The three volumes of interviews dealing with the Patterson family and ranch between the years 1851-1988, constitute a case study of changing land use in southern Alameda County from the days of the first Californios to the present. Twenty-six interviewees, including Patterson family members, ranch employees and tenant farmers, and neighbors, discuss the evolution of the 3,000 acre Patterson Ranch in Fremont, California, from agricultural to urban land use.

Chronicles the transition of the Patterson Ranch from a family farm in the 19th century to a large-scale agricultural enterprise operated by the L. S. Williams Company during the 1950s. The several interviews of tenant farmers and Patterson Ranch workers covering the period from approximately 1900-1950 constitute an excellent social history of fram life in Fremont's northern plain. Interviewees are: Frank Borghi, Elvamae Rose Borghi, Ruel Brown, Donald Furtado, Tillie Logan Goold, William McKeown, Gene Williams, Mel Alameda.

Provides a more in-depth study of the interrelations between water projects, municipal formation, planned district development and historic preservation within the context of Fremont politics, 1950-1988. These interviews provide basic data about the process which transformed the Patterson Ranch from a sprawling agricultural enterprise into a Planned Urban District. Interviewees are: Mathew P. Whitfield, Wallace R. Pond, John Brooks, Robert Fisher, Laurence W. Milnes, William D. Patterson.

Reflections of the third and fourth generation of Patterson family members. Interviewees are: Donald Patterson, William Volmer, Jeanette Korstad, Marilyn Price, Sally Patterson Adams, John E. Adams, David G. Patterson, Robert Buck, Leon G. Campbell, Wilcox Patterson, George Patterson, Bruce Patterson, Abigail Adams Campbell.

Background research material on the Patterson ranch (includes correspondence, clippings, reports).