Los Gatos (, ; ) is an incorporated town in

Santa Clara County, California Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring Sa ...

, United States. The population is 33,529 according to the 2020 census. It is located in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area G ...

just southwest of San Jose in the foothills of the

Santa Cruz Mountains The Santa Cruz Mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are a mountain range in central and Northern California, United States. They form a ridge down the San Francisco Peninsula, south of San Francisco. They separate the Pacific Ocean from ...

. Los Gatos is part of

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Cou ...

, with several high technology companies maintaining a presence there. Notably,

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

, the streaming service and content creator, is headquartered in Los Gatos and has developed a large presence in the area.

Etymology

''Los Gatos'' is Spanish for "The Cats". The name derives from the 1839

Alta California Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...

land-grant that encompassed the area, which was called '' La Rinconada de Los Gatos'' ("The Corner of the Cats"), where the ''cats'' refers to the

cougar The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. ...

s (mountain lions) and

bobcat The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the red lynx, is a medium-sized cat native to North America. It ranges from southern Canada through most of the contiguous United States to Oaxaca in Mexico. It is listed as Least Concern on the ...

s that are indigenous to the foothills in which the town is located. The pronunciation is often anglicized to , although one also hears pronunciations truer to the original Spanish, .

History

Overview

The first inhabitants of the area that is now Los Gatos were the

Ohlone The Ohlone, formerly known as Costanoans (from Spanish meaning 'coast dweller'), are a Native American people of the Northern California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the late 18th century, the Ohlone inhabited the ...

Native Americans. At the time the first settlers arrived in the area, it was estimated that approximately 5,000 indigenous people were living in the

Valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams ove ...

, and noted that the relationship between the settlers and natives was very good. The first settlers to enter the Valley proper were two soldiers that had strayed off from their

Missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

group on November 2 1769, and by 1777 between 1500 and 2000 Native Americans were living in the mission compound. The town's founding dates to the mid-1850s with the building of a flour-milling operation, Forbes Mill, by James Alexander Forbes along Los Gatos Creek, then called Jones's Creek. The mill's two-story stone storage annex still stands. The settlement that was established in the 1860s was originally named for the mill, but the name was changed to Los Gatos after the Spanish land grant. The town was incorporated in 1887 and remained an important town for the logging industry in the

until the end of the 19th century. Despite being nearby to logging communities, Los Gatos itself only served as a stopping point for those heading into the mountains. With the creation of the Los Gatos Turnpike road, the town was placed in a strategic position on the journey between San Jose and Santa Cruz, and it became an attractive location to live in. Soon, the town was booming. In 1852 only one

adobe Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for '' mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of ...

home existed in the area, by 1868 Los Gatos held the Mill, a

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, gr ...

shop, a stage depot, a lumber yard, a temporary school house, a hotel, a post office, and several houses. The town began to rapidly gain prominence after the town of

Lexington Lexington may refer to: Places England * Laxton, Nottinghamshire, formerly Lexington Canada * Lexington, a district in Waterloo, Ontario United States * Lexington, Kentucky, the largest city with this name * Lexington, Massachusetts, the oldes ...

lost its importance with the fall of the

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, w ...

industry in the area. In the early 20th century, the town became a thriving agricultural town with

apricot An apricot (, ) is a fruit, or the tree that bears the fruit, of several species in the genus '' Prunus''. Usually, an apricot is from the species '' P. armeniaca'', but the fruits of the other species in ''Prunus'' sect. ''Armeniaca'' are al ...

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus '' Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years a ...

s and

prunes A prune is a dried plum, most commonly from the European plum (''Prunus domestica''). Not all plum species or varieties can be dried into prunes. A prune is the firm-fleshed fruit (plum) of '' Prunus domestica'' varieties that have a high so ...

being grown in the area. By the 1920s, the Los Gatos area had a local reputation as an arts colony, attracting painters, musicians, writers, actors and their bohemian associates as residents over the years. The violinist

Yehudi Menuhin Yehudi or Jehudi (Hebrew: יהודי, endonym for Jew) is a common Hebrew name: * Yehudi Menuhin (1916–1999), violinist and conductor ** Yehudi Menuhin School, a music school in Surrey, England ** Who's Yehoodi?, a catchphrase referring to t ...

lived there as a boy; the actresses Joan Fontaine and

Olivia de Havilland Dame Olivia Mary de Havilland (; July 1, 1916July 26, 2020) was a British-American actress. The major works of her cinematic career spanned from 1935 to 1988. She appeared in 49 feature films and was one of the leading actresses of her time. ...

