Talk:Black Mountain (near Los Altos, California)

Requested move

discussion is underway here. --emerson7 23:19, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Which open space preserve?

At the moment, the article says

It is located on the border between Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve and Monte Bello Open Space Preserve, with the summit located in the former.

I am not sure this is correct. See for example the map on some of my Flickr photos, say this one. Zoom out a little and go to the "hybrid" view. This photo was taken from the summit, and according to Flickr's map, is clearly in Monte Bello, not Rancho San Antonio — it's not even a close call.

Of course, Flickr's map could be wrong. Does anyone have a better source, or a way of addressing the discrepancy? --Trovatore (talk) 05:46, 9 July 2012 (UTC)

Never mind. I got the Google Earth file from http://www.openspace.org/gmap/default.asp . It looks like Rancho sticks out a southern pseudopod that just picks up the summit of Black Mountain (who knows why — maybe to keep the hiking trail up from Rhus Ridge Road all in one preserve?). I guess the Flickr map misses this detail. (Or maybe the lines were redrawn at some point? I'd be interested to hear, if anyone knows.)

I don't know whether this counts as an RS, but I'm basically satisfied. --Trovatore (talk) 06:48, 9 July 2012 (UTC)

Not so fast, Trovatore! I originally placed the summit in Rancho because the USGS GNIS map puts the summit on the cell tower, north of Montebello Road. And even though you are right, their is a little pseudopod of Rancho that extends across and south of Montebello Road that same map shows a little star for the summit being in Montebello Open Space here http://www.openspace.org/preserves/maps/pr_rancho_san_antonio.pdf . So I've had fair experience with USGS GNIS and they don't always get it right, so go to THE NATIONAL MAP VIEWER http://viewer.nationalmap.gov/viewer/ where you get more accurate mapping and voila - the USGS GNIS summit on the cell tower is only 2811 feet, and the summit is 2814 feet MIDWAY between Montebello Road and the limestone outcrop, but I'd say this is still just over the line into Montebello as the Rancho Open Space map shows. I think we should switch it to Montebello. Take a look and let me know what you think.Schmiebel (talk) 07:20, 9 July 2012 (UTC)

I agree with you about the location of the summit (I was just there yesterday — it's hard to tell exactly where it is, but your description sounds about right). What I'm not sure about is the boundaries — the map shows one thing; the Google Earth overlay shows something else. Do you suppose there are surveying descriptions of the boundaries somewhere? Not that I'm confident I'd be able to read them.... --Trovatore (talk) 09:24, 9 July 2012 (UTC)

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Location of Black Mountain, in Palo Alto?

I note that the title says "near Los Altos, California" but legally it seems to be inside the Palo Alto city limits (looking at Google maps and also several other maps). I note also that Palo Alto had to do an architectural review for a building on Black Mountain https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civicax/filebank/documents/16116 Should this be mentioned in this article? Does anyone have a good textual reference. --Erp (talk) 02:45, 16 July 2017 (UTC)

Wow, you're right, Google Maps does show that. That's sorta shocking. How did Palo Alto pull that off? I always assumed it was unincorporated county land.

Anyway, sure, if you can source it, I think it makes sense to mention it in the article. I don't think I'd change the title, though, as it's not very close to what almost anyone thinks of as Palo Alto. --Trovatore (talk) 04:47, 16 July 2017 (UTC)

It's sorta of shocking to me also. What I gather and this is from sources that aren't as reliable as I would like plus some speculation is first the area of what was to become Foothill Park was sold to Palo Alto in 1958 by Russel Lee, founder of the Palo Alto Medical Clinic, and his wife Dorothy (http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/gov/depts/csd/parks/preserves/foothills.asp). I suspect that land was unincorporated but was incorporated so the the city would have full control over it. A likely date for the annexation is 1959 when it seems at least one and probably several landowners in the area got their land annexed also (annexation would mean Palo Alto would/could be responsible for certain services like fire/police instead of the county); this included the Burns family (https://theland.wikispaces.com/) and probably the Morells who owned the Black Mountain Ranch and had strong connections to Palo Alto. I think I now --Erp (talk) 14:16, 16 July 2017 (UTC)have a good source for Black Mountain being in Palo Alto.

Nice work tracking all that down! --Trovatore (talk) 18:52, 16 July 2017 (UTC)

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