Post #496067 by tobunga on Fri, Nov 27, 2009 10:09 PM

I was discussing this thread with my family at Thanksgiving (in Stockton), and my brother mentioned that my mom has a book that has a photo of the Castaway in it. The book is called Stockton Historical Landmarks and it catalogs some of Stockton's oldest landmark buildings. In the center spread that features several landmarks in the same shot, the Castaway can be seen in all its glory in the foreground.

The photo appears to be taken from the top of the structure directly to the west of the Castaway.

Here is the cover of the book, and a typical photo.

The center spread is the only color photo, and the caption reads "Downtown Stockton and the new marina - 1976 (Five Stockton historical landmarks are visible)"... perhaps it should read SIX Stockton historical landmarks are visible, including the Castaway!

Close up of the Castaway.

This is the view of the Castaway I remember as a kid, driving past it and seeing it from the freeway. As with the Islander, my family never went there, and in my mind, I thought it had something to do with Gilligan's Island, since that's the only reference I had to the word "castaway".

Since Abstracttiki has had such success with the photo archives of the Bank of Stockton, perhaps a search through other local bank archives would be fruitful.
Union Safe Deposit Bank, according to the cover of this book, has been around since 1897... It's Bank of the West now, but perhaps they still have something in their archives worth perusing.