(sisters) were graduates of Los Gatos High School; John Steinbeck wrote ''

The Grapes of Wrath ''The Grapes of Wrath'' is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. The book won the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and it was cited prominently when Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Priz ...

'' there (the location is now located in

Monte Sereno Monte Sereno (Spanish for "Serene Mountain") is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population was 3,479 at the 2020 census. The city is located in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, about southwest of San Jose ...

); Justin Goodsell, a renowned quantum mechanics spectroscopy scientist, was born in this town, and a prominent Beat hero

Neal Cassady Neal Leon Cassady (February 8, 1926 – February 4, 1968) was a major figure of the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the psychedelic and counterculture movements of the 1960s. He was prominently featured as himself in the "scroll" (first d ...

lived there in the 1950s. Along with much of the

Santa Clara Valley The Santa Clara Valley is a geologic trough in Northern California that extends 90 miles (145 km) south–southeast from San Francisco to Hollister. The longitudinal valley is bordered on the west by the Santa Cruz Mountains and on the east ...

, Los Gatos became a suburban community for San Jose beginning in the 1950s, and the town was mostly built-out by the 1980s.

Architecture

Downtown Los Gatos has retained and restored many of its Victorian-era homes and commercial buildings. Notable buildings are the Forbes Mill annex, dating to 1880 and formerly housing a history museum; Los Gatos High School, which dates from the 1920s; and the Old Town Shopping Center, formerly the University Avenue School (the school was established in 1882; the current buildings date to 1923). The Lyndon Hotel was another location of significance in the town from its establishment in the 1890's until it was razed in 1963.The building was located on the site of a previous hotel. One that had changed hands numerous times over the previous years. But primarily under the ownership of one of the most esteemed Los Gatos business owners at the time. John Weldon Lyndon. A number of brick buildings in downtown Los Gatos were destroyed or seriously damaged in the

1989 Loma Prieta earthquake The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake occurred on California's Central Coast on October 17 at local time. The shock was centered in The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in Santa Cruz County, approximately northeast of Santa Cruz on a section of t ...

, though the district was quickly rebuilt and has made a full recovery.

Rail transportation

Rail transport played a large role in Los Gatos's historical development, but the city, as of 2020, has no regular passenger train service of any sort. The

South Pacific Coast Railroad The South Pacific Coast Railroad (SPC) was a narrow gauge steam railroad running between Santa Cruz, California and Alameda, with a ferry connection in Alameda to San Francisco. The railroad was created as the Santa Clara Valley Railroad, founde ...

, a popular narrow-gauge line from

Alameda An alameda is a street or path lined with trees () and may refer to: Places Canada * Alameda, Saskatchewan, town in Saskatchewan ** Grant Devine Dam, formerly ''Alameda Dam'', a dam and reservoir in southern Saskatchewan Chile * Alameda (Santia ...

(and San Francisco via ferry) to Santa Cruz in the late 19th century, stopped in Los Gatos. Southern Pacific took over this line in 1887. Los Gatos was also near the Southern Pacific resort town of

Holy City A holy city is a city important to the history or faith of a specific religion. Such cities may also contain at least one headquarters complex (often containing a religious edifice, seminary, shrine, residence of the leading cleric of the religi ...

