Empire Tract
The Empire Tract is an island in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta in San Joaquin County, California, United States. It has been used for agriculture since the 1800s; in the early 20th century it was used to plant potatoes, and United States president Herbert Hoover operated a beet farm there. In the 1960s, natural gas deposits were discovered beneath the island. In 1936, it was connected to the mainland by the Eight Mile Road Bridge, across King Island. As with many islands in the Delta, the Empire Tract has experienced considerable subsidence, and is well below sea level.
Geography
It is part of San Joaquin County, California, and managed by Reclamation District 2029. Its coordinates are, and the United States Geological Survey measured its elevation as in 1981. To the north is Terminous Tract, and to the northwest is Bouldin Island. To its west is Venice Island. To its southwest are Little Venice, Ward, Tinsley, and Fern Islands. To its southeast is the Rindge Tract, separated by Connection Slough, and to its east is King Island, separated by the approximately Honker Cut. The only road access to Empire Tract is the Eight Mile Road Bridge, a two-lane bridge built in 1936, connecting to it from King Island. Ferry service runs between Empire Tract and Venice Island.History
In December 1912, Lee A. Philips, a capitalist of Stockton and Los Angeles, purchased several islands in the California Delta, including the Empire Tract, which began to be planted in that year by the Empire Navigation Company. In 1912, of barley had been planted on the Empire Tract. By 1913, the company planned to plant the tract with of potatoes and only of barley.In a 1923 report on the hydrography of the San Joaquin River, the Empire Tract was measured as having of land in total, with irrigated. Of these, there were still of potatoes, but there were also devoted to growing fruit, to beans, and to hay. That year, of the tract were farmed by a partnership between Philip Giriodi, D. Stagi, and G. Lazzarino. The next year, Giriodi would file a lawsuit against the others for a dissolution of the partnership, claiming that they had refused to pay him his share of the profits. Two years later, the island was to be owned in its entirety by California Delta Farms, Incorporated. California Delta Farms would continue to own the Empire Tract for some years, but by 1946 the company was dissolved.
In the 1930s, United States president Herbert Hoover operated "extensive farming property" on the Empire Tract. In 1936, the Hoover Ranch, supervised by his son Allan Hoover, was the site of a "shooting affray" in which two men were killed in a dispute over wages for beets. Between 1931 and 1938, much of the island was devoted to farming sugar beets. By the 1950s, planting on the Empire Tract involved asparagus; a lawsuit involving of asparagus farmland was filed in 1955.
In 1955, levee failures on the Empire Tract and nearby Venice Island would cause both to flood; while 75 men were working on the islands at the time, 73 were successfully evacuated by the Army with amphibious vehicles, and two were picked up in helicopters.
In the late 20th century, natural gas deposits were discovered underneath several Delta islands. The Union Oil Company of California drilled a exploratory well on the Empire Tract in September 1964, but failed to find oil. The next year, the Signal Oil and Gas drilled another well. By 1973, the Union Oil Company was leasing land in the Empire Tract area to extract natural gas.
In 2008, The Modesto Bee published an analysis of the Delta area's subsidence, which gave projections for elevations in the year 2100. The Empire Tract was expected to have the lowest elevation of any island or tract in the Delta, at around below sea level. In 2012, a water treatment plant was finished to divert water from the San Joaquin River for use in farming the Empire Tract; construction had begun in 1996.