Los Gatos Weekly-Times file photograph

The old Lyndon Hotel's stables and hayloft were once used by visitors renting horses and carriages for country excursions.

Best of Pictures from the Past

Los Gatos was once best gateway to New Almaden

By John S. Baggerly

Let's imagine we live in San Francisco early in this century. We've been reading about the New Almaden Quicksilver Mines in the hills south of San Jose and would like to spend a day visiting the mines, where Native Americans discovered cinnabar (mercuric sulfide) and used it to paint their bodies red for ceremonial purposes.

Our best route is to go by train to Los Gatos, stay at Hotel Lyndon, rent a horse-drawn carriage and ride across the valley to New Almaden. Our train stops at the local wooden depot, where the town plaza stands today. We dismount and walk across N. Santa Cruz Avenue to Hotel Lyndon at the south corner of W. Main Street. We then repair to Lyndon Stables, which stands at the rear of the hotel and faces Main Street. Inside we have our choice of saddle horses or horse-drawn wagons. We select a four-wheel vehicle for the long ride.

The day after we arrive, we climb into our vehicle and are told to roll east on Main Street and turn left onto San Jose Avenue (now Los Gatos Boulevard), and progress northward until we come to a big, red packing house. We then turn eastward, passing through orchards and vineyards and noticing the "lone hill," a low mountain of rocks on the Mirassou vineyard property.

The route is punctuated by windmills, a sign that we can water our horse. Farmers welcome travelers as bringers of news in these days before radio and TV. We press on eastward, arrive at San Jose-Almaden Road and turn south, toward the Almaden mines.

Almaden was the first mining community in California, starting operations in 1845. It is known today that New Almaden held the distinction of being the largest and richest mine in what became California--and it was not even a gold mine. It was a quicksilver mine; quicksilver, another name for mercury, was essential in hard-rock mining because it was used to separate the gold from the rock the ore was found in.

The fact that New Almaden Mine was already in operation when gold was discovered in our state quickened the pace of the gold rush itself. It was the Ohlone Indians who dug the only mine in California for cinnabar (and later quicksilver) before the arrival of Spaniards and Mexicans.

Our San Francisco travelers learned that the Almaden mine was one mile deep, with two-foot-square timbers set every two feet to hold up the various levels. The timbers were made from trees harvested from the Santa Cruz Mountains above Los Gatos. Today, the town is registered as a National Historic Landmark and the mine itself is on land that is part of a county park.

During the Civil War, President Lincoln ordered that the Almaden mines be taken over as part of the Civil War cause. The South, too, eyed the mines. Thanks to local historian Bill Wulf for help with some of this column's historical facts.

Today the New Almaden Quicksilver County Park Association stationery includes an image of a compact four-wheel mine car--the workhorse that miners pushed in and out of the mine, bearing cinnabar. Application for membership may be made by writing to the association at P.O. Box 124, New Almaden, 95042.

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John Baggerly is now semi-retired. This column is from the Los Gatos Weekly-Times archives.

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