Lexington Reservoir - History

History

In 1943, the Santa Clara Valley Water District identified that the well water in the Santa Clara Valley was being diminished at a rapid rate and a dam was needed on the Los Gatos Creek, two miles (3 km) south of Los Gatos. One goal was to percolate the water into the ground and ultimately increase the amount of well water available. After rerouting State Route 17 near Windy Point which is a mile south of Los Gatos, dam construction began in the spring of 1952 and was completed in the fall of 1952.

The reservoir covered the towns of Lexington and Alma. Alma and Lexington reached their peak population in the mid-19th century, when about 200 people lived in each. Each of the towns had a post office, hotel, saloons, blacksmith shops, and half a dozen redwood sawmills. Lexington was the halfway stop for stagecoaches running between San Jose and Santa Cruz. The town served as a place to switch from a team of four horses to six horses to get over the mountains. Lexington declined after 1880 when the narrow gauge railroad from Los Gatos to Santa Cruz bypassed it, while Alma declined when Highway 17 bypassed it in 1940. The railroad ceased operations in 1940. By 1950, only about 100 people lived in the two communities.

Lexington gained national attention in 1883, when a Los Gatos saloon keeper, Lloyd Majors, hired two thugs to rob an elderly Lexington man who kept $20,000 in gold in his cabin. They burned him with turpentine-soaked rags and beat him with pistols, killing him, and then fled with the gold. Their sensational trial in San Jose drew national attention similar to that accorded to the Lizzie Borden ax murders nine years later. Majors and one of the thugs were hanged. The other spent 15 years in prison.