When the Anglo-Americans came to California, at least in mass, they were looking for gold. If they had to tear up the wilderness to get it; so be it. And they did. San Francisco, a sleepy little village barely a few acres in size on the bay side expanded to a big city that pretty much gobbled up that wilderness, too. But the Earth, as it is wont to do, healed itself over time, and the dug hills and streams, the placers and mines collapsed and where filled in over time, and the forests regrew. But not San Francisco! Because later when the gold played out, men looked at the great valley and said, if we could just get water here, we could make this place bloom. so they dammed the rivers, built irrigation cannels, drained swamps and flooded deserts. And ALL was good. Millions came to California that would otherwise not. Brilliant example! Some members of my ancestor's family heard the call of the California Gold Rush and rushed out there in 1850. But their expertise was market gardening and orchards, so they bought land in Santa Clara county and grew the food that the people coming to CA needed.
Indeed, and history proves that it was men like your ancestors who truly made California the Golden State, not the extremely few lucky enough to find gold. For every miner that struck it rich, thousands did not.
At one time we celebrated men like this. About the time the television western disappeared, we switched over to the sensitive girly man character that so far now defines the left.
As Simon and Garfunkel once sang, where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?