EPOJoe
10-16-2016, 08:27 PM
Last week I decided to ride up Mt Hamilton near San Jose for the first time, and it didn't disappoint. Beautiful climb once I got past the early stages (passing several improvised dump sites with discarded couches and piles of full Hefty bags) and the view from the Lick Observatory was pretty dang impressive. After I made it back home, I started to dig a bit into the history of the mountain and found some rather interesting stuff. The first item I turned up online was a scrapbook kept by a Mr. Charles Fuller, who took a bike trip up the mountain in 1914:
http://bikemaster.org/road-history/mt-hamilton/fuller.htm
The second, and more macabre item, has to do with a Mr. James C. Dunham, who slaughtered his family with an axe and two pistols in 1896. After the murder, he fled up Mt. Hamilton, vanishing on the mountain, his horse found later, wandering alone. These quotes from a copy of an 1896 San Francisco Call Newspaper describe Dunham, saying "He was an expert bicyclist, and rode to and from his home on a wheel" and "Shortly after Dunham was married he took his wife and went to Stockton and engaged in the bicycle business: He did not prosper, and returned to the shelter of the McGlincy house".
The San Francisco Call story can be found here:
http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SFC18960528.2.4&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-------
A period story about the area describes Dunham's last sighting on Mt. Hamilton:
https://books.google.com/books?id=kahJiCBGByQC&pg=PA62&lpg=PA62&dq=Hotel+Santa+Ysabel+mt+hamilton&source=bl&ots=Y3TfLdDrvW&sig=9fUMAkjaSH6k462IbDvn8x06GhU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjVntLptt3PAhUrs1QKHdcwBlMQ6AEIMTAD#v=on epage&q&f=false
My regret is that I didn't research this stuff before the ride, as it would have added an interesting historic aspect to the climb, and I would have loved to find and poke around the old site of the Smith Creek Hotel where Charles Fuller had lunch. Oh well, next time!
http://bikemaster.org/road-history/mt-hamilton/fuller.htm
The second, and more macabre item, has to do with a Mr. James C. Dunham, who slaughtered his family with an axe and two pistols in 1896. After the murder, he fled up Mt. Hamilton, vanishing on the mountain, his horse found later, wandering alone. These quotes from a copy of an 1896 San Francisco Call Newspaper describe Dunham, saying "He was an expert bicyclist, and rode to and from his home on a wheel" and "Shortly after Dunham was married he took his wife and went to Stockton and engaged in the bicycle business: He did not prosper, and returned to the shelter of the McGlincy house".
The San Francisco Call story can be found here:
http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SFC18960528.2.4&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-------
A period story about the area describes Dunham's last sighting on Mt. Hamilton:
https://books.google.com/books?id=kahJiCBGByQC&pg=PA62&lpg=PA62&dq=Hotel+Santa+Ysabel+mt+hamilton&source=bl&ots=Y3TfLdDrvW&sig=9fUMAkjaSH6k462IbDvn8x06GhU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjVntLptt3PAhUrs1QKHdcwBlMQ6AEIMTAD#v=on epage&q&f=false
My regret is that I didn't research this stuff before the ride, as it would have added an interesting historic aspect to the climb, and I would have loved to find and poke around the old site of the Smith Creek Hotel where Charles Fuller had lunch. Oh well, next time!