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James J. Lenihan Dam

Buildings and structures in Santa Clara County, CaliforniaDams completed in 1956Dams in CaliforniaSanta Clara County, California building and structure stubsUnited States dam stubs
United States local public utility dams
LexingtonReservoirLenihanDam
LexingtonReservoirLenihanDam

James J. Lenihan Dam is an earthen structure across the Los Gatos Creek creating the Lexington Reservoir in the Santa Cruz Mountains of Santa Clara County, California south of Los Gatos. The name was changed from Lexington Dam in 1996 for the retirement of James J. Lenihan, the Santa Clara Valley Water District's longest-serving director.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article James J. Lenihan Dam (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

James J. Lenihan Dam
Los Gatos Creek Trail,

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Latitude Longitude
N 37.202 ° E -121.988 °
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Los Gatos Creek Trail

Los Gatos Creek Trail
95030
California, United States
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LexingtonReservoirLenihanDam
LexingtonReservoirLenihanDam
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Lexington, California

Lexington, California, is a ghost town in Santa Clara County, now submerged by the Lexington Reservoir. Originally located along Los Gatos Creek, the town was 550 feet above sea level.Lexington started out as a sawmill built in 1848 by Isaac Branham and Julian Jank. Zachariah "Buffalo" Jones bought the mill for $3000 and laid out a town called "Jones Mill". In 1860 John P. Hennings bought some of the property and changed the name to Lexington, after his home town of Lexington, Kentucky.Lexington was a stop on the stagecoach route from Los Gatos to Santa Cruz. In the 1860s, the saw mills moved up into the hills and Lexington began to lose importance. In 1880, a narrow gauge railroad from Los Gatos to Santa Cruz was completed, bypassing Lexington and accelerating its decline; its post office had already been transferred to Alma, a mile south, where the trains stopped and which was the transfer point to stagecoaches until the line was completed.The railroad ceased operations in March 1940, following major damage by a winter storm and the completion of State Route 17 that same year. When the Lexington Reservoir was created in 1952, both Lexington and Alma were officially abandoned and SR 17 was rerouted to its present location. The visible ruins under Lexington Reservoir are actually those of Alma, not Lexington; building foundations and original pavements of roads are sometimes visible during droughts. The nearby unincorporated town of Lexington Hills is a reminder of the former town; it combines several villages in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The Lexington Murders was one of the most notable crimes in California during the 19th century. Three men were responsible for the brutal murders of William Peter Renowden and Archibald McIntyre in Lexington, on March 11, 1883.

