Sod San Jose

The city of San Jose serves as the county seat for Santa Clara County and is known as the “Capital of Silicon Valley.” 

San Jose is home to the historic Winchester Mystery House, which gained fame for its ongoing construction projects under the direction of Mrs. Sarah Winchester, the widow of William Wirt Winchester, the firearm maker. A psychic told her that she would die if she ever stopped construction on the home. Mrs. Winchester believed the home was haunted by the ghosts of those who were killed with Winchester rifles. Construction continued until her death in 1922.

San Jose is home to some excellent museums. The Children’s Discovery Museum draws about 325,000 visitors each year. The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum holds one of the largest collections of Egyptian artifacts. Other museums include the San Jose Museum of Art, the Hiller Aviation Museum, the Tech Interactive Museum, and the Computer History Museum. 

Those who enjoy music or theatre entertainment have lots to choose from with Santa Jose’s performing arts companies, including Symphony Silicon Valley, Opera San Jose, Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley, the City Lights Theatre Company, and the Tabard Theater Company. 

The Bay Area Street Food & Craft Beer Festival, the Gem and Mineral Festival, the San Jose Water Lantern Festival, the Nikkei Matsuri Festival – San Jose Japantown, and the San Jose Harvest Festival, along with many other festivals and community events provide a wide variety of additional entertainment options throughout the year. 

The San Jose Sharks National Hockey League team, the San Jose Earthquakes Major League Soccer team, and the San Jose Barracuda American Hockey League team all operate from San Jose. 

San Jose is a center for technology-related business, with around 7,000 tech companies located there, making the city part of what is known as Silicon Valley. Other industries in the area include manufacturing, professional, scientific, and health care. 

Cisco Systems, which is the largest non-government employer in the city, provides jobs for about 14,000 people. Some other major employers include the City of San Jose, County of Santa Clara, PayPal, Western Digital, eBay, IBM, Adobe Systems, Inc., Insight Global, and Good Samaritan Hospital. 

Prior to the influx of Spanish and then European settlers, the San Jose area was home to the indigenous Tamien Nation of the Ohlone people. Santa Jose was founded in 1777, and it is believed that the city is California’s oldest settlement. It was officially incorporated in 1850. The population of San Jose reached 945,942, according to U.S. Census data. 

Like most of the cities in the Bay Area, San Jose has a Mediterranean climate. The city has warm or hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters, with about 300 days of sunshine each year.