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The Santa Clara Valley (
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...
: ''Valle de Santa Clara'') is a geologic trough in
Northern California Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's List of counties in California, 58 counties. Northern Ca ...
that extends south–southeast from
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
to Hollister. The longitudinal valley is bordered on the west by the
Santa Cruz Mountains The Santa Cruz Mountains ( Mutsun Ohlone: Mak-sah-re-jah, "Sharp Ridged Mountain of the Eagle" or "People of the Eagle Mountain") are a mountain range in central and Northern California, United States, constituting a part of the Pacific Coast R ...
and on the east by the
Diablo Range The Diablo Range is a mountain range in the California Coast Ranges subdivision of the Pacific Coast Ranges in northern California, United States. It stretches from the eastern San Francisco Bay Area at its northern end to the Salinas Valley a ...
; the two coastal ranges meet south of Hollister. The
San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...
borders the valley to the north, and fills much of the northern third of the valley. The valley floor is an
alluvial plain An alluvial plain is a plain (an essentially flat landform) created by the deposition of sediment over a long period by one or more rivers coming from highland regions, from which alluvial soil forms. A ''floodplain'' is part of the process, bei ...
that formed in the
graben In geology, a graben () is a depression (geology), depressed block of the Crust (geology), crust of a planet or moon, bordered by parallel normal faults. Etymology ''Graben'' is a loan word from German language, German, meaning 'ditch' or 't ...
(tectonic depression) between the
San Andreas Fault The San Andreas Fault is a continental Fault (geology)#Strike-slip faults, right-lateral strike-slip transform fault that extends roughly through the U.S. state of California. It forms part of the tectonics, tectonic boundary between the Paci ...
to the west and the Hayward and Calaveras faults to the east. Within the valley and surrounding the bay on three sides are the urban communities of
San Mateo County San Mateo County ( ), officially the County of San Mateo, is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 764,442. Redwood City, California, Redwood City is th ...
,
Santa Clara County Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259 as of the 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring San Benito County form the ...
, and
Alameda County Alameda County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,682,353, making it the 7th-most populous county in the state and 21st most populous nationally. The county seat is Oakland. A ...
, while the narrow southern reaches of the valley extend into rural
San Benito County San Benito County (; ''San Benito'', Spanish for " St. Benedict"), officially the County of San Benito, is a county located in the Central Coast region of California. Situated in the California Coast Ranges, the county had a population of 64 ...
to Hollister. In practical terms, the central portion of the Santa Clara Valley is often considered by itself, contained entirely within Santa Clara County. The valley, named after the Spanish Mission Santa Clara, was for a time known as the Valley of Heart's Delight for its high concentration of orchards, flowering trees, and plants. Until the 1960s it was the largest fruit-producing and packing region in the world, with 39 canneries. The growing high-tech industry in the 1960s transformed the area from farmland to densely populated cities, and it became referred to as the
Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...
.


Overview

Once primarily agricultural because of its highly fertile soil, Santa Clara Valley is now largely urbanized, although its far southern reaches south of Gilroy remain agrarian. Few traces of its agricultural past can still be found, but the Santa Clara Valley American Viticultural Area remains a large wine-making region. It was one of the first commercial wine-producing regions in California (and possibly the United States), utilizing high-quality French varietal vines imported from France. The northern end of the Santa Clara Valley is at
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
, and the southern end is south of Hollister. The valley is bounded by the
Santa Cruz Mountains The Santa Cruz Mountains ( Mutsun Ohlone: Mak-sah-re-jah, "Sharp Ridged Mountain of the Eagle" or "People of the Eagle Mountain") are a mountain range in central and Northern California, United States, constituting a part of the Pacific Coast R ...
on the southwest, which separate the valley from the Pacific Ocean, and by the
Diablo Range The Diablo Range is a mountain range in the California Coast Ranges subdivision of the Pacific Coast Ranges in northern California, United States. It stretches from the eastern San Francisco Bay Area at its northern end to the Salinas Valley a ...
on the northeast. The valley is approximately long by wide. Its largest city is San Jose. Santa Clara Valley has a Mediterranean semi-arid climate. Joseph S. Diller, a geologist, observed in 1915 that a "notable peculiarity" of the Santa Clara Valley is that "it is divided transversely by a scarcely noticeable soil-covered divide." The northern portion is drained northward by various rivers and creeks into San Francisco Bay. The southern portion of the valley is drained southward by Llagas Creek into the Pajaro River, which in turn flows westward to
Monterey Bay Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean located on the coast of the U.S. state of California, south of the San Francisco Bay Area. San Francisco itself is further north along the coast, by about 75 miles (120 km), accessible via California S ...
. As one travels across the valley floor, "the
alluvial plain An alluvial plain is a plain (an essentially flat landform) created by the deposition of sediment over a long period by one or more rivers coming from highland regions, from which alluvial soil forms. A ''floodplain'' is part of the process, bei ...
is continuous across the divide." The summit of the transverse divide is about two miles from the former town of Madrone at an elevation of , but the alluvial plain is so continuous that most travelers are unaware they are crossing between two
drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...
s.


