The story of Lake Cunningham Park, situated in the wash of Evergreen Valley, began thousands of years even before James F. Cunningham purchased the land in the 1880's. Let’s open with an excerpt of a brief story by Colleen Cortese about the Evergreen Valley.

    "Across the small valley a herd of antelope silently passed, while high on the mountain came the evening howl of the coyote as he called his family together. This was Evergreen, a valley secreted away, covered with the umbrella of live oak forests, valley oak, crossed by creeks, marshes and cold, fresh water from the many springs.

    Before the Spaniards arrived, more than 10,000 people between Point Sur and the San Francisco Bay populated this area. Much research has proven that there were different groups living within territories, speaking eight to twelve different languages. Each tribe was small with its own chief. 

    It was believed that each triblet had one or more permanent village site. The tribe would move with each season as they fished, hunted and collected their plant foods. The local triblet known to be located in the closest vicinity to Evergreen was named 'Tamyen'."

    The population of the Tamyen triblet was estimated to have been 1,200 Ohlone's that spoke about seven different languages at the time the Spanish began to settle in the Santa Clara Valley.

When the Spaniards first viewed the bay, from high on the San Bruno hills, they wrote how they saw smoke rise from hundreds of villages. It was here the Indians built their houses, cooked, ate, slept and buried their dead. As hunters and gatherers, they lived in peace with the land and their neighbors for almost 4,000 years.

    With the many tribes and a language barrier, the Spaniards sometimes referred to them as Costeno's, people of the coast. Over time the word changed to Costanoan. The descendants of the Bay Area Indians prefer to be called Ohlone, which is the name now used to identify all those who lived in the area.  Triblet villages would have been located along the larger creek beds in Evergreen. They could comfortably live in the small pole and tule-thatched structures with dome roofs and centrally located fire pits built using the willows growing along the creeks.

    The Ohlone lived peacefully in Evergreen. If you take the time to see the depth cut by centuries of water along Thompson Creek, Yerba Buena Creek, Fowler, the southern Evergreen Creek, Silver Creek and many other tributaries, you may get some idea of how much water moved through Evergreen. 

    All along the hills surrounding the valley there are old and ancient springs that are even today filling pipes and reservoirs with clear, clean water. One old spring still brings water down Silver Creek even during the driest years. All the creeks eventually ended at Silver Lake, the present site of Lake Cunningham Park.

    A marsh, the center of life (the present site of Lake Cunningham Park), spread its fingers across what is now White Road and west to Eastridge. This marsh may have been where the people gathered to fish, trap the many migratory ducks and geese and harvest the tulle to use for building material, rope, baskets and more. 

    Herds of antelope, elk and deer grazed the hillsides along the creeks where the wild blackberry grew, under the limbs of the dark oak forest. At the edge of the creeks, poplar, willow, alder, elm and sycamore grew. 

    A California bay tree would signal a sign of water. It was here and near the small village the grizzly bear watched, while the mountain lion lay sleeping in the sun. The last grizzly was seen in Evergreen around 1859. He was standing in the marsh west of Orval Benjamine Cottle’s home near what is now Old Silver Creek Road and Yerba Buena Road. 

    Rabbits were so thick on the ground that one could reach out to catch them. Foxes hid in the chaparral; rodents, opossum and chipmunks shared the small valley with lizards and snakes. The wolves prowled, while up above, the bald eagle and giant condors soared over all."  All the must surely have enticed James F. Cunningham to purchase the land.  

CUNNINGHAM WOULDN'T KNOW HIS OWN PARK

By Patricia Loomis; Staff Writer SJ Mercury News;  Thursday May 6, 1982

    James F. Cunningham would be interested in the doings on... the land he farmed nearly a century ago.

    Cunningham, a civil war veteran who took part in the Battle of New Orleans, once owned much of the east San Jose land that will be dedicated Lake Cunningham park at noon Friday.

    Cunningham Avenue was named for him when the more than 700 acres were subdivided in 1888, and the San Jose city park and lake takes its name from the avenue.

    Jim Cunningham didn’t spend much time on his farm (his house was on King Road where Cunningham Avenue cuts in), or on the farm he owned near whet became Moffett Field.  He was too busy with his lumber business over the hill in Felton, CA, Santa Cruz County.

