This book, the first in a series, reflects a time of new and extraordinary cultural and economic development in the Valley of Heart's Delight, later known as the Silicon Valley. This first volume begins in 1874 with the story of two young girls, European migrants, traveling to California by the newly completed railroad system that linked the east and west coasts. It ends with a harrowing story of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and resulting fires. Each chapter is a vignette to capture well-known historical characters arriving from Europe and other parts of the United States, plus fictional families as they collectively experience and shape changes to an area rich in opportunity and natural resources. Among them you will meet heroes, visionaries and adventurers, entrepreneurs, technicians, and politicians, many whose names and accomplishments have become well known.