History

The earliest known inhabitants on the Santa Clara Valley are the
Ohlone people The Ohlone ( ), formerly known as Costanoans (from Spanish meaning 'coast dweller'), are a Native American people of the Northern California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the late 18th century, the Ohlone inhabited ...
, who had eight distinct languages and tribes in the coastal region.
Mission Santa Clara de Asís Mission Santa Clara de Asís () is a Spanish mission in the city of Santa Clara, California. The mission, which was the eighth in California, was founded on January 12, 1777, by the Franciscans. Named for Saint Clare of Assisi, who founded th ...
, which had control over a vast tract of land stretching from
Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...
to Gilroy, was founded by
Franciscans The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor being the largest conte ...
in 1777. San Jose was California's first town and was also founded in 1777 by Spain as an agricultural pueblo. There were 66 original settlers. In Spanish and Mexican times the land was devoted to cattle, as was most of California. Following the
Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War (Spanish language, Spanish: ''guerra de Estados Unidos-México, guerra mexicano-estadounidense''), also known in the United States as the Mexican War, and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, ...
San Jose was briefly the capital of California. The influx of Americans resulted in relocation of many of the native Mexican and Indian people of San Jose to the mission at Santa Clara, which had been under control of Jesuits from 1850; they founded
Santa Clara University Santa Clara University is a private university, private Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California, United States. Established in 1851, Santa Clara University is the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California. The university' ...
there in 1851. In 1860, as an American town, the population of San Jose was 4,579, with cattle ranching still the main agricultural activity. For a time wheat became the main crop, but in the 1870s fruit gradually became the main crop and processing of fruit by drying or canning the predominant industry. The railroad reached San Jose in 1860.


The Valley of Heart's Delight

The valley with its scenic beauty, mild climate, and thousands of acres of blooming fruit trees was known as "The Valley of Heart's Delight". Various fruit cooperatives were formed in the area to deal with economic issues, including the California Fruit Union (founded in 1883) and the Santa Clara County Fruit Exchange (founded in 1892).
Prune A prune is a dried plum, most commonly from the European plum (''Prunus domestica'') tree. Not all plum species or varieties can be dried into prunes. Use of the term ''prune'' for fresh plums is obsolete except when applied to varieties of ...
s were a major crop, with the valley was producing the majority of prunes in California by 1900 and shipped internationally. Water was supplied from an
artesian aquifer An artesian well is a well that brings groundwater to the surface without pumping because it is under pressure within a body of rock or sediment known as an aquifer. When trapped water in an aquifer is surrounded by layers of Permeability (ea ...
and when the water table dropped, wells were pumped. Many orchards were small with housing and fruit growing in a dispersed pattern. By the 1920s and 1930s, the agricultural and horticultural industries were doing well in the valley and included 18 canneries, 13 dried-fruit packing houses, and 12 fresh-fruit and vegetable shipping firms, and they were shipping internationally. Del Monte and Sunsweet are two brands which originated in the Santa Clara Valley. The need for workers greatly exceeded the local population and in the nineteenth century, Chinese and Japanese immigrants met that need. Toward the end of the nineteenth century many Italians and other immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe came to the valley and worked in the orchards and canneries. During the 20th century there were Filipino immigrants and increasing numbers of immigrants from Mexico who during World War II became the dominant agricultural workforce. The town of San Jose was dominated by its business community, which was in part composed of Irish Catholics, who had a self-contained social life which did not include immigrant labor. There was marked prejudice against Asians, particularly Chinese, who gradually left the valley.