    Born in the Canadian province of New Brunswick in 1844, Cunningham worked on the family farm and at 13 was an apprentice in a dry goods store, In the fall of 1861 he enlisted in a Marine infantry division, serving four years and seeing action at Baton Rouge, Red River and other campaigns. He was wounded in battle twice.

    Mustered out as a first lieutenant, he returned to the dry goods business, but poor health sent him south and finally he and a brother, Jeremiah W. Cunningham, decided to come to California.  Arriving in San Francisco on Oct. 10, 1869, James landed a job clerking in a dry goods store and banked his money. The following spring the bank failed and Cunningham lost all his savings. Still batting poor health, he went to the Santa Cruz mountains and took up government land above Felton, making shingles and fence railings until he had saved $1,000. That he put into a general mercantile business with a man named McCoy.

    Cunningham, operating lumber mills and general stores, became a force in the birth of Felton and Boulder Creek. One writer at the time called him "a ruling spirit in the San Lorenzo Valley."

    He married Sarah Glynn in 1873 and in 1878 was elected to the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors. In 1881 he represented the county in the state assembly and was appointed to the board of directors of the proposed Agnews State Insane Asylum. He also was senior vice commander in the Grand Army of the Republic of California and Nevada.

    In the 1880’s, Cunningham got caught up in the great land boom that swept California, buying property near Mountain View and on the alkali wash north of the little community of evergreen, where he may have hunted ducks on the shallow lake that formed in wet winters.

    During this period, Cunningham was cutting timber where the present town of Boulder Creek stands today, and operated two shingle mills and a saw mill there. He also had a planning mill and lumber yard in Santa Cruz.

    He died on the Mountain View farm Nov. 23, 1907, and was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Santa Cruz. A military salute was fired over his grave.

    His brother, Jeremiah, was involved with James in the lumber business and lived with his family in Boulder Creek. For about a dozen years, Jeremiah farmed on Cunningham Avenue and operated a grocery store on south Market Street in san Jose. He died in Boulder Creek in 1929.

James Cunningham had no children, and the last of his brother’s children, sister Letitia, died at Notre Dame Villa in Saratoga last March.

None of the Cunningham’s would recognize their old farm where the dirt road cut east from the farm house across the unfenced flat lands to the hills. 

    -1969-

By 1969, the area was known as Pleasant Hills Drive-Through-

Dary owned and opperated by the Soares Family. It was also the hydrologic resting point for the Evergreen Valley watershed comprising of Silver, Ruby, Thompson, and Flint Creeks. The area was a summertime marshy lowland which supported grazing livestock for the dairy. Winter rains brought flooding to the field and surrounding streets including Capital Expressway, Cunningham Avenue and White Road; the present leg of Tully Road did not cut through yet. The total floodplain area encompassed 14,000 acres southeast San Jose.

    Estimates were, the 100 year or 1% flood could inundate as many as 10,200 homes and cause as much as $2 million in damages. The fact that, Lake Cunningham occupies lands historically known as a marshy alkaline flood plain was significant in determining the present geography of the park and contributes to offer much of the operational challenges facing park staff even today.

-1970-

In 1970, Santa Clara Valley Water District began holding public hearings to develop a plan to eliminate the threat of damage by the 1% flood. One of the issues was a $1500/acre assessment to local property owners to pay for the proposal flood control improvement.

    Mrs. Velma Million and several of her new found neighborhood friends, all local residents, organized the eastside residences and significantly contributed to the defeat of the $1500/acre assessment. 

   "The valley needed a systematic regional flood plan and park!"

   Mrs. Million and her citizen organization H.O.P. (Help Our Park) then turned their efforts to working toward a Regional Park on San Jose’s eastside. Lake Cunningham was only one location of several proposals. Lake Cunningham final location was conceived out of a community's vision to improve the quality of life for a growing Eastside population burdened with seasonal flooding and scarce recreational opportunities.

Velma Million and Secretary of the Interior Thomas S. Kleppe.

-1972-

    A 1972 feasibility study prepared by George S. Nolte and associates in 1972 showed that the land now occupied by Lake Cunningham would indeed be best suited for a regional park.

-1973-

    In 1973, Mayor Norm Minetta (under heavy pressure from Velma Million) and the City Council on a 5-0 vote to set aside $2 million from State Revenue Sharing funds for the purchase of land for this Regional Park. Lake Cunningham would be a water detention basin and recreational area with the capacity to hold 590 acre-feet of potential flood waters.

