[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Almaden was originally inhabited by the Tamien nation of Ohlone people, prior to the arrival of the Spanish.

In the 1820s, there were several attempts by local Californio officials from the Pueblo of San José to mine the area for silver, including an 1824 venture led by Don Antonio Suñol, a prominent local figure, and Luis Chaboya, of Rancho Yerba Buena.

[10] Quicksilver (mercury) was only successfully identified in 1845, by Mexican cavalry captain Andrés Castillero, who was able to obtain a grant to mine the area by Governor Pío Pico.

[10] However, occupied with his military responsibilities, Castillero sold his claim to the mines to Alexander Forbes, then serving as the British Consul to Mexican California.

Following the American Conquest of California, Almaden Valley attracted a significant amount of settlers from the East Coast and Europe.

In 1852, Charles LeFranc founded Almaden Vineyards, the first commercial winery in California,[12] with his father-in-law Éthienne Thée, using vine cuttings from his native France.

[18] Unfortunately, news of this decision caused property values in the area to increase so rapidly that the Regents could no longer afford to buy the needed land.

[18] After another year of study, the Regents selected another site much farther south, which opened in 1965 as the University of California, Santa Cruz.

It is notably home to the IBM Almaden Research Center, which played an important role in the discovery and development of new technologies.

Prior to this, Matt Mahan was the councilmember representing Almaden Valley and District 10, before being elected as the current Mayor of San Jose.

John McLaren, of Golden Gate Park fame, assisted in designing the five acres of formally landscaped grounds around the house.

It houses interpretive exhibits and displays on the history of the New Almaden mines and on the lives of its workers and their families.

The restaurant, still in operation, is a local landmark in San Jose and well known across the Bay Area for its fine dining.

One of the oldest buildings in the district is the Carson-Perham Adobe, built between 1848 and 1850 by Mexican miners, and later the home of George Carson, the mine company bookkeeper, postmaster, telegraph operator, and Wells Fargo agent.

Constance Perham lived in the adobe house for many years and established a private museum there in 1949, the collections of which were purchased in 1983 by Santa Clara County.