The Great Depression

Deflation In economics, deflation is a decrease in the general price level of goods and services. Deflation occurs when the inflation rate falls below 0% and becomes negative. While inflation reduces the value of currency over time, deflation increases i ...
and
overproduction In economics, overproduction, oversupply, excess of supply, or glut refers to excess of supply over demand of products being offered to the market. This leads to lower prices and/or unsold goods along with the possibility of unemployment. T ...
severely hurt the orchards and packers of the Santa Clara Valley during the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
. Bankrupt farmers from the
Dust Bowl The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. The phenomenon was caused by a combination of natural factors (severe drought) and hum ...
, the
Okie An Okie is a person identified with the state of Oklahoma, or their descendants. This connection may be residential, historical or cultural. For most Okies, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their bei ...
s, made the trek to California''.'' Desperate to feed their families, they joined a workforce that was itself impacted by unemployment. The growers, with record low prices and surplus supply, could pay little. Labor organizers and
goon squad A goon squad is a group of people, often composed of hired criminals, detectives, or mercenaries, formed to intimidate and assault a specific group of opponents, most often unionized workers. Examples In the United States, a goon squad is a gr ...
s battled in the labor camps.Kate Bronfenbrenner
"California Farmworkers' Strikes of 1933
, pages 79-83 in ''Labor conflict in the United States: An encyclopedia'', edited by R. L. Filippelli, Garland Publishing, Inc. (1990)
Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer, songwriter, and composer widely considered to be one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American Left, A ...
's songs were on the radio and he wrote a regular column in the San Francisco-based '' The Daily People's World'' for the workers. San Francisco had a strong labor union tradition which thrived in Santa Clara County. During the " March Inland" organizing drive the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) backed the Cannery and Agricultural Workers' Industrial Union (CAWIU), a
Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
-controlled union headquartered in San Jose, which had considerable success organizing farm and cannery workers in the Santa Clara Valley and elsewhere in California until it was suppressed and its leaders jailed in 1934 by the State of California following sustained attacks by business and political forces which, in San Jose, resulted in an atmosphere of terror (the low point of which was a public lynching tacitly supported by James Rolph, the Governor of California). The canneries, with a segregated seasonal work force of white women, were eventually organized, at first by an AFL-affiliated company union, but one which gradually evolved, thanks to rank and file efforts, into a union which genuinely represented cannery workers.


War and industry

The fruit industry gradually recovered, and by the early 1940s, prosperity returned to the valley. Wartime production associated with World War II brought industry to the valley such as building of marine engines for
Liberty ship Liberty ships were a ship class, class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Although British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost cons ...
s by the Joshua Hendy Iron Works, now
Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational Aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and Arms industry, defense company. With 97,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $40 billion, it is one of the world's largest Arms industry ...
Marine Systems in
Sunnyvale Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States. Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real and Highway 101 and is bordered by portions of San Jose to the north, ...
;
landing craft Landing craft are small and medium seagoing watercraft, such as boats and barges, used to convey a landing force (infantry and vehicles) from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. The term excludes landing ships, which are larger. ...
were built by Food Machinery Corporation, which later built the
M113 The M113 is a fully tracked armored personnel carrier (APC) that was developed and produced by the FMC Corporation. The M113 was sent to United States Army Europe in 1961 to replace the mechanized infantry's M59 APCs. The M113 was first used ...
armored personnel carrier, the
Bradley Fighting Vehicle The Bradley Fighting Vehicle (BFV) is an American continuous track, tracked armored fighting vehicle of the United States developed by FMC Corporation and now manufactured by BAE Systems Land & Armaments, formerly United Defense. It is named for ...
, and the XR311 at its facility in Santa Clara; and an
IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
factory began manufacturing
punch card A punched card (also punch card or punched-card) is a stiff paper-based medium used to store digital information via the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. Developed over the 18th to 20th centuries, punched cards were wide ...
s in San Jose in 1943. About 1,000 Japanese were interned, losing substantial property. Wartime production drew workers, including
women A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional u ...
, from the orchards and canneries; they were replaced by
Mexican American Mexican Americans are Americans of full or partial Mexico, Mexican descent. In 2022, Mexican Americans comprised 11.2% of the US population and 58.9% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexican Americans were born in the Unite ...
s from Texas and California and by Mexican
bracero The Bracero Program (from the Spanish language, Spanish term ''bracero'' , meaning "manual laborer" or "one who works using his arms") was a temporary labor initiative between the United States and Mexico that allowed Mexican workers to be empl ...
s. Neighborhoods in East San Jose, such as the Meadowfair district, became
barrio ''Barrio'' () is a Spanish language, Spanish word that means "Quarter (urban subdivision), quarter" or "neighborhood". In the modern Spanish language, it is generally defined as each area of a city delimited by functional (e.g. residential, comm ...
s. The Polaris submarine-launched ballistic missile was built during the Cold War by Lockheed Missiles & Space Division in Sunnyvale for the
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...
, while Northrop Grumman Marine Systems built the launch tubes and propulsion systems. For the most part, the defense industry and traditional electronics manufacturers, with the exception of IBM, in the Santa Clara Valley were unionized, mainly by the
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) is an AFL–CIO/ CLC trade union representing over 600,000 workers as of 2024 in more than 200 industries with most of its membership in the United States and Canada. Orig ...
,
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) is a trade union, labor union that represents approximately 820,000 workers and retirees in the electricity, electrical industry in the United States, Canada, Guam, Panama, Puerto Rico, an ...
, and Teamsters. The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, a communist dominated union, but friendly to minority and women workers, gradually lost its place during the McCarthy era.


