Searsville (c.1854–1891) was a

San Mateo County San Mateo County ( ), officially the County of San Mateo, is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 764,442. Redwood City is the county seat, and the third most populated city following Daly ...

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town located in what is now the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve on Corte Madera Creek and adjacent to Woodside. At Northwest Corner Sandhill Road and Portola Road is a plaque and this location is a

California Historical Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meeting at least one of ...

, since 1950.

History

Charles Brown, a former

whaler A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling: the catching or processing of whales. Terminology The term ''whaler'' is mostly historic. A handful of nations continue with industrial whaling, and one, Japa ...

from San Francisco purchased a portion of the

Rancho Cañada de Raymundo Rancho Cañada de Raymundo was a Mexican land grant in present-day San Mateo County, California given August 4, 1840 to Raimundo (also known as Raymundo), a native of Baja California, who was sent out by the padres of Mission Santa Clara to capture ...

Mexican-era land grant of John Coppinger and settled there with his wife. The newly acquired property was named the Mountain Home Ranch and previously had an adobe house built in 1839 (still located at the intersection of present day Portola Road and La Honda Road) and a sawmill. In 1852 John Smith joined Charles Brown at the Searsville site, and the next year August Eikerenkotter arrived and started a store and hotel. By 1854 John Howell Sears moved to the site, for whom the town was named based on his postal contract. Because of the

Gold Rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New Z ...

, there was a strong demand for lumber in order to quickly build local towns. Searsville was a lumberjack settlement of a hundred or more people and the heart of a robust logging industry. This bustling town had the Eikerenkotter's Hotel, William Lloyd's blacksmith shop, post office, a school, saloons including Cutter’s Saloon, dwellings and a store called the Searsville Exchange. When the sawmills ran out of timber, the town died down. Because of the topography of Searsville being located in a

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

, the town would have never survived long.

Closure of the town

In 1887 the land, including the town, was sold to

Spring Valley Water Works The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) is a public agency of the City and County of San Francisco that provides water, wastewater, and electric power services to the city and an additional 1.9 million customers within three San Franc ...

and they created the Searsville Dam, completed in 1892. There are conflicting stories on if the existing Searsville buildings were all removed before the water filled the dam or not, or if the towns residents were vacated. The water in the dam had an issue with silt and was not drinkable, and starting in 1922 the lake was used as a local swimming hole. For decades local families would swim and boat on the lake, but, in 1975,

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closed the lake to the public when making it part of the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve. There are rumors of the "ghosts of Searsville” from the vanished town, living in the bottom of Searsville Lake.

References

{{SF Bay Area Cities in San Mateo County, California Ghost towns in the San Francisco Bay Area Former settlements in San Mateo County, California

History

Closure of the town

See also

References