User talk:Bunty4/av sandboxpage


 * Almaden revisions

, Firstly, great initiative on this draft, you've done some really great work. I have gone through your draft and done a revision below, where I consolidated lots of the great info you provided. I removed a good chunk of info that was either superfluous, non-encylopedic, or irrelevant, such as the list of Almaden's sub-divisions, over-elaborate descriptions for trails, the repeated entries for parks, entries for schools that don't have wiki links, etc. I also slimmed down much of the history section to what is most relevant. The following revision meets all the standards of Wikipedia and is ready to post to the Almaden page if you would like to, but the original does not. Please let me know if you have questions. Best, Cristiano Tomás (talk) 20:02, 8 July 2021 (UTC)

Almaden Valley (Spanish: Valle de Almadén), commonly known simply as Almaden (Spanish: Almadén), is a valley and neighborhood of San Jose, California, located in South San Jose. It is nestled between the Santa Cruz Mountains to the west and the Santa Teresa Hills to the east.

Almaden, named after the ancient Spanish mining town of Almadén, traces its history back to the 1820's, when Mexican miners discovered mercury deposits on Rancho Los Capitancillos, which later led to the establishment of the New Almaden mines. Almaden is one of the most expensive neighborhoods to live in San Jose and is consistently ranked as one of the most expensive areas in the country. .

Nueva Almadén
The New Almaden Quicksilver Mines were named after the mercury mine in (old) Almadén, Spain, and the region produced mercury that was used to process ore during the Gold Rush

Like its Spanish namesake, California's Almaden had a number of quicksilver mines. The mercury was used during gold extraction in the California Gold Rush, but the mines were closed in 1975 and have been converted into Almaden Quicksilver County Park. Despite the closure of the mines, there still remains a high mercury content in the nearby soil, creeks, and rivers, and signs are posted alongside them warning people not to eat the fish.

Many of the names in Almaden retain their mercury mine themes. For example, there are streets called Silver Lode Lane and Silver Mine Drive (the latter of which was renamed). Also, many places in Almaden still use the name Quicksilver.

Post-Conquest era
Following the American Conquest of California, Almaden Valley attracted a significant amount of settlers from the East Coast and Europe.

In 1852, Charles LeFranc founded Almaden Vineyards, the first commercial winery in California, with his father-in-law Éthienne Thée, using vine cuttings from his native France. Following Prohibition, the winery and the company had great success with their blush wine and the White Grenache Rosé, one of the first popular pink wines in the United States. Almaden Vineyards has since moved its winery to Madera, California, while the historic remains of the property are now known as the Old Almaden Winery, which serves as a public park and California Historic Landmark.

Beginning in the late 1800's, Almaden was home to the Graystone Quarry, one of the most significant quarries in the Bay Area, used in the construction of landmarks including San Francisco City Hall, Stanford University, Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph, among numerous others.

UC San Jose campus
In December 1959, the Regents of the University of California selected Almaden Valley to be the site of the next campus of the University of California system. Unfortunately, news of this decision caused property values in the area to increase so rapidly that the Regents could no longer afford to buy the needed land. After another year of study, the Regents selected another site much farther south, which opened in 1965 as the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Geography


The neighborhood is southeast of Los Gatos, southwest of the Blossom Valley, and west of the Santa Teresa. The Santa Teresa Hills are to Almaden's east, separating it from Santa Teresa, and the Capitancillos Hills of the Sierra Azul are to Almaden's west and south.

Almaden Valley includes all the areas within the 95120 zip code.