Silicon Valley

In the 1950s, the first
transistor A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch electrical signals and electric power, power. It is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semicondu ...
industries were established in the area. Led by
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
, the lower San Francisco Peninsula became a global high-tech hub known as
Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...
. The name refers to
silicon Silicon is a chemical element; it has symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic lustre, and is a tetravalent metalloid (sometimes considered a non-metal) and semiconductor. It is a membe ...
, the most common
semiconductor A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...
used to produce
microchips An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a set of electronic circuits, consisting of various electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and their interconnections. These components a ...
and other electronic devices. The borders of Silicon Valley have been variously defined. Most observers include the entirety of Santa Clara County and the southern portions of San Mateo and Alameda counties, while others extend the region northwest to
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
or northeast to San Ramon.


San Jose

In 1950, Dutch Hamann was appointed
city manager A city manager is an official appointed as the administrative manager of a city in the council–manager form of city government. Local officials serving in this position are referred to as the chief executive officer (CEO) or chief administ ...
of San Jose. Hamann's boosterism was supported by Joe Ridder, publisher of the ''
San Jose Mercury ''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidi ...
''. In power until 1969, Hamann created a master plan for San Jose and embarked on a program of
annexation Annexation, in international law, is the forcible acquisition and assertion of legal title over one state's territory by another state, usually following military occupation of the territory. In current international law, it is generally held t ...
that increased the area of San Jose from 17 square miles to 136.7 square miles. The main bargaining chip was the superior sewage system built to handle cannery waste. To overcome resistance by school districts, who otherwise would have lost their tax base, annexed areas were allowed to maintain independent school districts. This resulted in some parts of the city, such as
East San Jose East Side San Jose (abbreviated as ESSJ), commonly called The East Side and less commonly as the East Valley, is the eastern region of the city of San Jose, California. The East Side is made up of numerous neighborhoods grouped into two larger ...
, having low-quality segregated school systems with a low tax base while school systems in other parts of San Jose had an ample tax base and high-quality schools. The population of San Jose increased from 95 thousand in 1950 to 446 thousand in 1970. There were critics: Santa Clara County Planning Director Karl Belser, who opposed
urban sprawl Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city". Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted ...
, commented, "Perhaps the only use we will ever find for the hydrogen bomb will be to erase this great mistake from the face of the earth." Housing for each additional 1000 people took 257 acres of land. In more recent years, San Jose and the Santa Clara Valley have suffered from extensive droughts in California to the extent that some residents may run out of household water by the summer of 2022.


Schools

Funding for public schools in upscale communities in the Santa Clara Valley is often supplemented by grants from private foundations set up for that purpose and funded by local residents. Schools in less favorable demographics must depend on state funding.


Cities and towns

Cities and towns in the Santa Clara Valley include (in alphabetical order): * Campbell * Cupertino * Gilroy * Hollister * Los Gatos * Los Altos * Los Altos Hills * Milpitas * Monte Sereno * Morgan Hill * Mountain View *
Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...
* San Martin * San Jose * San Juan Bautista * Santa Clara * Saratoga *
Sunnyvale Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States. Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real and Highway 101 and is bordered by portions of San Jose to the north, ...
Because technology companies have spread out from Silicon Valley, Fremont and Newark, even though they are not in Santa Clara County, are often included in discussions about Silicon Valley, or, in the case of Fremont, referred to as the "Gateway to the Silicon Valley" (a title also claimed occasionally by San Jose, Union City, and several other locations). Similarly,
Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...
, while in
Santa Clara County Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259 as of the 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring San Benito County form the ...
and considered part of
Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...
, is on the
San Francisco Peninsula The San Francisco Peninsula is a peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area that separates San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. On its northern tip is the City and County of San Francisco. Its southern base is Los Altos and Mountain View, ...
.


