Visited on 3/29/2019
during a weekend camping trip with Jeff and our two Chocolate labs, Summer and
Skye. Lake Elsman is a reservoir,
created by an earthen dam called Austrian Dam on Los Gatos Creek in the Santa
Cruz Mountains of California. At several points it is over 140' deep and its
normal surface area is 96 acres. It provides 12% of San Jose Water Works’ total
water capacity in some years. The lake is
located at 1,119 feet above sea level and dam is owned by the San Jose Water Company. Restricted access is strictly enforced by the
Water Company and private lands surrounding the lake.
In 1988 and 1989, two
earthquakes 5.3 and 5.4 respectively occurred at Lake Elsman that transferred
stress that led to the 1989 6.9 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
Construction of the
Austrian Dam was completed in 1950. Beneath the reservoir are the remains of the
settlements of Austrian Gulch and Germantown.
The dam is more than 900 feet long and 180 feet high. The dam was damaged in the Loma Prieta
quake. The performance of Austrian Dam during that
earthquake reinforces concerns about damage to the tops of earth dams by
earthquakes.
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| Driving around the hills trying to find access to Lake Elmans, we drove along this creek that exits the dam along the west side of the lake. Nice sounds of the water trickling over the rocks. |
An extremely interesting read, I may possibly not agree completely, but you do make some very valid points. take a look at the site here
ReplyDeleteThank you Maya, glad you liked my article on the Lake and found it interesting. Let me know if you have corrections to my article. I would be interested in looking it up.
DeleteIs it possible to hike or ride a mountain bike to the lake and fish there? Or, is it completely fenced off to public access? Is it possible to drive to the lake? I ride my bike by lexington and was wondering about Elmans Lake as it is close and I could ride my bicycle up there with a rod if there is access. I've been reading that there may be no access to the public to fish?
ReplyDeleteYou can get on the backside of the lake, but it has been fenced off completely from the public because this is a public drinking water source. No public access for fishing, swimming or hiking.
ReplyDelete