Everyone knows about the California Gold Rush – the massive migration of fortune seekers to the hills of the former Spanish colony in the late 1840s and 1850s. During the same period, however, there was another rush to California with a more lasting effect – farmers seeking fertile land and a mild climate. Those included the ill-fated Donner Party, but many thousands more. Many who came for the gold also learned that more durable fortunes were to be found in farming, such as my cousin, Hugh Glenn, the “wheat king of California” for whom Glenn County is named.