Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Los Gatos historian and railroad buff Bill Wulf enjoys sharing his hobby with others.

Picture from the Past

John S. Baggerly

Railroads played a key role in early Los Gatos history

Bill Wulf, local historian and railroad specialist, gave a slide show on Oct. 8 on the South Pacific Coast railroad at the Los Gatos History Club, his frequent forum for shows on local history.

This Saturday, at the Pasatiempo Golf Course clubhouse, he's presenting a slide show on miniature railroads to several hundred mini-rail buffs from many parts of the world--all in California for a narrow-gauge railroader's convention. Of these fanatics Wulf says, "They'll quiz you right down to the bolts and nuts on steam engines."

At his History Club talk, Wulf shared tag bags packed with duplications of railroad maps, schedules, tickets, announcements of special events, toll rates for roads that predate the old Santa Cruz mountain railroads and a written request from Southern Pacific asking the town of Los Gatos to do something about boys jumping on and off trains in the local yard.

Wulf's narration of his slide show offered a timeline of sorts:

For more than 10,000 years, the Ohlone Indians lived in the Vasona Park area, alongside Los Gatos Creek and the trail running from San Francisco Bay over the Santa Cruz Mountains to Monterey Bay. On March 25, 1775, Capt. Juan Bautista de Anza and his expedition, hoping to find a site for the Presidio of San Francisco, camped on Los Gatos Creek near the present Lark Avenue.

On Jan. 12, 1777, construction of Mission Santa Clara was started using redwood timbers from the Los Gatos area. On Aug. 28, 1791, the president of the Franciscan Missions of California, Father Fermin Francisco de Lasuen, established Mission Santa Cruz and opened the portion of El Camino Real over the Santa Cruz Mountains and through Los Gatos to Mission Santa Clara.

On July 23, 1839, Jose Maria Hernandez and Sebastian Fabian Peralta granted the 6,631-acre El Rancho Rinconada de Los Gatos ("Corner of the Cats"). The brothers-in-law built their adobe home along Los Gatos Creek in the Lexington area and established a lumberyard at E. Main Street and College Avenue.

On Dec. 1, 1855, James Alexander Forbes' Santa Rosa Flour Mill, now Forbes Mill Museum, began milling for local wheat farmers, and the village started to grow along E. Main Street.

On Oct. 16, 1858, The Santa Cruz Gap Turnpike Joint Stock Company's toll road was completed from Los Gatos to Mt. Charley Road to connect with the Santa Cruz Turnpike, making stagecoach travel from San Jose to Santa Cruz possible.

The first Los Gatos Post Office was established Dec. 8, 1864, in the Ten Mile House Hotel, where the Tollhouse Hotel stands today. On March 20, 1878, the first narrow-gauge train of the South Pacific Coast railroad arrived, connecting Alameda and San Jose to Santa Cruz.

The Los Gatos Canning Company established itself April 22, 1878, on N. Santa Cruz Avenue near the present Los Gatos Theater to serve the increasing number of fruit orchards.

On Aug. 10, 1887, the town of Los Gatos was established, incorporating one square mile on both sides of Los Gatos Creek. The first electric lights lit up on Jan. 31, 1891, run by the Los Gatos Manufacturing Co. The first San Jose-Los Gatos Interurban railroad cars arrived in Los Gatos on March 17, 1904, after a half-hour trip from San Jose via Saratoga.

In the next 40 years, downtown Los Gatos grew, with many beautiful homes built for both permanent residents and those using Los Gatos as a weekend resort.

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