Forbes Mill
Forbes Mill

Forbes Mill is a now-defunct flour mill originally built in 1854 located in Los Gatos, California, which served as the History Museum of Los Gatos after having been saved from destruction in 1982. The museum closed in 2014, and its collections are now part of New Museum Los Gatos. The building is currently owned by the City. The mill is the first commercial building to be established in the city of Los Gatos. The existing two-story building is actually a storage annex, which was added to the original four-story stone mill building in the fall of 1880.Forbes Mill was built as the Santa Rosa Flour Mill by James Alexander Forbes, who was born in Scotland in 1805. He came to California in about 1831 and served as Vice-Consul in San Francisco for the British government. The California Gold Rush gave James the idea to put up a flour mill because there were none in California at the time, and the price of flour was running at $50/barrel. He found a location on Los Gatos Creek that he thought would provide sufficient water power. In 1850, he purchased 2,000 acres (8.1 km2) in the area of the Los Gatos Creek and proceeded to build a mill. In 1853, he raised the money for the construction, borrowing $130,000 from two lenders (including one who charged an interest rate of 3% per month), and in 1854, the mill was built. However, the milling machinery had to be shipped from New York around Cape Horn. Once it arrived, Forbes had trouble installing it, but eventually, the mill started grinding flour on December 1, 1855.The opening of Forbes Mill was an auspicious moment in the history of the Santa Clara Valley. Built on the site of a Mexican ranch, the mill represented the shift of land ownership from the Californio Dons to the new settlers arriving after the Mexican–American War. The first three stories of the mill were built of stone quarried from the Los Gatos Canyon. The top story was wood, cut from trees in the mountains above Los Gatos. In 1880, an annex was attached to the north wall of the mill building. The town that grew around this building was first called Forbes Mill, then Forbestown, and finally Los Gatos. Unfortunately, Forbes knew nothing about flour milling. He had built a dam 0.5 miles (0.8 km) upstream on the creek, carrying water via a flume to two 20-foot (6.1 m) high water wheels. However, a 20-foot (6.1 m) high water drop proved to be inefficient, so he had to keep raising the water level. Not only that, but there was also only enough water in the creek to power the mill during the winter months, meaning that the machinery sat idle for much of the year. Furthermore, by the time the mill was in operation, competing mills had been constructed, and the Gold Rush was coming to an end, thus driving flour prices down to a mere $5/barrel.Besides his outstanding loans, Forbes had also lost a lot of money speculating on wheat and flour and was forced into bankruptcy. He eventually defaulted on his loans, and the mill and land were sold in 1857 to Gustave Touchard, one of his creditors. Forbes continued to operate the mill for Touchard but ultimately was evicted from the property in 1858. Touchard hired others to run the mill, but they did not have much success with it either, although he was able to sell parcels of the land for a small profit.In 1866, he sold the mill to William H. Rogers, who had previously worked at a flour mill in Detroit and had opened his own Mountain Flourmills (one of Santa Rosa's competitors) in Placerville. He had sold his interest in his company in 1860 and served as postmaster of Placerville and sheriff of El Dorado County until his purchase of now-named "Clifton Mill". His first act was to raise the waterhead to 65 feet (19.8 m), replace the water wheels with turbine wheels, and upgrade the machinery. With his experience, Rogers was able to turn the mill into a profitable operation.In 1869, he brought in partners WS McMurtry and JW McMillen and renamed the company as the Los Gatos Manufacturing Co. The waterhead was increased to 200 feet (61.0 m), and the company constructed reservoirs to hold enough water to allow for year-round production. With these improvements, the mill was able to produce 100 barrels of flour a day. In 1881, the Los Gatos News wrote, "While other cities and towns may boast of a larger population, for the manufacture of the finest grade of flour known to the markets of the civilized world, Los Gatos Flouring Mills stands preeminent." It continued as a flour mill until 1887 when it successively became a power plant for the Los Gatos Ice and Power Company, a brewing and bottling company, the Los Gatos Gas Company, and finally the PG&E substation for Los Gatos. The original "Santa Rosa" Flour Mill building was torn down in 1916. The mill remained a storehouse for PG&E until after World War II. It was then abandoned and finally, in 1971, it was revived as a youth center for Los Gatos with live rock music on Friday and Saturday nights. On June 10, 1950, the California Centennial Commission commemorated the mill's contribution to the State's rich past by designating it as California Historical Landmark number 458. It is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Alma, California
Alma, California

Alma is a ghost town and drowned town in Santa Clara County in California, United States. It lies beneath the waters of the Lexington Reservoir above Los Gatos. The location is latitude 37.18N and longitude 121.98W. It was 551 feet (168 meters) above sea level.There are two different possible origins for the name of the town. The first is that the town was the location of a branch road that led to the New Almaden mine. The second, and more fanciful, origin is that the town was named after a local prostitute. The original town name registered with the Postal Service in 1861 was Lexington. It was re-registered as Alma in 1873.The town was mostly demolished when the James J. Lenihan Dam was constructed there in 1952. Alma, at the time, had a population of fewer than 100 people. The town was an important rail stop for the logging industry in the Santa Cruz Mountains as well as a stop for vacationers heading to the coast from the Santa Clara Valley. Just north of Alma was the town of Lexington, which had greatly declined by the time that dam and reservoir were constructed. Alma had a stage stop, hotel, saloons, small agricultural operations, general merchandise store, and lumber mills, as well as other establishments. The South Pacific Coast Railroad served Alma between 1880 and 1940, providing service between Los Gatos and Santa Cruz via Wrights, also known as Wrights Station or Wright's Station.Some foundational structures are only visible when the water levels drop in the reservoir, and some old roads and a bridge dating from 1926. The bridge can only be viewed when the water level is unusually low, such as the summer of 2008 when construction on the dam lowered the water level to 7% capacity. Modern day State Route 17 passes by the reservoir—beneath which lie the former towns of Lexington and Alma. A U.S. Weather Bureau cooperative weather station in Alma reported average annual rainfall of 22.60 inches (574 millimeters).