Notable structures

There are a number of well-known structures and sites of interest in the South Bay: *
Apple Park Apple Park, also known as Apple Campus 2, is the corporate headquarters of Apple Inc., located in Cupertino, California, United States. It was opened to employees in April 2017, while construction was still underway. It replaced Apple Campus as ...
, Cupertino *
Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...
, Palo Alto *
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
, Palo Alto * SAP Center, downtown San Jose * Hayes Mansion, Southern San Jose *
Plaza de César Chávez The Plaza de César Chávez is an urban plaza and park in Downtown San Jose, California. The plaza's origins date to 1797 as the ''plaza mayor'' of the Alta California, Spanish ''Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe'', making it the oldest public sp ...
, downtown San Jose * Cathedral Basilica of Saint Joseph, downtown San Jose * Winchester Mystery House, Western San Jose * Santana Row, Western San Jose *
Lick Observatory The Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the University of California. It is on the summit of Mount Hamilton (California), Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, United States. The ...
, Mount Hamilton * Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, Central San Jose * Mexican Heritage Plaza, Eastern San Jose * History Park at Kelley Park, Central San Jose *
Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose (CDM) is a cultural institution serving children, families, and schools in the Silicon Valley/San Francisco Bay Area. A member of the Association of Children's Museums and the Association of Science and Tech ...
, Downtown San Jose *
San Jose International Airport San José Mineta International Airport —officially Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport—is a city-owned public airport in San Jose, California. Located northwest of Downtown San Jose, the airport serves both the city and the Sa ...
, uptown San Jose *
San Jose Museum of Art The San José Museum of Art (SJMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum in downtown San Jose, California, United States. Founded in 1969, the museum holds a permanent collection with an emphasis on West Coast artists of the 20th and 21st cent ...
, downtown San Jose *
San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the List of oldest schools in California, oldest public university on the West Coast of ...
, downtown San Jose *
Santa Clara University Santa Clara University is a private university, private Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California, United States. Established in 1851, Santa Clara University is the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California. The university' ...
, Santa Clara (which includes the original Santa Clara Mission site) * California's Great America, Santa Clara *
The Tech Interactive The Tech Interactive (formerly The Tech Museum of Innovation, commonly known as The Tech) is a science and technology center that offers hands-on activities, labs, design challenges and other STEAM fields, STEAM education resources. It is locate ...
, downtown San Jose *
Moffett Federal Airfield Moffett Federal Airfield , also known as Moffett Field, is a joint civil-military airport located in an unincorporated part of Santa Clara County, California, United States, between northern Mountain View and northern Sunnyvale. On November ...
, Sunnyvale/Mountain View *
Yahoo! Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, and its a ...
, Sunnyvale *
LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented Social networking service, social network. It was launched on May 5, 2003 by Reid Hoffman and Eric Ly. Since December 2016, LinkedIn has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft. ...
, Sunnyvale * Alviso, Northern San Jose (sea access/ main port of goods from Asia in 1800 before Oakland took over the following century) * Berryessa Flea Market, Northern San Jose (previously Earth's largest) * Gurdwara Sahib of San Jose, Eastern San Jose (Sikh Temple built by President Jit Singh Bainiwal) * Levis Stadium, Santa Clara


