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 In California, name places often reflect the historical ties to the early Spanish missionaries and the influence of the Spanish language. Even today, there are many connections between this state and the countries to our south - so Spanish is a very popular second language for students here, even if there is no ethnic connection to Spanish speaking countries. It's a practical language to know.
So for many of us, pronouncing Los Gatos isn't hard. Yesterday I was giving an order over the phone to someone, and once we got past my baffeling street name (a long Italian name), the poor clerk struggled over my town name. Perhaps a word on how to say it would be helpful.
"Los Gatos" means "the cats" in Spanish. An earlier post here described the origin of the name. The correct pronunciation, the Spanish version, is "lohs GAH tos". However, despite years of Spanish classes, the predominent way it's spoken is a badly botched "las gaddis". Either one will work. (San Jose fares no better and has the same issue: real pronunciation is something like "sahn HO zay", but locals call it "sahn NO-ZZAY")
If you can remember that the name means The Cats (and don't think about gates) you will probably come close enough!
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 Long-time Los Gatos residents might know an interesting old nickname for the town that most of us have never heard of.
What is it?
"Gem City of the Foothills"
Only recently did I hear this moniker while attending May's Second Annual History Walk in Los Gatos. That day, I heard about the Gem City Laundry, for instance.
The nickname came from the Southern Pacific Railroad, of all places. Apparently it was trying to drum up traffic out our way back in 1924 when it put out quite the PR piece to boost ticket sales!
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A fascinating, but little known fact of Los Gatos history is that our quaint town has been the setting for quite a few movies over the years. This was especially true in 1910 and 1911, when the Essanay Film Production Company ("S" and "A" for the initials of the founders) took up residence in the Lyndon Hotel (see image and floorplan) for a few months.
Prolific to the extreme, Essanay cranked out a film a week - sometimes more. In 1911, for instance, they produced 99 silent films! Not all of these were in Los Gatos, however. (This is the same firm that a little later produced so many movies in the Niles Canyon area of Fremont too.)
Looking for the right climate for their outdoors work, Essanay had moved west from Colorado, landing first in San Jose and then moving the 10 miles further west to Los Gatos. They were able to set up their production studio right behind the Lyndon Hotel, where they resided at the time. Additionally, they discovered the hamlet of Alma (which was flooded in 1952, along with the town of Lexington, to create the Lexington Reservoir) just up the hill into the Santa Cruz Mountains, and many of their movies were filmed there too.
Unfortunately for the folks at Essanay, the winter of 1910-1911 appears to have been a particularly bad El Nino year. In one four day period in January, the town received 16 inches of rain. That much water caused countless problems with accessibilty and it convinced the film production company to seek an alternate location after their work ground to a halt for about 5 weeks. So in February of 1911, they left soggy Los Gatos and next went south, toward Los Angeles. Thus ended the brief but prolific history of Los Gatos and the Essanay Film Production Company. They did not stay away from the San Francisco Bay Area for long, though. Later in 1911, Essanay filmed in San Rafael and by 1912 was esconced in Niles.
That was not really the end of the story for Los Gatos, though. A total of 23 films were made here, the most recent of which was just last year, and you can see list by clicking on the link below under more information.
And why should we be surprised? Los Gatos normally has wonderful weather and the beautiful backdrop of the Santa Cruz Mountains (not to mention our lovely older buildings). Imagine how long Essanay might have stayed if it weren't for a bad bout of El Nino!
For more information:
If you'd like to read more about Essanay, I highly recommend a book I gave to my husband last Christmas, Broncho Billy and the Essanay Film Company. The author is David Kiehn and it was written in 2003. You can order it on Amazon and it is available in some bookstores.
If you'd like more information on which films (older and newer) were made in Los Gatos, The Internet Movie Database has lots of info, both a simplelist of movies made here and also details on each one.
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Los Gatos is a great place to live, but the early explorers must have been truly thrilled when oil was discovered at Moody Gulch and later in areas that are now part of the Town of Los Gatos. A few weeks ago, this blog covered the topic of the old oil pump that can be seen in a parking lot on Los Gatos Boulevard. My husband, Jim Handy, became intrigued by this topic and once again is providing a guest blog here, this time on the Belwood connection to oil. (Jim's previous contribution was April 22nd, when he posted on Harwood Road being a meridian.)
Oil in Belwood? Guest post by Jim Handy
It may come as a surprise to most of us that there was oil drilling as far north as Los Gatos. After all, that's a southern California phenomenon, isn't it?
Well, the truth is that there were ten oil wells in the Los Gatos area around the turn of the last century, and one of them was right here in the Belwood neighborhod.
 A USGS map found in 2000 shows that there was an "old oil well" near the intersection of Harwood and Belridge*. This map was drawn about 100 years ago, and there was oil exploration here as early as the 1860s, so there's no telling when it was drilled. In those days citizens weren't as circumspect about telling the state what they were up to as they are today.
I've looked around that intersection, and have found no trace of the well, but by the time these homes were built it may have been long gone, along with any traces of its existence.
