While trying to find an old map of Los Gatos online, I stumbled upon some interesting and historic topographical maps of San Jose, Los Gatos, Gilroy, Santa Clara, and other areas nearby care of the USGS. I will place a tiny segment of one here so that you can get the idea and visit the site yourself:

My husband, Jim, loves maps and he tells me that each one of those "dots" visible on the map represents a house. Amazing! Another surprise, to me anyway, is that Kennedy Road looks like it used to be called Rinconada. Other, nearby parts of the map reveal that Camden Avenue was where the rail line used to run to the mines in Almaden and Guadalupe. Cool stuff - hope you enjoy it!

http://bard.wr.usgs.gov/historical/subindex/hist-sanjose.html#NEW%20ALMADEN

The town of Los Gatos was orignally named after the Spanish land grant, "El Rancho de la Rinconada de los Gatos", the Cat's Corner Ranch. But how did the town get Leo and Leona, the ubiquitous cats, as its logo?

Residing today where they were originally placed in 1922, the cats sit proudly at the entrance to 17525 Santa Cruz Highway, just a stone's throw south of town en route over the Santa Cruz Mountains. They sit guard at the gate of Poet's Canyon.

Poet's Canyon is aptly named for a fascinating married couple, Charles Erskin Scott Wood (a poet, PhD, lawyer, Civil War Vet and West Point Grad) and Sara Bard Field (poet and suffragist), who built their home back in this 34 acre nook in the hills.  They commissioned a sculptor named Robert Paine to make these 8' tall cement cats at the gateway to their home.   

All three of these people are interesting in their own right, and diverse in their talents and abilities.

To see the cat sculptures today, take South Santa Cruz Avenue out of town and onto highway 17 (going toward Santa Cruz). They will be on your right hand side just before you reach the old roadhouse tavern, The Cats (which will be the subject of another blog entry on another day).

Bring your camera. Enjoy! 
 

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.