Cupertino's old West Side
A parcel of open ground along South De Anza Boulevard in Cupertino sits on land once worked as orchard country, growing prunes, apricots, and cherries before the city incorporated in 1955. Technology firms, including Silicon Mitus, now occupy ground nearby, while the road itself follows an old route once called Saratoga-Mountain View Road.
Orchard land gave way to a technology corridor
You're standing on South De Anza Boulevard, a parcel on record with the Santa Clara County Assessor but without a named building tied to it. This stretch once sat inside the orchard country that defined Cupertino before it became a city, land planted with prunes, apricots, and cherries. The road itself follows an old path, once called Saratoga-Mountain View Road, that carried fruit wagons and later cars through the valley. About 1.3 miles away sits the old Cupertino crossroads, where a feed mill once stood before City Hall replaced it. Technology firms now sit where orchards once ran, including Silicon Mitus (United States) to the north.
Cupertino incorporated and the orchards became suburbs
Cupertino incorporated as a city in 1955, turning the orchards around this stretch of road into suburbs and office parks. By the 2020, census the city held just over 60,000 people, a population that has barely shifted since.
A radio foundation has worked quietly from Cupertino
The Northern California DX Foundation has operated since 1972. It is a nonprofit that supports amateur radio operators, quietly working out of Cupertino while Silicon Valley grew up around it.
Apple engineers built QuickTime before Jobs shut the lab
Half a mile away, Apple ran its Apple Advanced Technology Group, a research lab started by Larry Tesler. Engineers there built QuickTime, HyperCard, and AppleScript. Steve Jobs shut it down in 1997 when he returned to the company.
A quarry worker shot nine co-workers nearby
About a quarter mile from where you stand, at Stevens Creek Boulevard, a quarry worker named Shareef Allman walked into a safety meeting at the Lehigh Cement Quarry shooting rampage. Allman opened fire with a handgun and an AK-47, shooting nine co-workers. Three died at the scene. Allman fled, shot a woman during an attempted carjacking, and was caught by police soon after.
Open ground still runs along South De Anza Boulevard, flanked by the tech offices and city streets that replaced the orchards.
Every person, building and event in this story opens into its own dig in the app — and Strata will dig the ground under your feet instead, wherever that is, in about a minute, with every source shown.