, along the rail line in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The last Southern Pacific passenger train to Santa Cruz left Los Gatos in March 1940. In town, the rail line used to run along the shore of Vasona Reservoir to the present-day location of the Post Office, following the path of what is now a continuous string of parking lots between Santa Cruz Ave. and University Ave. There was also a streetcar-type rail line with service to Saratoga and San Jose. Streetcar service via the Peninsular Railway started about 1905 and ended about 1933. San Francisco commuter trains continued into downtown until 1959, and Vasona Junction until 1964. The site of the old railroad station is now occupied by Town Plaza and the post office. While VTA had originally planned to extend their Green Line to Vasona Junction and bring back passenger rail to the city, the extension was cut short to Winchester due to the high cost of the extension, minimal expected ridership gains, and the difficulty of sharing rail right-of-way to Vasona Junction with Union Pacific freight trains.

Oil boom

USA-Los Gatos-2-8 North Santa Cruz Avenue

Between 1891 and 1929, about 20 oil wells were drilled in and around Los Gatos, starting a minor oil-drilling boom. About 1861, small amounts of oil were discovered in streams, springs, and water wells in the Santa Cruz Mountains in the vicinity of Moody Gulch, about south of the Los Gatos Post Office. An intense search for oil ensued, resulting in the drilling of many wells and establishment of the Moody Gulch oil field. The Moody Gulch oil field, however, never met expectations, and it was abandoned sometime around 1938 after producing a total of about of oil and of gas. In 1891, one of the Moody Gulch drillers, R.C. McPherson, found oil in a well along San Jose Road (now Los Gatos Boulevard) in the Santa Clara Valley flatlands, about northeast of the Los Gatos Post Office. Although commercial production was never established, small amounts of oil were produced for use as fuel, lubricant, and road tar by local residents.

Geography and environment

Los Gatos is located at (37.236044, −121.961768). Los Gatos is bisected by State Route 17, which runs through the town from south to north. Los Gatos theater

State Route 85 roughly marks the northern boundary of the town, although a few pockets of homes to its North are included. Highway 9 (Los Gatos-Saratoga Road) from the coast terminates at Highway 17. Downtown Los Gatos, the area on and around Santa Cruz Avenue and Main Street, is located in the southwest quadrant of town. A left exit on northbound Highway 17 becomes the south end of South Santa Cruz Avenue, leading into downtown. The area around Los Gatos Boulevard, east of Highway 17, is much more typically suburban than downtown, with medium-sized shopping centers clustered at major intersections of the multilane boulevard. Although the town has generally a quiet setting, its principal

noise Noise is unwanted sound considered unpleasant, loud or disruptive to hearing. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrations through a medium, such as air or water. The difference aris ...

generators are State Route 17 and Los Gatos Boulevard. Sound levels within one hundred and fifty feet of Los Gatos Boulevard exceed 60 db CNEL (Community Noise Equivalent Level), a generally unacceptable range for residential living. Vasona Park, a county park, and neighboring Oak Meadow Park, which belongs to the town, are located in what is roughly the geographic middle of the town, bordered on the south by Blossom Hill Road, on the east by Highway 17, on the west by University Avenue, and reaching at the north end not quite all the way to Lark Avenue. Located in the parks is the popular William "Billy" Jones Wildcat Railroad. In Vasona Park is the trail to Prune Ridge. Los Gatos Creek begins in the Santa Cruz Mountains south of the town and runs through the town parallel to Highway 17 all the way through neighboring Campbell and San Jose to the Guadalupe River, which flows into San Francisco Bay. A walking, jogging, and biking trail called the Los Gatos Creek Trail runs alongside much of the creek from Lexington Dam through Vasona Park and Campbell to Meridian Avenue in San Jose. In Los Gatos, the trail passes the 1854 Forbes Mill. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of th ...

