Flood waters flow from a concrete culvert west of Lexington Reservoir near Highway 17.
Los Gatos Weekly-Times file photograph
Best of Picture from the Past
Lexington Dam was built, but not without long battle
By John S. Baggerly
'We told you so," barked opponents of the newly constructed Lexington Dam when water poured over the spillway and ate away part of the earth-filled structure in the 1950s.
There had been a battle over the pros and cons of building the dam from the day it was proposed in the early 1950s. Lloyd E. Smith, publisher of the former Los Gatos Times, favored construction. All through the debate, however, his pages were open to letters from citizens supporting both sides. In the end, Smith's editorial support helped get the dam built.
At the same time there was a need for a through-town freeway. Thus the dam, a concrete water channel and a through-town freeway came about in the late 1950s.
Opponents of Lexington Dam pointed to a failed dam in Southern California to make their point. An earth-filled dam there seemed to be doing a good job until it washed away in a flash. Rodents had dug away at the earth unnoticed, doing enough damage for a sudden failure to occur.
Before building another dam in Southern California--this one concrete--extensive testing of bordering soil was made. The soil was put under tremendous pressure and was found to be reliable. The one test that wasn't made was against water. The reader can guess what resulted. Water ate away at the flanks of the concrete structure, and suddenly the dam spun on its axis as water rushed past both sides of the wounded mass of concrete.
Lexington Reservoir did take lives by drowning. There were trees along the east bank with limbs overhanging the water. A young man dove from a limb and went so far down in the water that he could not come up before lack of oxygen rendered him helpless. Another young man drowned while swimming. Today, swimming at Lexington is forbidden.
Floods have been a headache for mankind since Noah was called on from above to build his famous ark. The angry Atlantic Ocean routinely rolled over the lowlands of Europe until dikes were built, and the Nile River in Egypt routinely flooded the land on its way to the Mediterranean.
Our nation's greatest flood disaster was the Johnstown Flood in Pennsylvania on June 1, 1889, in which more than 2,200 people died and 30,000 were left homeless in the steel-company town. The death count was difficult to determine, as bodies were scattered for miles downstream.
The flood itself was a wall of water released when a dirt dam 14 miles upstream washed out during a record rain. The lake behind it was created for the sailing and fishing pleasure of private club members.
The wall of water that wiped out Johnstown passed through the community in 10 minutes, according to a report that retired local doctor William Frey called up on his computer. Something good did come from the flood--the writing of laws governing the building of dams in the nation.
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