-1976-

The Pleasant Hills Drive-Through-Dairy closed for business and was acquired through the process of eminent-domain by the City of San Jose. 

-1978-

    In 1978 the City of San Jose entered into an agreement for the recreational use and upkeep of Silver and Ruby Creeks. The Santa Clara Valley Water District, would control the creeks for flood control purposes only.

-1979-

Grading for the lake began in 1979. Site development of the first 54 acres located in the eastern portion of the park known as the Big Meadow began in late 1980. This first phase of site development included: Parking lots A & B, interior roads & pathways, White Road entrance kiosk, basic tree plantings, turf and irrigation, restrooms, Water cascade and water jet, picnic equipment, two wells and pumps, perimeter fencing, and potable water lines and utilities.

    Acquisition, site grading and development of the 54 acre of Phase I totaled $10.2 million. Street improvements on White Road including curbs, sidewalk and gutters, traffic signals and the full roadway were also developed at this time.

-1982-

    The park opened and was dedicated in May 1982. However, only the east side of the park and only the eastern shoreline of the lake were usable.

    The summer of 1982 brought Phase II construction at the cost of $1,853,630 and included: the Marina and landscaping (building, boat ramp with docks, and restroom building), utilities for the west side of the park, the west side well, roads and parking and walkways, and Storm drains

-1983-

     In August of 1983, the marina concession and lake recreation opportunities opened to the public. With the opening of this new facility, park attendance showed a significant increase. These improvements now made the entire park and lake accessible to visitor use.

    In November of 1983, an irrigation/landscape project began on the hills of Big Meadow and along the roadway in the eastern portion of Lake Cunningham. This project was completed in December 1983 and totaled $165,000.

    The California Conservation Corps (CCC) and park staff completed the two play areas in the Big Meadow in the Spring of 1983. These improvements cost $28,000. Volunteers from the Alumni chapter 45 of the CCCorps also completed an 18-station par course in the summer of 1983. Supplies and materials for this project amounted to $10,000. These play structures are scheduled to be replaced soon after 2006.

    Construction of parking lot (C) , the access roadway, various drainage improvements in Big Meadow, the construction of Ruby/Flint Weir, and minor picnic area landscaping and improvements were also completed in the Spring of 1983. These improvements cost $493,100.

-1984-

Click to read a brief article from Sunset Magazine in 1984

    Construction of the improvements for Water Theme parking lots (D) and (E) as well as the Tully Road entrance/kiosk area storm drain and utilities were completed in the Fall of 1984. Total funds used on this project were $665,000.

    Major improvements to the lake began in the fall of 1984 in order to improve water quality and fisheries habitat. These were: lake stabilization using boulder rip-rap and bulkheads, construction of two fishing piers, asphalt walkway with handicap access, and various drainage improvements.

    The project was completed in early 1985 at a cost of $1,268,400. An additional $45,200 was expended for inspection of Raging Waters construction

-1986-

    The new maintenance corporation yard with adjacent landscaping and tree planting near the corner of Tully and White was competed in June of 1986 at a cost of $577,200. Cypress Pavilion was completed in the spring of 1986. Construction cost was $407,500.

    The CCC and park staff installed 16 new shade structures, added approximately 4003’ lineal feet of road bollard and chain, and planted approximately 450 new trees with irrigation system at a cost of $25,000. Total acquisition and development costs to date are: $19,813,000.

-1991-

Lake Cunningham fishery has In 1991 the aerator system was installed at the northwest end of the lake. This system was thought to improve the fishery by increasing the lakes dissolved oxygen levels. By the mid 1990’s various projects focused on restoring the fishery and islands.

    By 2004 most of the lake systems were off-line.  Today, Lake Cunningham serves the recreational needs of over 500,000 people annually. Walking and jogging, summer picnicking, boating, fishing, outdoor play and sports continue to be favorite activities.   Future development plans for the park include:

Skateboard Park scheduled to break-ground in 2008.

Renovated volleyball and horseshoe pits (reconstructed 2005)

Park "Parameter Landscaping" project 

New playgrounds and play structures

Pathway improvements

Possible new attractions within Raging Waters. 

All images and content are the property of the person whom is responsible for the original. The intro was written by Colleen Cortese for the Evergreen Press.  All artwork is original and the exclusive property of the webmaster.   All content in the above is guaranteed actual, fictitious, fabricated, elaborated, and factual. For questions contact [email protected]