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Willys Peck

Historian's legacy is an appreciation for the present

Any inquiry into history prefaced by "what if?" would have been Clyde Arbuckle's cup of tea. Clyde, who was Santa Clara County's--and one of the state's--premier historians, died Jan. 10 at the age of 94.

From my standpoint, he was not only a valued personal friend but an invaluable source of information and help when it came to historical projects. As a former president of the Saratoga Historical Foundation, I counted on him for lecture programs and for leading bus tours to historic sites. As a newspaper reporter, I could always call him for background information on a particular building or site. The man's knowledge was nothing short of encyclopedic.

So when I speculate on some "what if?" questions concerning Saratoga history, I can just imagine Clyde stepping forward with a detailed scenario, or set of scenarios, as to how things would have turned out if some actual event did or didn't happen.

For instance, what if the South Pacific Coast Railroad had built its line from the East Bay to Santa Cruz by way of Saratoga rather than Los Gatos? It had been proposed and it wasn't as wild an idea as it might seem.

If you look at a map, you'll see that downtown Saratoga is only about eight air miles from the upper end of the San Lorenzo Valley, and from there it's a fairly clear shot down to Santa Cruz.

True, there are some formidable mountain barriers between here and there, but look at what had to be overcome as the line was built out from Los Gatos.

When the Santa Cruz link was opened in 1880, there were no fewer than nine tunnels between those two towns, two of them more than a mile long. In addition to tunneling, there was a prodigious amount of cutting and filling required in the canyons, and this in the days of man-driven rock drills and black powder.

Is it unreasonable to believe that the same effort, maybe even less, could have facilitated the route through Saratoga?

And suppose the South Pacific Coast had been run through Saratoga--what then?

For starters, there were, at the time, an operating paper mill and a pasteboard mill, a grist mill and a winery or two--might the railroad have set Saratoga on the course of becoming an industrial town?

Another speculation: What if Congress Hall hadn't burned to the ground in 1903, never to be rebuilt? This scenario is at the other end of the scale from industrial development.

Congress Hall was the ornate hotel that was built about 112 miles up the canyon, near Pacific Congress Springs, the mineral-water source discovered in the early 1850s that ultimately resulted in the town being named Saratoga, after the famed spa in New York.

Had the Congress Hall hotel remained in operation, it's not too improbable to imagine Saratoga as a West Coast rival to the Eastern watering place. Would you believe a race track?

As it was, although the South Pacific Coast Railroad never made it here, tracks were being laid in 1903 for the interurban electric railroad that linked central Santa Clara County communities, and a spur line was being constructed to the hotel.

Despite the loss of the Congress Hall hotel, the spur line was built anyway, to serve the picnic grounds at the springs. The streetcars quit running in 1933 and the picnic grounds, including the springs, were fenced off by the water company about the time of World War II. End of Saratoga, Calif., as a spa.

Finally, in the matter of speculation, what if Saratoga voters had rejected incorporation in 1956? It was a fairly close vote, 1,729 to 1,570, and, if it had gone the other way, who knows?

The worst-case scenario would have put San Jose's city limits practically within spitting distance of the Village. Look what happened up the line, where San Jose annexed land west of De Anza Boulevard, later to exchange it in a boundary swap with Cupertino.

Admittedly, such historical wool-gathering serves no useful purpose, except, perhaps, to sharpen one's appreciation for what we have.

Thanks, Clyde.

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