Los Gatos was not much of an oil producer. There is no evidence of any commercial activity except in the Moody Gulch area on the other side of the summit. The USGS says that most wells on this side of the hill were used privately. Still it's interesting to think that a little part of this history happened right here in Belwood!
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* Note on the map: This map shows railroad lines and trolly car lines that don't now exist, roads with different names then the ones we know today and major thorofares like Blossom Hill Road entirely missing. I have taken the liberty to add a few notes to clarify the spot. Many of the numbers on the map (13, 14, 18) indicate townships and some of the straight black lines are the limits of the township and not streets. Also, the squiggly line running through most of the image is the base of Blossom Hill - the hill for which the major road was named.
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 Driving through the Central Valley or Central Coast areas of California, you see lots of oil pumps working busily. Oftentimes they are painted green, and sometimes they're even decorated with springy antennae so that they look like mechanical grasshoppers. They are so goofy looking that you just have to smile.
 They're a part of the rural landscape in other parts of California.
But you really do not expect to find these things in Los Gatos.
Oil was first discovered in the Santa Cruz Mountains at Moody Gulch in 1861 (the California Highway Patrol has named the bend in the road near there "Big Moody Curve"). It ended up not being a moneymaker, and drilling there stopped in 1912. Closer in to town, there were 12 functioning oil wells in Los Gatos between 1891 and 1929.
 The one pictured here was apparently pumping oil into the 1950s, though, and supposedly was giving out 8 barrels a day in 1953. But it was just not enough to justify the effort.
So this tethered pump, surrounded by a small chain link fence, now sits in the middle of a paved parking lot, shaded by a very large redwood tree. It really looks out of place next to the giant SUVs and luxury vehicles and tiny Mini Coopers parked there. The pump is a little rusty looking. The paint is peeling. It looks, well, forgotten.
With gas rapidly approaching $4 a gallon, I am wondering if maybe this pump without a purpose shouldn't be revisited to see if it has something more to give. Maybe our technology would make it feasible to use again. Do you think?
In any case, it's a glimmer of the past. If it can't be used, perhaps it can be respected.
I vote for a coat of green paint and some springing, bobbing antennae.
Just for old time's sake.
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 The Los Gatos Creek plays a key role in the history of the town, and so too does the Main Street bridge that traverses it.
In 1839, two brothers-in law, Jose Hernandez and Jaun Peralta, were looking for the right location to stake their claim to a Mexican land grant when they heard mountain lions fighting. Realizing that if the huge cats lived nearby, water must be nearby too. (The land grant was named La Rinconada de Los Gatos, or Cat's Corner. And eventually the town was given the name Los Gatos as well.)
 Peralta and Hernandez found the water they sought, a creek snaking down from the coastal mountains and stretching for the bay, and set up their first home at what is now Vasona Park. The partners received 6631 acres of land with the only requirement being that they had to occupy it. Over time, people moved to the area. Mills began at the water's edge. Stagecoach travel to Santa Cruz commenced. And eventually, the town of Los Gatos incorporated in 1887 over 1 square mile (100 acres) on both sides of the Los Gatos Creek. The population was 1645 then. (Today, the town encompasses 12 square miles. For a detailed historical time line of the town, click here.)
Naturally, a bridge would be important to get from one side of Los Gatos to the other. A wooden bridge was constructed. It came to be known as "the hanging bridge" as this was where a lynching took place in 1883.
 Fires were a terrible threat, and more than once, buildings burned to the ground as the bucket brigade battled the flames unsuccessfully. A particularly bad blaze ravaged East Main Street in 1891, culminating at a hardware store in which dynamite was sold. Other fires struck in 1890, 1898 and 1901 too. It became clear that a wooden bridge was not an ideal situation.
A stone and concrete bridge replaced the wooden one in 1905 (see photo). It was dedicated in early 1906, not long before the devastating San Francisco earthquake (about 60 miles north). And a newer bridge was put up in 1956.
 Today the bridge remains central to downtown Los Gatos. It spans across not just the creek, and the businesses on both sides of the creek, but a busy freeway that connects Silicon Valley with the coastal communities, most notably the beach at Santa Cruz. The bridge is frequented by motorists, cyclists, and folks on foot or rollerblade. From the bridge there's access to the much-loved, 9.7 mile Los Gatos Creek Trail. Tourists and residents alike can be seen on or near the bridge with cameras in hand as the spot is quite scenic. And the first Saturday in December, the bridge carries the holiday parade through town as well. The town has plans to improve the bridge between now and 2009 by beautifying it, paving it, and adding a water fountain at the head of the trail.
 Under the bridge, in addition to the wonderful trail, there's a beautiful mural to honor the Ohlone people who lived here before European settlers moved in. Painted by 60 volunteers, the mural is 76 feel long and 22 feet high and was completed in 2006. With so much of history riding across the bridge above, it is good to remember that the history of the area didn't really begin in 1839 at all, but much, much earlier.
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Live in Los Gatos:
A blog about Los Gatos real estate, homes, houses, condos, townhomes, housing market, neightborhoods, history, events, businesses, parks, schools, photos, issues, and lifestyle.
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