• Material Realities
• Climate: Moderate Temperatures, Arid (No rain April-November)
• Fertile Soil
• Earthquakes
• Native Peoples
• Ohlone
• Junipero Serra and the Mission Trail
• Mission Settlements vs. Homesteader/Indian Reservations
• Large land holdings
• From Spain, to Mexico, to the United States
• Relatively light settlement
• Large land holdings
• 1848-49: The California Gold Rush
• Rapid Wealth: "Boomtown" culture
• Rapid social and demographic change
• Multiculturalism
• The Railroads
• Great singular accumulations of wealth
• Linked California to rest of U.S.
• Encouraged more settlement
• Encouraged commercial orientation of California
• More immigration
• The Leland J. Stanford Jr. University founded 1891
• Leland J. Stanford: Philanthropy as Venture Capital
• "The Farm"
• Stanford as "Western University"
• Herbert J. Hoover, Stanford Pioneer Class of 1895
• Santa Clara Valley c. 1940
• "Valley of Heart's Delight"
• Commercial fruit production the dominant industry
• Cheap water and cheap, immigrant labor key factors
• Stanford University 50 years old
• Small yet relatively important electronics industry
• Federal Telegraph Company
• Lee DeForest

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