The Valley

The Santa Clara Valley (also known as Silicon Valley) is a valley just south of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California in the United States. Much of Santa Clara County and its county seat, San José, are in the Santa Clara Valley. The valley was originally known as the Valley of Heart’s Delight for the miles and miles of orchards, flowering trees, and plants. Until the 1960s it was the largest fruit production and packing region in the world, with 39 canneries. Once primarily agricultural because of its highly fertile soil, it is now largely urbanized, although its far southern reaches south of Gilroy remain rural. Silicon Valley is roughly coterminous with the Santa Clara Valley, although since the former is as much a state of mind as an actual location, people often refer to parts of the San Francisco Peninsula as being part of Silicon Valley as well. Locally, the Santa Clara Valley is also referred to as the "South Bay". 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 is the first commercial wine-producing region in California, utilizing high-quality French varietal vines imported from France.

The northern end of the Santa Clara Valley is at the southern tip of the San Francisco Bay, and the southern end is in the vicinity of Hollister. The valley is bounded by the Santa Cruz Mountains on the southwest and by the Diablo Range on the northeast. It is about 30 miles (50 km) long and about 15 miles (20 km) wide. The valley's largest city, by an 86.7% margin, is San José. The population of the valley is approximately 1.8 million.

Cities and towns in the Santa Clara Valley include (in alphabetical order):

• Campbell
• Cupertino
• Los Gatos
• Milpitas
• Monte Sereno
• Morgan Hill
• San Jose
• Santa Clara
• Saratoga
• Sunnyvale
• Hollister
• San Juan Bautista

Because so much high-tech industry has spread out from the Silicon Valley, Fremont and Newark, even though they are not in the Santa Clara Valley, are often included in discussions about the Silicon Valley, or, in the case of Fremont, is 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, while in Santa Clara County and considered part of Silicon Valley, is on the San Francisco Peninsula. Santa Clara Valley has a Mediterranean semi-arid climate.