Tracy Press

Evelyn Costa was one of the original inhabitants of what is present-day Mountain House, and she went on to serve 12 years on the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors.

On Tuesday in Stockton, the supervisors honored her with the naming of a park and future elementary school in Mountain House.

"She is one of the few people from the area who actually lived in that area that is now called Mountain House," Supervisor Leroy Ornellas said. "She was born and raised there."

Costa’s family owned a dairy farm and ranch on the northwest corner of Grant Line Road and Mountain House Parkway, long before the community sprung up from the fields.

She went on to become the first woman to serve as chairwoman of the county board in 1984 and represented Tracy and what later became Mountain House from 1981 to 1993.

An active member of the California Republican Women and the state Republican Party since 1960, she served as a field representative in the late 1970s for Rep. Norman Shumway, a Republican congressman from Stockton. She was a delegate to the GOP National Convention in 1976 and 1984.

Costa was also a member of many local organizations, such as the California Women of Agriculture, Carbona Farm Women, San Joaquin County Farm Bureau and the Tracy Woman’s Club, to name a few. There’s also a Costa Park in Tracy named for Evelyn Costa.