Sequent Occupance in the Santa Clara Valley, California

The Santa Clara Valley beautifully exemplifies sequent occupance. Here an amazing drama has unfolded from the time of the primitive Amerindian, then through the Spanish and Mexican Period, the days of the cattle barons, the wheat bonanzas, the specialized agriculture at the turn of the century, and finally the period of immigration, urbanization, and industrialization (primarily electronic-missile defense). In his study published in 1932, Jan O. M. Broek dealt with the valley from the time of the Amerindian to the highly specialized horticulture of the 1920s. The present study purposes to telescope the work of Broek and to show that the Santa Clara Valley of his study is today but a nostalgic memory. The march of industry, the burgeoning population, and the ever-quickening pace of today, have virtually obliterated the landscape Broek described just thirty-three years ago