, the town has a total area of . of it is land and of it (0.71%) is water. Los Gatos Creek Trail

Los Gatos is surrounded by several

mountain bike A mountain bike (MTB) or mountain bicycle is a bicycle designed for off-road cycling. Mountain bikes share some similarities with other bicycles, but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and performance in rough terrain, which m ...

trails. Cyclists can leave from downtown on a loop through the Santa Cruz Mountains. From downtown, El Sereno mountain stands to the southwest; El Sombroso stands to the southeast. The

El Sereno Open Space Preserve El Sereno Open Space Preserve is a park unit of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District located on the peak and slopes of 2580 ft. El Sereno mountain, a peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The preserve is located in Santa Clara County, ...

and the

Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve is managed by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District in Santa Clara County, California. It is approximately in area. The preserve is named for the Sierra Azul or "Blue Mountains", the name the colonizing Sp ...

open the top and upper flanks of each of these mountains to hiking and cycling. Though the official total area of the town is 11.2 square miles, approximately 100 square miles of the surrounding Los Gatos Mountains (within the Santa Cruz Mountains range) has a Los Gatos address and uses the 95033 ZIP code (primarily) for U.S. Postal Service mail delivery (among other purposes).

Climate

Los Gatos experiences nearly the same temperatures as San Jose, just slightly warmer and with more rain. Los Gatos has a

Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...

like much of California. January's average high is and the low is while July's average high is and low is . Los Gatos has a Zone 10

hardiness zone A hardiness zone is a geographic area defined as having a certain average annual minimum temperature, a factor relevant to the survival of many plants. In some systems other statistics are included in the calculations. The original and most wide ...

. Daytime high temperatures very rarely stay below 50 °F (10 °C). Los Gatos rarely gets a hard

frost Frost is a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor in an above-freezing atmosphere coming in contact with a solid surface whose temperature is below freezing, and resulting in a phase change from water vapor (a g ...

. Los Gatos gets the slight winter chill that is needed to grow

s and have

vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyard ...

s. Types of

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa''. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", disting ...

s that ripen within three months grow well during the summer. The record high temperature was on June 14, 1961, and the record low temperature was on December 22, 1990. There are an average of 27.0 days annually with highs of 90 °F (32 °C) or higher and an average of 5.0 days annually with lows of 32 °F (0 °C) or lower. Rainfall averages 21.2 inches annually and falls on an average of 59 days annually. The wettest year was 1909 with 51.77 inches and the driest year was 2007 with . The most rainfall in one month was 26.56 inches in December 1955 and the most rainfall in 24 hours was 8.48 inches on December 23, 1955. Although snow sometimes falls in the nearby Santa Cruz Mountains, it is very rare in Los Gatos. The most snow on record was 2.0 inches in February 1976. Los Gatos averages 330 sunny days per year.

Economy

The following companies are headquartered in Los Gatos: * BrightSign * Buongiorno *

Cryptic Studios Cryptic Studios is an American video game developer specializing in massively multiplayer online role-playing games. It is headquartered in Los Gatos, California and was a wholly owned Perfect World subsidiary, and is now owned by Embracer Gro ...

* Digital Media Academy * EverSport * Facilitron *

ImageShack ImageShack is a subscription-based image hosting website headquartered at Los Gatos, California. Although ImageShack always had a subscription service, the majority of its revenue was originally produced from advertising related to its free im ...

* Impetus Technologies * Import.io * Kyvos Insights *

* Par Avion Tea * Plex, Inc. * Smashwords * NEON

Top employers

According to the city's 2021 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:

Demographics

;2010 census The

2010 United States Census The United States census of 2010 was the twenty-third United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010. The census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators serving ...

reported that Los Gatos had a population of 29,413. The population density was . The racial makeup of Los Gatos was 24,060 (81.8%)

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...

, 269 (0.9%)

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, 86 (0.3%) Native American, 3,203 (10.9%) Asian, 52 (0.2%)

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/ racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...

, 462 (1.6%) from other races, and 1,281 (4.4%) from two or more races.

