Bell Station (or Bell's Station) is an unincorporated community located along State Route 152 between Casa de Fruta and Pacheco Pass near the southeast extent of Santa Clara County, California.
A Department of Transportation (Caltrans) maintenance station used to exist in this area. A California Department of Forestry fire station is west of Bell Station along SR152.
The ZIP code is 95020, and the community is in area codes 408 and 669.
The location was originally called Hollenbeck's Station, (possibly after the namesake of the Sunnyvale street of the same name). [1] It was renamed for Lafayette F. Bell, who had built a saloon at the entrance to a road over Pacheco Pass. Later, Bell bought the road over Pacheco Pass from Andrew Firebaugh and began charging a toll for passage. A Bell's Station Post Office was established by the U.S. Post Office Department, and was in use from 1873 to 1914. [2]
Some references say the locale was a stop on the Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach route. [2] The stagecoach route to San Francisco from the American midwest was known to have stops every ten miles or so along its length. Hall of Fame baseball player Harry Hooper was born here in 1887.
Bell Station is an officially defined geographic feature of type locale in the National Geographic Names Database. The feature ID number is 218994. The location also appears on the US Geological Survey 7.5-minute quadrangle "Pacheco Peak, California" and the 1921 "Gilroy Hot Springs, California" 15-minute quadrangle.
The US Geological Survey latitude and longitude for the locale is given as 37°02′12″N121°18′39″W / 37.03667°N 121.31083°W . The area is about 350 feet above mean sea level (AMSL).
Gilroy is a city in Northern California's Santa Clara County, south of Morgan Hill and north of San Benito County. Gilroy is the southernmost city in the San Francisco Bay Area, with a population of 59,520 as of the 2020 Census.
State Route 152 is a state highway that runs from east to west near the middle of the U.S. state of California from State Route 1 in Watsonville to State Route 99 southeast of Merced. Its western portion provides access to and from Interstate 5 toward Southern California for motorists in or near Gilroy and San Jose.
Pacheco Pass, elevation 1,368 ft (417 m), is a low mountain pass located in the Diablo Range in southeastern Santa Clara County, California. It is the main route through the hills separating the Santa Clara Valley and the Central Valley.
The Coast Line is a railroad line between Burbank, California and the San Francisco Bay Area, roughly along the Pacific Coast. It is the shortest rail route between Los Angeles and the Bay Area.
Area codes 408 and 669 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) in the U.S. state of California. The numbering plan area comprises most of Santa Clara County and Northern Santa Cruz County, and includes Gilroy, Morgan Hill, Saratoga, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Milpitas, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Cupertino, Campbell, and San Jose.
Skeggs Point is a scenic turnout in San Mateo County along State Route 35 between Kings Mountain and State Route 84. The feature is marked with a guide sign along the road and is listed on the USGS 7.5 minute quadrangle, "Woodside, California" as well as in the National Geographic Names Database. The area is about three miles west and 2,000 feet above the town of Woodside.
Pacheco State Park is a California State Park to the south of Pacheco Pass in the Diablo Range, located mostly in western Merced County, California but extending into southeastern Santa Clara County and near Hollister in San Benito County. Located 24 miles (39 km) west of Los Banos, California and 20 miles (32 km) east of Gilroy, the park entrance is on Dinosaur Point Road, a short distance from California State Route 152 near Pacheco Pass. The park contains 6,890 acres (2,790 ha), though only the western 2,600 acres (1,100 ha) to the west are open to the public. The eastern two-thirds of the park are closed due to an underdeveloped trail system and safety concerns over the numerous wind turbines that are located in the Gonzaga Wind Farm that occupies the area. In 2018, it was announced that the 1980s-era turbines would be replaced with more efficient models, which would increase power production capacity from the original 16.5 megawatts (MW) to as much as 80 MW.
Redwood Estates is a rural unincorporated community along State Route 17 in the coastal Santa Cruz Mountains in Los Gatos, California, United States. The Census Bureau includes it in a census-designated place named Lexington Hills. It lies inside the confines of Santa Clara County. The area is about eight miles from downtown Los Gatos and nine miles from the Santa Cruz County community of Scotts Valley.
