French Camp (from Campo de los Franceses, Spanish for "Field of the Frenchmen") is an unincorporated community in San Joaquin County, California, United States.

For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau has defined French Camp as a census-designated place (CDP).

French Camp is the location of the U.S. Army Sharpe Depot and the GSA Western Distribution Center, and is the oldest settlement in San Joaquin County.

[6] French Camp was the southernmost regular camp site of the Hudson's Bay Company southern fur brigades sent from Fort Vancouver (now Vancouver, Washington), established by Michel Laframboise in 1832.

Its Spanish name was preserved in a land grant dated January 13, 1844 as Rancho Campo de los Franceses.

[7] It is commemorated as California State Historic Landmark 668: Here was the terminus of the Oregon-California trail used by the French-Canadian trappers employed by the Hudson's Bay Company from about 1832 to 1845.

Michel Laframboise, among others, met fur hunters here annually, where they camped with their families.

In 1844 Charles Maria Weber and William Gulnac promoted the first white settlers' colony on "Rancho del Campo de Los Franceses" which included French Camp and the site of Stockton.French Camp was also known as Castoria, the Latin word for "beaver" being "castor", reflecting its central role in the California Fur Rush.

[8] French Camp was strategically sited at the southern end of the southernmost slough (which became known as French Camp Slough) of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, maximizing the use of the waterway for ease of transportation.

A trail led off from the site to the southeast into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

The route was eventually paved and exists to this day as "French Camp Road".