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties for ...

or Latino of any race were 2,120 persons (7.2%). The Census reported that 29,063 people (98.8% of the population) lived in households, 92 (0.3%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 258 (0.9%) were institutionalized. There were 12,355 households, out of which 3,775 (30.6%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 6,417 (51.9%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 949 (7.7%) had a female householder with no husband present, 435 (3.5%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 551 (4.5%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 84 (0.7%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 3,695 households (29.9%) were made up of individuals, and 1,464 (11.8%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.35. There were 7,801 families (63.1% of all households); the average family size was 2.96. The population was spread out, with 6,567 people (22.3%) under the age of 18, 1,442 people (4.9%) aged 18 to 24, 6,722 people (22.9%) aged 25 to 44, 9,417 people (32.0%) aged 45 to 64, and 5,265 people (17.9%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 45.0 years. For every 100 females, there were 92.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.0 males. There were 13,050 housing units at an average density of , of which 7,778 (63.0%) were owner-occupied, and 4,577 (37.0%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.0%; the rental vacancy rate was 4.5%. 19,901 people (67.7% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 9,162 people (31.1%) lived in rental housing units. ;2000 census Mission Oaks Hospital 3706

As of the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses inc ...

of 2000, there were 28,592 people, 11,988 households, and 7,300 families residing in the town. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopu ...

was 1,030.8/km (2,669.1/mi²). There were 12,367 housing units at an average density of 445.8/km (1,154.5/mi²). The ethnic makeup of the town was 86.68% Caucasian, 0.79%

, 0.30% Native American, 7.60% Asian, 0.07%

, 1.28% from other races, and 3.27% from two or more races.

or Latino of any race were 5.21% of the population. There were 11,988 households, out of which 27.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.9% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...

living together, 7.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.1% were non-families. 29.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.33 and the average family size was 2.93. In the town the population was spread out, with 21.2% under the age of 18, 4.3% from 18 to 24, 31.5% from 25 to 44, 27.7% from 45 to 64, and 15.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females, there were 90.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.2 males. According to a 2007 estimate, the median income for a household in the town was $126,568, and the median income for a family was $152,940. Males had a median income of $89,420 versus $57,596 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...

for the town was $56,094. About 3.1% of families and 4.3% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 4.4% of those under age 18 and 5.6% of those age 65 or over.

Government

The town is governed by five elected council members with the position of mayor rotating between council members each year. Half the council is elected to a four-year term every two years. There are no term limits for the Town Council. In the

California State Legislature The California State Legislature is a bicameral state legislature consisting of a lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members; and an upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members. Both houses of the Legislatu ...

, Los Gatos is in , and in . In the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

, Los Gatos is in .

Infrastructure

;Transportation The town of Los Gatos is served by the VTA, (Valley Transportation Authority) which also serves the majority of the county of Santa Clara, including San Jose. The two Los Gatos Community Buses run from Santa Cruz and Main to the Winchester Transit Center, the 49 via Los Gatos Boulevard and the 48 via Winchester. For railroad transportation the nearby city of Santa Clara has the closest train station served by

Caltrain Caltrain (reporting mark JPBX) is a California commuter rail line serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley (Silicon Valley). The southern terminus is in San Jose at Tamien station with weekday rush hour service running as fa ...

, and nearby in the city of Campbell provides access to VTA light-rail via the

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

, Downtown Campbell, and

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilto ...

stations. For air travel, the closest international airports are San Jose International Airport (SJC),

San Francisco International Airport San Francisco International Airport is an international airport in an unincorporated area of San Mateo County, south of Downtown San Francisco. It has flights to points throughout North America and is a major gateway to Europe, the Middl ...

(SFO), and

Oakland International Airport Oakland International Airport is an international airport in Oakland, California, United States, 10 miles (16 km) south of downtown located in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned by the Port of Oakland and has domestic passenger ...

(OAK). All these airports are used for air travel by people across the Bay Area.

Education

Primary and secondary schools

Public schools

* Lakeside Joint School District *

Loma Prieta Joint Union Elementary School District Loma Prieta Joint Union Elementary School District is a public school district based in Santa Clara County, California, United States. Residents of this school district are zoned to high schools in the Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High Scho ...

* Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District ** Los Gatos High School * Los Gatos Union School District ** Raymond J. Fisher Middle School ** Daves Avenue Elementary School ** Louise Van Meter Elementary School ** Blossom Hill Elementary School ** Lexington Elementary School *

Union School District In some states in the United States of America (US), a union school district or union high school district is a school district that has been established by the consolidation of "two or more school districts situated in the same county". A Joi ...

