LEXINGTON AND ALMA
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LEXINGTON AND ALMA |
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NAME: Lexington and Alma COUNTY: Santa Clara ROADS: 2WD GRID: 1 CLIMATE: Cool, wet winter--warm, dry summer BEST TIME TO VISIT: Spring/Summer/early Fall |
COMMENTS:
No current residents as the sites are beneath water. To get there: go south on highway 17 out of Los Gatos, CA, past Lexington Reservoir Dam on the left. Exit Bear Creek Road & go back over the freeway. Go north on frontage Rd. Go right on Alma Bridge Road. Drive to paved parking lot on the right side and park. REMAINS: Some foundational ruins--most always submerged beneath the reservoir. |
| Beneath the waters of Lexington Reservoir in the hills above Los Gatos, California, lie the old townsites of Lexington and Alma. The towns, or rather what was left of them, were mostly demolished when the James J. Lenihan dam was constructed there around 1950. Alma, at the time, had less than 100 people and Lexington only had a few remaining structures. The town of Lexington died aroudn the turn of the century. Alma, hung on for 50 more years. The towns were important rail stops for the logging industry in the Santa Cruz Mountains as well as a nice stop for vacationers headding to the coast from the Santa Clara Valley. They had stage stops, hotels, saloons, small agricultural operations, general merchandise stores, and lumber mills, as well as other such establishments small communities would naturally have. Today, all that is left are memories possesed by a handfull of people who remember the towns from their childhood, some foundational structures that are only visable when the water levels drop in the reservoir, and some old roads and bridges. Modern day California highway 17 passes by the reservoir-- beneath which lie the former towns of Lexington and Alma. Submitted by: Jon M. Corry |
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