Valley Empires: Hugh Glenn and Henry Miller in the Shaping of California

Valley Empires gives an account of the early history of California's great Central Valley as seen through the careers of two famous ranchers, Hugh Glenn the Wheat King and Henry Miller the Cattle King. The lives of these two extraordinary men spanned an extraordinary period of development in rural California, ranging from the years of the Gold Rush to the turn of the century. Hugh Glenn became nationally famous as a bonanza wheat grower, until murder ended his career in 1883. Henry Miller, a penniless German immigrant, possessed a phenomenal shrewdness and energy that supported the building of a livestock empire eventually extending into three states and covering a million acres. The lives of these two giants prefigured the development of California's current multi-billion-dollar farm economy, and their stories illuminate the challenges that early settlers faced.