land that would eventually become Tinsley Island first appears on USGS maps in 1910, as a protrusion on the northern side of Roberts Island. Later, the channel of the San Joaquin River near Tinsley Island was widened and deepened; by March 1934 the work was "more than 50 percent complete". By 1939, it had been separated from Roberts Island by a series of dredger cuts. It was first labeled on a 1952 USGS map of the area.
In 1958, the island was purchased by the St. Francis Yacht Club, an organization started in 1928, for $10,750 ($119,961 in 2025). Their first "cruise" to the island was in 1958, with another in August 1959. At that point, the island was described by the San Francisco Examiner as a "duck pond"; after dredging operations in 1960, it was formed into a fully above-water island with two harbors. Bud Witt was manager of the St. Francis Yacht Club from 1946 to 1960.
In 1960, the club obtained a clubhouse: the Southampton Lighthouse, which had previously been located at Southampton Shoal in San Francisco Bay. The three-story structure, which had been at its previous location since 1906, was planned for removal by the Healy-Tibbets Construction Company; its president, John Marhens, "decided it would be wasteful if not downright disrespectful" to demolish it, and donated it to the yacht club, who paid only $3,000 ($32,649 in 2025) The removal itself involved two marine cranes, and took five hours. It was transported to Tinsley Island on the Crowley Tugboat Company's barge, and was installed there in July.
The club (which was "strictly for members and guests") counted among its members "some of the country's most prominent yachtsmen". In 1964 and 1965, Walt Disney went to Tinsley Island. In 1960, the San Francisco Examiner said the "water skiing, fishing and swimming in the area are excellent". By 1962, one company alone (Stephens Marine of Stockton) had built several unpowered houseboats to be semi-permanently docked at Tinsley Island, where they were attached to water lines and offered "modern conveniences" like thermostat-controlled heating and air conditioning; two of them were more than one story tall. One boat had a hatch that could be opened for fishing in the middle of the living room floor.
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