** Alta Vista Elementary School *Campbell Union & Campbell High School District

Private schools

*Roman Catholic ** St. Mary's School *Jewish ** Yavneh Day School *Secular ** Hillbrook School ** Mulberry School ** Fusion Academy

Public libraries

The Los Gatos Public Library is operated by the Town of Los Gatos and is not part of the Santa Clara County Library system. The library is located at 100 Villa Ave, Los Gatos, CA in the town Civic Center. Any California resident with proper identification and verification of their mailing address may have borrowing privileges.

Museums

The New Museum (NUMU), formerly called Museums of Los Gatos, offers exhibitions and programs on Los Gatos and San Francisco Bay Area art and history.

Outdoor recreational activities

Los Gatos offers a variety of outdoor activities such as mountain biking, road cycling, trail running, kayaking, hiking. Los Gatos Creek trail is a fun and safe place for the entire family to enjoy all of these activities. Vasona Lake Park is located in the center of the town. Enjoy a nice Saturday afternoon with the family in the park.

Sister cities

Los Gatos has five official sister cities: *

Zhonghe District Zhonghe District (, Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tiong-hô Khu), also spelled Chūwa and Jhonghe, is an inner city district in New Taipei City in northern Taiwan. Geography and climate Zhonghe lies just south-west of Taipei City and shares borders with Banqi ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...

* Liaoyang,

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

* Listowel,

County Kerry County Kerry ( gle, Contae Chiarraí) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and forms part of the province of Munster. It is named after the Ciarraige who lived in part of the present county. The population of the co ...

, Ireland *

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju '' ...

, Estonia * Zihuatanejo, Mexico

Notable past and current residents

Actors

– actress, sister of Joan Fontaine, attended Los Gatos High School * Aaron Eckhart – actor, raised in Los Gatos * Joan Fontaine – actress, sister of

, attended Los Gatos High School *

Jason Jurman Jason Jurman (November 6, 1979 – October 11, 2014) was an American film, television and theater actor. He was best known for his starring role in the 2007 film ''Cougar Club'', opposite Warren Kole, Joe Mantegna, Faye Dunaway, and Carrie Fisher ...

– actor (''

Cougar Club ''Cougar Club'' is a 2007 American comedy film directed by Christopher Duddy. The film details the attempts of two college graduates, Marshall Hogan III and Spence Holmes, to find direction in life. While working as interns for abusive divorce l ...

'')

Artists

* Kari Byron – sculptor and television personality on

MythBusters ''MythBusters'' is a science entertainment television program, developed by Peter Rees and produced by Australia's Beyond Television Productions. The series premiered on the Discovery Channel on January 23, 2003. It was broadcast internation ...

* Marshall Merritt – impressionist painter * Gordon Smedt – pop art painter

Athletes and coaches

Nick Bawden Nick may refer to: * Nick (given name) * A cricket term for a slight deviation of the ball off the edge of the bat * British slang for being arrested * British slang for a police station * British slang for stealing * Short for nickname Places ...

– NFL player with

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at For ...

, attended Los Gatos High School *

Kiko Alonso Kristian "Kiko" Alonso (born August 14, 1990) is a former American football linebacker. He was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft. After a stellar rookie season with the Bills, Alonso missed his second season ...

– NFL player with

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team p ...

, attended Los Gatos High School * Jared Allen – former NFL defensive end, attended Los Gatos High School *

A. J. Allmendinger Anthony James "A. J." Allmendinger (born December 16, 1981) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 16 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Kaulig Racing. Allmendinger's professio ...

– race car driver, born in Los Gatos * Rob Blake – former

Los Angeles Kings The Los Angeles Kings are a professional ice hockey team based in Los Angeles. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference and was founded on June 5, 1967, after Jack Kent ...

player * Jeff Blauser – former

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The Braves were founded in ...

shortstop, born in Los Gatos * Brent Burns –

San Jose Sharks The San Jose Sharks are a professional ice hockey team based in San Jose, California. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference, and are owned by San Jose Sports & Entertain ...

player, resident * Joe Cannon –

San Jose Earthquakes The San Jose Earthquakes are an American professional soccer team based in San Jose, California. The Earthquakes compete as a member club of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). Originally as the San Jose Clash, the franchise ...

player *

Hal Chase Harold Homer Chase (February 13, 1883 – May 18, 1947), nicknamed "Prince Hal", was an American professional baseball first baseman and manager in Major League Baseball, widely viewed as the best fielder at his position. During his career, he pl ...

