Crows Landing was founded on the San Joaquin River, as a river landing or crossing, by the Crow family, specifically by John Milton Crow, born in MO 1830 died in CA 1917. John Milton emigrated from MO to Ca and came to CA in a covered wagon. He and his wife Margaret Malinda Bodenhamer b 1837in Quincy Il and died 1918 in CA. They had 12 children, but not all lived to adulthood. Members of the Crow family still live at Crows Landing and farm walnuts. Crows Landing was relocated west to be established on the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks in 1887. There is a small airport west of town that was used as an auxiliary landing site for training World War II pilots from Naval Air Station Alameda, and later for NASA's experimental aircraft from the Ames Research Center in Mountain View. It was transferred to Stanislaus County in 2000. Crows Landing airport is now closed and is used for testing cars, trucks, aircraft, and storage.
The 2010 United States Census reported that Crows Landing had a population of 355. The population density was 112.0 people per square mile. The racial makeup of Crows Landing was 162 White, 5 African American, 1 Native American, 0 Asian, 0 Pacific Islander, 182 from other races, and 5 from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 248 persons. The Census reported that 355 people lived in households, 0 lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 0 were institutionalized. There were 121 households, out of which 44 had children under the age of 18 living in them, 66 were opposite-sex married couplesliving together, 9 had a female householder with no husband present, 8 had a male householder with no wife present. There were 3 unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 0 same-sex married couples or partnerships. 36 households were made up of individuals, and 19 had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.93. There were 83 families ; the average family size was 3.73. The population was spread out, with 99 people under the age of 18, 34 people aged 18 to 24, 85 people aged 25 to 44, 81 people aged 45 to 64, and 56 people who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37.7 years. For every 100 females, there were 107.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 106.5 males. There were 143 housing units at an average density of 45.1 per square mile, of which 77 were owner-occupied, and 44 were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.5%; the rental vacancy rate was 6.4%. 214 people lived in owner-occupied housing units and 141 people lived in rental housing units.
