Santa Clara Valley | |
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Valle de Santa Clara (Spanish) | |
Clockwise from the top left: Downtown San Jose skyline; Hillsides in Morgan Hill; Alviso, San Jose; View of Santa Clara Valley; Almaden Reservoir in South San Jose; Stanford University in Stanford. | |
Length | 90 miles (145 km) northwest–southeast |
Geography | |
Location | California, United States |
Borders on | San Francisco Bay (north), Santa Cruz Mountains (southwest), Diablo Range (east) |
Coordinates | 37°22′01″N 121°59′02″W / 37.36694°N 121.98389°W |
The Santa Clara Valley (Spanish: Valle de Santa Clara)[1][2] is a geologic trough in Northern California that extends 90 miles (140 km) south–southeast from San Francisco to Hollister. The longitudinal valley is bordered on the west by the Santa Cruz Mountains and on the east by the Diablo Range; the two coastal ranges meet south of Hollister. The San Francisco Bay borders the valley to the north, and fills much of the northern third of the valley.[3] The valley floor is an alluvial plain that formed in the graben (tectonic depression) between the San Andreas Fault to the west and the Hayward and Calaveras faults to the east.[4][5] Within the valley and surrounding the bay on three sides are the urban communities of San Mateo County, Santa Clara County, and Alameda County, while the narrow southern reaches of the valley extend into rural San Benito County to Hollister. In practical terms, the central portion of the Santa Clara Valley is often considered by itself, contained entirely within Santa Clara County.[3]
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.[6][7] Until the 1960s it was the largest fruit-producing and packing region in the world, with 39 canneries.[8][9] The high-tech industrial growth starting in the 1960s—later known as Silicon Valley—transformed the area from extensive agricultural tracts to an urbanized landscape.
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Transcription
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.[10][11]
The northern end of the Santa Clara Valley is at San Francisco, and the southern end is south of Hollister. The valley is bounded by the Santa Cruz Mountains on the southwest, which separate the valley from the Pacific Ocean, and by the Diablo Range on the northeast. The valley is approximately 93 miles (150 km) long by 15 miles (20 km) wide.[3] 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."[12] 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. As one travels across the valley floor, "the alluvial plain is continuous across the divide."[12] The summit of the transverse divide is about two miles from the former town of Madrone at an elevation of 345 feet (105 meters), but the alluvial plain is so continuous that most travelers are unaware they are crossing between two drainage basins.[12]
History
The earliest known inhabitants on the Santa Clara Valley are the Ohlone people, who had eight distinct languages and tribes in the coastal region.[13][14] Mission Santa Clara de Asís, which had control over a vast tract of land stretching from Palo Alto to Gilroy, was founded by Franciscans in 1777.[14] San Jose was California's first town and was also founded in 1777 by Spain as an agricultural pueblo.[14] 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 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 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.[15]
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".[6][7] 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).[16][17] Prunes were a major crop, with the valley was producing the majority of prunes in California by 1900 and shipped internationally.[18] Water was supplied from an artesian aquifer 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.[19] Del Monte and Sunsweet are two brands which originated in the Santa Clara Valley.[citation needed]
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.[20] There was marked prejudice against Asians, particularly Chinese, who gradually left the valley.[21]
The Great Depression
Deflation and overproduction severely hurt the orchards and packers of the Santa Clara Valley during the Great Depression. Bankrupt farmers from the Dust Bowl, the Okies, 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 squads battled in the labor camps.[23] Woody Guthrie's songs were on the radio and he wrote a regular column in the San Francisco-based The Daily People's World.[importance?] San Francisco had a strong labor union tradition which extended to 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-controlled union headquartered in San Jose, which had considerable success organizing farm and cannery workers in the Santa Clara Valley and elsewhere in California[23] until it was suppressed and its leaders jailed in 1934 by the State of California following sustained attacks by business, political, and reactionary forces[neutrality is disputed] 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).[24] 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.[25]
War and industry
The fruit industry gradually recovered, and by the early 1940s, prosperity returned to the valley.[citation needed] Wartime production associated with World War II brought industry to the valley such as building of marine engines for Liberty ships by the Joshua Hendy Iron Works, now Northrop Grumman Marine Systems[26] in Sunnyvale; landing craft were built by Food Machinery Corporation, which later built the M113 armored personnel carrier, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, and the XR311 at its facility in Santa Clara;[citation needed] and an IBM factory began manufacturing punch cards in San Jose in 1943.[citation needed]
About 1,000 Japanese were interned, losing substantial property. Wartime production drew workers, including women, from the orchards and canneries; they were replaced by Mexican Americans from Texas and California and by Mexican braceros. Neighborhoods in East San Jose, such as the Meadowfair district, became barrios.[citation needed]
The Polaris submarine-launched ballistic missile was built during the Cold War by Lockheed Missiles & Space Division in Sunnyvale for the United States Navy, while Northrop Grumman Marine Systems built the launch tubes and propulsion systems.[citation needed] 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, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, 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.[27]