__NOTOC__
Lake Cunningham is an
artificial lake
A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation.
Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...
in Lake Cunningham Park, in
East San Jose, California
East San Jose (abbreviated as ESJ), commonly called The East Side and less commonly as the East Valley, is the eastern region of the city of San Jose, California. The East Side is made up of numerous neighborhoods grouped into two larger distric ...
, near the
Eastridge Mall and
Eastridge Transit Center
The Eastridge Transit Center is a Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) bus terminal located at the Eastridge Mall in the Evergreen District of San Jose, California. The station is located alongside Capitol Expressway near Tully Roa ...
. It is not a geological feature recognized in the
Geographic Names Information System
The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database of name and locative information about more than two million physical and cultural features throughout the United States and its territories, Antarctica, and the associated states of ...
(GNIS). It is located on
Capitol Expressway and stands next to
Reid–Hillview Airport. The Lake Cunningham Skate Park and
Raging Waters
Raging Waters are a chain of four water theme parks in Sacramento, San Dimas, San Jose, California, and Sydney, Australia. The parks are operated by Palace Entertainment and owned by its parent company Parques Reunidos, but they each contain d ...
theme park are also in Lake Cunningham Park.
The Lake Cunningham–Eastridge Mall area was one of Santa Clara Valley's three permanent wetland complexes called "lagunas". The area was called Laguna Socayre (or Secayre) during the initial Euro-American settlement (1769–1850), and was part of the
Rancho Yerba Buena or Rancho Socayre land grant of 1833. Laguna Socayre covered a much larger area than Lake Cunningham Park does now.
Due to intense urbanization in the surrounding hill areas, the storm water that historically exited the canyons and percolated through the gravel below ground was channeled into pipes below the streets to Thompson Creek and Lake Cunningham. This has led to an increase in runoff during the winter storms.
The lake and park are named after James Farnham Cunningham who owned the land before the city acquired it for
flood control
Flood control methods are used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters."Flood Control", MSN Encarta, 2008 (see below: Further reading). Flood relief methods are used to reduce the effects of flood waters or high water level ...
.
Gallery
File:Lake Cunningham 1.JPG
File:Lake Cunningham 2.JPG
File:Lake Cunningham 4.JPG
See also
*
List of lakes in California
There are more than 3,000 named lakes, reservoirs, and dry lakes in the U.S. state of California.
Largest lakes
In terms of area covered, the largest lake in California is the Salton Sea, a lake formed in 1905 which is now saline. It occupie ...
*
List of lakes in the San Francisco Bay Area
References
*
External links
Lake Cunningham Regional Parkat City of San Jose Department of Parks, Recreation & Neighborhood Services
Geography of San Jose, California
Cunningham
Parks in San Jose, California
Buildings and structures in San Jose, California
Cunningham
Cunningham
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