Three miles east of Highway 101 in Morgan Hill a deep natural gorge exists .
Yesterday …
By Larry J . Mickartz
Many , many years ago the Tamien and Matalan Tribes of the Ohlone Indians took up residence here , especially along Coyote Creek to the north . Even Juan Bautista de Anza in March of 1776 describes crossing the Arroyo Del Coyote on his way to San Francisco . The Burnett area just north of the base of the current dam was part of the Spanish land grant of Rancho De Laguna Seca . This area was used for cattle grazing , chicken ranching and orchard farming .
At the bottom of the current reservoir is land farmed by the Cochrane and Jackson families . In 1869 , John Cochrane bought part of the Spanish land grant , Ojo de Aqua de la Coche . Cochrane was from New Hampshire . At its peak this ranch covered 5,500 acres . John Cochrane died in 1899 . When the 1906 earthquake destroyed the dairy barn , John ’ s widow , Aphelia Farmington Cochrane , converted the ranch to a beef cattle operation . She died in 1949 at the age of 103 . She was a major player in local politics and the social life of Morgan Hill .
Her estate was awarded $ 155,000 for 500 acres along Coyote Creek , which eventually became the Anderson Dam and Reservoir . The Jackson Ranch Historic Site on the southeastern shoreline of the lake was the home of Gladys Jackson , a Cochrane granddaughter , as well as Gladys ’ stepsister , Ruth Lowe . The original house was built by Aphelia and was moved to the current location when the dam was built . When Gladys died at the age of 88 in 1984 , she deeded the remaining ranch to the California Pioneers of Santa Clara County .
This site was determined by the Santa Clara Valley Water Conservation District ( now the Santa Clara Water District ) to be a natural location for a dam . Back as far as 1929 the demand for water in the ever-growing Santa Clara Valley caused the agency to look to the future . The lowering of water tables , land subsidence and a salt water intrusion in the aquifer presented a triple threat to the availability of fresh water for the growing demands of the valley .
In 1949 , the Water Board submitted plans , subject to the passage of a bond measure the following summer , for the construction of what is known as Anderson Dam . It was named for Leroy Anderson , the key founder and then President of the Water District . Actual construction would be completed in 1950 . The resulting reservoir would be the largest in Santa Clara County and have an acre-foot capacity that would be large enough to hold the other nine county reservoirs .
In addition , via a pipeline connection to San Luis Reservoir , water can be fed into Anderson Dam for storage in the event of drought , planned facility shutdowns or during emergency outages .
The dam pulls from the 192 square miles of drainage area that surrounds it . The length of the reservoir is almost 8 miles . Construction of the actual dam required 3,320,000 cubic yards of fill material to be brought to the site .
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