Geology

Santa Clara Valley was created by the sudden growth of the
Santa Cruz Mountains The Santa Cruz Mountains ( Mutsun Ohlone: Mak-sah-re-jah, "Sharp Ridged Mountain of the Eagle" or "People of the Eagle Mountain") are a mountain range in central and Northern California, United States, constituting a part of the Pacific Coast R ...
and the
Diablo Range The Diablo Range is a mountain range in the California Coast Ranges subdivision of the Pacific Coast Ranges in northern California, United States. It stretches from the eastern San Francisco Bay Area at its northern end to the Salinas Valley a ...
during the later
Cenozoic The Cenozoic Era ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterized by the dominance of mammals, insects, birds and angiosperms (flowering plants). It is the latest of three g ...
era. This was a period of intense
mountain building Mountain formation occurs due to a variety of geological processes associated with large-scale movements of the Earth's crust (List of tectonic plates, tectonic plates). Fold (geology), Folding, Fault (geology), faulting, Volcano, volcanic acti ...
in California when the folding and thrusting of the Earth's crust, combined with active
volcanism Volcanism, vulcanism, volcanicity, or volcanic activity is the phenomenon where solids, liquids, gases, and their mixtures erupt to the surface of a solid-surface astronomical body such as a planet or a moon. It is caused by the presence of a he ...
, gave shape to the present state of California. Hence, Santa Clara Valley is a structural valley, created by mountain building, as opposed to an erosional valley, which is a valley that has undergone the wearing away of the Earth's surface by natural agents. The underlying geology of the Santa Cruz Mountains was also formed by the
sediment Sediment is a solid material that is transported to a new location where it is deposited. It occurs naturally and, through the processes of weathering and erosion, is broken down and subsequently sediment transport, transported by the action of ...
of the ancient seas, where marine
shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...
points to
Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...
origin. Today, evidence of this is still found in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where
shark Sharks are a group of elasmobranch cartilaginous fish characterized by a ribless endoskeleton, dermal denticles, five to seven gill slits on each side, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the ...
's teeth and the remains of maritime life are still found as high as Scotts Valley, a city nestled in the mountains. The highest peak on the Santa Cruz Mountain Range side of the valley is Loma Prieta at 3,790 feet. The highest peak in the
Diablo Range The Diablo Range is a mountain range in the California Coast Ranges subdivision of the Pacific Coast Ranges in northern California, United States. It stretches from the eastern San Francisco Bay Area at its northern end to the Salinas Valley a ...
side of the valley is Mount Hamilton, specifically Copernicus Peak at 4,370 feet elevation. It is the highest peak in
Santa Clara County Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259 as of the 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring San Benito County form the ...
. The valley is a
graben In geology, a graben () is a depression (geology), depressed block of the Crust (geology), crust of a planet or moon, bordered by parallel normal faults. Etymology ''Graben'' is a loan word from German language, German, meaning 'ditch' or 't ...
between the San Andreas and Hayward faults.


Quicksilver mine

During the 19th century, 37,388 metric tons of mercury were extracted from the
New Almaden New Almaden, known in Spanish language, Spanish as Nueva Almadén, is a historic community and former mercury (element), mercury mine in the Capitancillos Hills of San Jose, California, located at the southwestern point of Almaden Valley, San Jo ...
mine south of San Jose and northeast of Santa Cruz. The area, closed for many years, resulted in pollution of the Guadalupe River and South San Francisco Bay. After intermittent mining operations finally ceased in the 20th century, the area was purchased by Santa Clara County to be used as a park and was designated a
National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...
.


Climate

The climate of the Santa Clara Valley in
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
is a
Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...
with warm, very dry summers and mild, fairly rainy winters. Today, the Valley attracts many people from the East Coast with its warm and sunny climate. The Santa Clara Valley receives on average 330 sunny days per
year A year is a unit of time based on how long it takes the Earth to orbit the Sun. In scientific use, the tropical year (approximately 365 Synodic day, solar days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 45 seconds) and the sidereal year (about 20 minutes longer) ...
. The northern areas of the valley (such as
Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...
or Mountain View) have greater marine influences with temperatures rarely rising above while in the southern areas and near the
mountains A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher ...
(such as Los Gatos, Morgan Hill, or Gilroy) the temperature frequently exceeds in the summer months. Winter is the rainy season, but still quite sunny. Winter highs range from while lows range from . Summer highs range from and summer lows range from . The record high for the Santa Clara Valley was recorded in Los Gatos on June 9, 2000, with a temperature of and the record low was recorded in Gilroy on December 23, 1990, with a temperature of . Temperatures drop below on average of 17 days per year, below freezing on average of 4 days per year and below on average of 0 days per year (none). More recently, extensive droughts in California, further complicated by drainage of the local Anderson reservoir for seismic repairs, have strained the Valley's
water security The aim of water security is to maximize the benefits of water for humans and ecosystems. The second aim is to limit the risks of destructive impacts of water to an acceptable level. These risks include too much water (flood), too little water (d ...
.
"Anderson Reservoir will close to public through 2030". Accessed March 30, 2022.


Temperatures

.


See also

* Santa Clara Valley Habitat Conservation Plan *


References


Further reading

* Yvonne Jacobson, ''Passing Farms, Enduring Values: California's Santa Clara Valley'' * Robin Chapman, ''California Apricots: The Lost Orchards of Silicon Valley''


External links


History San José collects, preserves and celebrates the stories of diversity and innovation in San José and the Santa Clara ValleyUp-to-the-minute view of San Jose from the Mount Hamilton web camera
{{Authority control Valleys of San Benito County, California Valleys of Santa Clara County, California Silicon Valley Subregions of the San Francisco Bay Area Valleys of California