Parks
Almaden Valley is home to over 15 parks including 3 county parks, 3 lakes, 1 regional park, 1 open space preserve and several neighborhood parks:
 * Almaden Lake Regional Park
 * Almaden Meadows Park
 * Almaden Quicksilver County Park
 * Almaden Reservoir
 * Calero Lake and County Park
 * Carabelle Park
 * Cathedral Park
 * Glenview Park
 * Greystone Park
 * Guadalupe Oak Grove Park
 * Guadalupe Reservoir County Park
 * Jeffrey Fontana Park
 * Parma Park
 * Rancho San Vicente Open Space Preserve
 * Singer Park
 * T J Martin Park

Trails
Almaden Valley is home to an expansive trail system, including:
 * Los Alamitos Creek Trail is a 9.8 mile trail
 * Almaden Lake Loop Trail, a 1.4-mile trail
 * Almaden Quicksilver County Park, 4163 acres with several trails across the park
 * Mount Umunhum trail, a 7.7 mile trail in the Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve to the summit of the mountain
 * Senador Mine Trail, Mine Hill Trail, and Castillero Trail, a 12.7 mile trail
 * Webb Canyon, New Almaden, Cinnabar, Mine Hill, Randol and Prospect #3 Loop Trail, a 5.4-mile trail
 * New Almaden, Mine Hill and Guadalupe Trail Loop, a 13.6-mile loop trail

Economy
Part of Silicon Valley, Almaden is home to numerous high tech companies. It is notably home to the IBM Almaden Research Center, which has played an important role in the discovery and development of new technologies for IBM.

Government
Almaden Valley is part of San Jose's District 10, represented by Council Member Matt Mahan.

Demographics
The average income per household in Almaden Valley is $235,212

The 2010 United States Census and the American Community Survey (ACS) conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau reported that, as of 2019, Almaden Valley had a population of 38,122, with 12,877 housing units.

The racial makeup of Almaden Valley was 20,726 (54.4%) White, 13,866 (36.4%) Asian, 2,700 (7.1%) Hispanic or Latino, 741 (1.9%) African American, 124 (0.3%) Native American, 2184 (5.7%) from two or more races and 442 (1.2%) of some other race.

The population was spread out, with 9430 (24.7%) children under the age of 18, 21,243 (55.7%) adults aged 18 to 64, and 7,449 (19.5%) adults aged 65 years or older. The median age was 46.3 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.4 males.

Education
Almaden Valley students attend primary, middle and high schools across 3 different school districts, San Jose Unified School District, Campbell Union School District and Los Gatos Union School District. While most neighborhoods are in San Jose Unified School District, some in the northwest are in the Campbell Union School District, and some in the southwest bordering Los Gatos are in the Los Gatos Union School District. .

Schools in Almaden include:
 * Public schools:
 * Leland High School
 * Pioneer High School
 * Leigh High School
 * Branham High School
 * Los Gatos High School
 * Bret Harte Middle School
 * Castillero Middle School
 * Dartmouth Middle School


 * Private schools
 * Almaden Country Day School (K-8)
 * Holy Spirit School (K-8)

Culture
Almaden is home to numerous annual cultural events, including the Almaden Art & Wine Festival, the Almaden Harvest Festival, and the San Jose Lantern Festival.

Sporting events held in the area include the Quicksilver Endurance Runs and the Quicksilver Trail Challenge.

Case Grande
Casa Grande was constructed in 1854, under the direction of the mine's general manager, Henry Halleck, who used the building until 1920 as a personal and official residence for the New Almaden Mining Company. John McLaren, of Golden Gate Park fame, assisted in designing the five acres of formally landscaped grounds around the house.

In 1997, Santa Clara County purchased the building to house the Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum, which started as a private collection by Constance Perham, who displayed it in her house in New Almaden. The new museum opened in 1998. The building underwent extensive renovation from 2009-2010 to restore it to its configuration when it was a mine manager’s residence from 1854 to 1925. It reopened in January 2011. It houses interpretive exhibits and displays on the history of the New Almaden mines and on the lives of its workers and their families.

Hacienda Hotel
In the mid-1800s, just a few years before the great California Gold Rush, Andres Castillera, a Mexican officer with the Artillery discovered cinnabar in New Almaden, a precious metal also known as quicksilver which bought Castillera lot of riches. As the word spread, New Almaden was thriving with miners trying to mine more cinnabar themselves.

In 1848, a boarding house was constructed by the creek in New Almaden as a house for boarding for the miners. Hot meals were served in the rustic dining room downstairs. This was the first two-story lodging in California. Fire destroyed the building in 1875 but it was rebuilt and stayed in operation in this capacity until the 1930s.