Rucker is a former unincorporated community in Santa Clara County, California, located halfway along the five miles of Monterey Highway between Gilroy and San Martin. The name is official, but not in common use among locals today. Its elevation is listed as 235 feet above mean sea level (AMSL) and NAD27 coordinates are given as 37°03′15″N121°35′28″W. Supporting the name are local geographic features, Rucker Avenue, Rucker School (K-6), and Rucker Creek. The community was part of the Mexican land grant Rancho San Francisco de las Llagas.
Sargent is a ghost town located in central California on the Santa Clara-San Benito County border. The largest portion of the town was on the Santa Clara County, or north, side of the county line. It is 150 feet above mean sea level. It appeared on 1950s Thomas Brothers maps but has dropped off the company's 21st century maps.
The Santa Clara Valley AVA is an American Viticultural Area located mostly in Santa Clara County, California. The area served an important role in the early history of California wine and was home to the pioneer winemakers Paul Masson and Charles Lefranc. The AVA boundary was defined in 1989. It includes the historic winegrowing areas of Santa Clara County which were not already part of the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA as well as the area near Mission San José in Alameda County and a small part of San Benito County.
The Pacheco Pass AVA is an American Viticultural Area located in the Santa Clara and San Benito counties of California, near Pacheco Pass. It is part of the larger San Francisco Bay AVA. The pass is a 15 miles (24 km) long corridor between the San Francisco Bay area to the west and the San Joaquin Valley to the east. State Route 152 passes through the center of the wine region. Pacheco Pass was granted AVA status in 1984 following a petition by the Zanger family, who continue to operate the only commercial winery in the appellation, Zanger Vineyards.
Panoche Pass is a mountain pass within the Diablo Range in San Benito County, California connecting the southern extremity of the Santa Clara Valley in the west to the Panoche Valley and San Joaquin Valley in the east. The name Panoche Pass is used for the United States Geological Survey quadrangle map for the local area. County Route J1, also known as the Panoche Road, traverses the pass.
Rancho San Luis Gonzaga was a 48,821-acre (197.57 km2) Mexican land grant in the Diablo Range, in present-day Santa Clara County and Merced County, California given in 1843 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to Juan Carlos Pacheco and José Maria Mejía. The grant was bounded by Francisco Pérez Pachecos Rancho Ausaymas y San Felipe on the west, the San Joaquin River and San Joaquin Valley on the east, and Los Baños Creek on the south.
Pacheco Creek is a 28 miles (45 km) west by southwest flowing stream which heads in the Diablo Range in southeastern Santa Clara County and flows to San Felipe Lake, the beginning of the Pajaro River mainstem, in San Benito County, California.
Hecker Pass is a low mountain pass across the Santa Cruz Mountains of central California, connecting Watsonville on the Pacific coast to Gilroy and the Santa Clara Valley. It is traversed by Hecker Pass Road, the western part of California State Route 152, which continues east from Gilroy across Pacheco Pass and into the Central Valley. Mt. Madonna County Park lies to the north of the pass. The pass's elevation is 408 metres (1,339 ft).
North Fork Pacheco Creek is a 19 miles (31 km) tributary stream of Pacheco Creek, in Santa Clara County, California. Originally it was considered the upper reach of Pacheco Creek. Its source is at an elevation of 2,360 feet (720 m) at 37°11′17″N121°25′42″W on a mountain side in Henry W. Coe State Park and is the headwaters of the Pajaro River watershed.
Fifield Ranch is a locale within the Diablo Range in Santa Clara County, California. It lies at an elevation of 1,512 feet, west of the head of Romero Creek and the Santa Clara County line, about a mile north of Hagerman Peak. It is at the source of a tributary canyon and stream to Chimney Gulch, itself a tributary of East Fork Pacheco Creek.
Cedar Creek is a 6.25 mi (10 km) south flowing stream which heads on the eastern flank of Burra Burra Peak in the Diablo Range, and is tributary to Pacheco Creek, in Santa Clara County, California.
37°02′11″N121°18′39″W / 37.0365°N 121.3108°W
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