San Ramon Valley: Alamo, Danville, and San Ramon (CA) (Images of America). This item is unavailable.San Ramon Valley: Alamo, Danville, and San Ramon (CA) (Images of America)

The San Ramon Valley stretches for 20 beautiful miles under the shadow of Mount Diablo and includes the bustling communities of San Ramon, Alamo, and Danville. Some 113,000 people make their homes here in a scenic area of open spaces, gracious homes, and tree-lined streets. Also here are major business hubs and the winding Interstate 680 freeway. Of course, this valley wasn't always so populous. In the 1850s, while nearby San Francisco boomed and Oakland grew up, this valley remained rural. Mount Diablo became an important early survey marker during California's gold rush, but only in recent decades have the early ranchos and small villages given way to the modern cities we know today.

Beverly Lane, curator of the Museum of the San Ramon Valley, along with photographer and docent Ralph Cozine, has compiled this amazing collection of images depicting Danville, Alamo, San Ramon, Diablo, Blackhawk, and Tassajara Valley. Among the sights in this volume are early schools, the electric railway between Alamo and Danville, the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District, and the incorporation of Danville and San Ramon in the early 1980s. Together these images tell how this unique urban edge of the East Bay came to be.