Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Artwork courtesy of Los Gatos historian Bill Wulf

Picture from the Past

John S. Baggerly

Rates took their toll

The first mountain road builder was Isaac "Buffalo" Jones, an early settler who came to the canyon (above what became Los Gatos) in 1850 and claimed all the land he could as a squatter. He then built a turnpike road that the lumber trucks had no choice but to use in going through the mountains.

Meanwhile, Charley "Mountain Charley" McKiernan built a road down the east side of the Santa Cruz Mountains. It was a woman, a Mrs. Farnham, who had the courage to drive a sulky carriage alone to Charley's ranch at the summit and down the other side.

Before the arrival of settlers, there was only an ancient trail made by wild game as it migrated from the valley into the mountains near Mount Umunhum and Loma Prieta.

Later, the Ohlone Indians used the treacherous trail on their summer travels from the Santa Clara Valley across the mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Summers were cooler there and there were shellfish as well as fish in the rivers and ocean.

Surfing hadn't arrived on our shores yet, although the sport had started in Hawaii in the 1700s, according to a professional surfing grandson, Adam Replogle of Santa Cruz.

At any rate, the "rates of toll" for roads were made official on May 12, 1865. Teamsters did not take kindly to rates, and on Nov. 15, 1877, John Shepherd and several other irate tollpayers tore down the Los Gatos tollgate, dragged it to the Main Street bridge and dumped it into the creek.

The Turnpike Company obtained a court order enjoining the men from further use of the road without paying a toll. Furthermore, they were ordered to pay for using the road while the gate was down. They were also fined $25 for each infraction.

One of the many former summertime Los Gatos pageants was based on this Teamster uprising.

The arrival of the railroad was destined to end toll road hostility. In 1877, the first railroad tracks were laid into Los Gatos.

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