It was then converted into Cafe Del Rio which served New Almaden for almost 40 years.

In 1992, La Foret, a high-end French restaurant opened in the building. The restaurant, still in operation, is a local landmark in San Jose and well known across the Bay Area for its fine dining

New Almaden Historic District
A two-teacher school was built in the 1860s on a flat near Casa Grande. Enrollment came chiefly from the Hacienda along with some children from nearby ranches. One of the oldest buildings in the district is the Carson-Perham Adobe, built between 1848 and 1850 by Mexican miners, and later the home of George Carson, the mine company bookkeeper, postmaster, telegraph operator, and Wells Fargo agent. Constance Perham lived in the adobe house for many years and established a private museum there in 1949, the collections of which were purchased in 1983 by Santa Clara County.

Roads
Almaden Expressway is the primary arterial road intersecting Almaden Valley and connecting it with the rest of Silicon Valley. Blossom Hill Road, an important artery for South San Jose, goes through Almaden.

Rail
Until 2019, Almaden station of the VTA light rail was the main rail connection in the area. Since its closure, the following are the VTA and CalTrain rail stations that serve Almaden Valley:
 * Ohlone/Chynoweth station (VTA) on the VTA blue line
 * Blossom Hill station (VTA) on the VTA blue line
 * Blossom Hill station (Caltrain) ​
 * Winchester Transit Center (VTA) on the VTA green line

Media

 * Almaden Times, is a weekly newspaper, owned by Times Media, and has been serving Almaden Valley since 1986.
 * Almaden Resident, is a weekly newspaper, owned by Metro Newspapers, and has been serving Almaden Valley since 2004

Popular culture

 * Angle of Repose, a 1971 novel that won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1972, had New Almaden as one of the key locations the story was set in
 * Aparajita Tumi, a 2012 Indian Bengali-language drama film set in Almaden Valley, directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, an adaptation of the novel Dui Nari Hathe Tarbari by famous Bengali writer Sunil Gangopadhyay . The movie won several awards at the Indian Royal Stag Mirchi Music Awards.
 * The Tillman Story, a 2010 documentary on the life of Pat Tillman, who grew up in Almaden Valley, a defensive back with the Arizona Cardinals. Tillman decided to walk away from a multimillion-dollar contract to go to Afghanistan in 2002, where he was killed. The documentary was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. It was named 2010 Best Documentary by the San Francisco Film Critics Circle, the St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association, and the Florida Film Critics Circle.

Notable Residents
Following are some of the notable past or present residents of the Almaden Valley:


 * Alan Chang — Pianist and songwriter.
 * Brent Jones – Former American football player and Pro Bowl tight end for the San Francisco 49ers.
 * Count Five — 1960's rock band.
 * Dave Hoffmann - Professional football player and All-American college football player for the Washington Huskies
 * Dave Righetti — Professional baseball player and coach.
 * David E. Osborne — Author, Reinventing Government and The Coming. Senior White House advisor, Clinton administration. 2018 Spur Award Winner, Historical Novel.
 * Evan Low – California State Assembly member, and former Mayor of Campbell, California.


 * Jason Hardtke – Former professional baseball player
 * Jerry Hsu – Professional skateboarder.
 * Joe Murray – Creator of TV animated series Rocko's Modern Life and Camp Lazlo.
 * Kevin Pollak — Actor, impressionist, game show host, and comedian.
 * Yubin – Singer, actress, and former member of Wonder Girls
 * Pat Tillman – Former American football player, notable for turning down a multimillion-dollar contract and enlisting as a United States Army Ranger in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks. He was killed in Afghanistan in 2004 by friendly fire. The football/track stadium at Almaden Valley's Leland High School is named Tillman Stadium after him.
 * Reggie Smith – Former NBA player for the Portland Trail Blazers.
 * Rob Becker — Playwright, Defending the Caveman.
 * Steven Beitashour – Major League Soccer player, formerly with the San Jose Earthquakes.
 * Steve Finn — Philanthropist and former mayor of Los Altos Hills.
 * Steve Smith – Astronaut, holds all-time second place for cumulative spacewalk time.