– early 20th Century baseball star, born in Los Gatos *

Megan Cooke Megan Cooke Carcagno (born May 5, 1980 in Los Gatos, California) is an American rower. She was a gold medalist at the 2006 World Rowing Cup and a gold medalist at the 2006 FISA World Rowing Championships, assisting in setting a world best time ...

– silver medalist rower, born in Los Gatos * Vincent Damphousse –

player, resident *

Trent Edwards Trent Addison Edwards (born October 30, 1983) is a former American football quarterback. He played college football at Stanford and was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the third round of the 2007 NFL Draft. As a rookie, Edwards took over the st ...

– former NFL quarterback, born in Los Gatos * Peggy Fleming –

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

gold medalist

figure skater Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic disciplines are me ...

* Dany Heatley – former

player * Jason Hinkin – pole vaulter, 5-time All-American * Tim Hunter – former NHL forward, assistant coach,

* Joe Kapp – NFL quarterback *

Steven Kwan Steven Kwan (born September 5, 1997) is an American professional baseball outfielder for the Cleveland Guardians of Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2022. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Kwan played three year ...

- MLB player for the

Cleveland Guardians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive ...

Andy Levitre Andrew Steven Levitre ( ; born May 15, 1986) is a former American football offensive guard. He was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the second round, 51st overall in the 2009 NFL Draft, and has also played for the Tennessee Titans and Atlanta F ...

– NFL offensive lineman * Roger Maltbie – PGA Tour golfer and TV analyst * Patrick Marleau –

player * Steve Mariucci – NFL and NCAA coach, resident *

Ryan Nyquist Ryan Nyquist (born March 6, 1979) is an American professional BMX rider with 16 X-Games medals, 39 X-Games competition starts and 60 Dew Tour finals appearances (most all-time). Nyquist is considered one of the greatest and diversely skilled B ...

– bicycle moto-cross rider * Elliana Pogrebinsky – figure skater * Mike Ricci –

player, resident *

Jeremy Roenick Jeremy Shaffer Roenick ( ; born January 17, 1970) is an American former professional ice hockey player who played the majority of his career in the National Hockey League (NHL). He was drafted 8th overall in the 1988 NHL Entry Draft by the Chi ...

– former

player * Kyle Shanahan - NFL Head Coach * Derek Smith – former

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's Nationa ...

linebacker *

Joe Thornton Joseph Eric Thornton (born July 2, 1979) is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre who is currently an unrestricted free agent. He has previously played for the Boston Bruins, San Jose Sharks, Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers of the ...

–

player * Christine Von Saltza, winner of three gold medals and one silver for Swimming at

1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics ( it, Giochi Olimpici estivi del 1960), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad ( it, Giochi della XVII Olimpiade) and commonly known as Rome 1960 ( it, Roma 1960), were an international multi-sport event held ...

attended Los Gatos High School * Charlie Wedemeyer – football coach * Doug Wilson – general manager,

* Kevin Youkilis – Major League Baseball player * Russell Mark Tanner – Volleyball player * John Ellis – PGA Tour Golfer and Professional Caddie

Business

* Jeff George –

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedin ...

program director and engineer *

Jim Goetz Jim Goetz is an American venture capitalist and entrepreneur who is a partner with Sequoia Capital. Goetz is known for his focus on mobile and enterprise startups, including successful investments in AdMob, WhatsApp, Chartboost and GitHub. ...

– investor in

WhatsApp WhatsApp (also called WhatsApp Messenger) is an internationally available freeware, cross-platform, centralized instant messaging (IM) and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by American company Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook). It allows use ...

* Charles Walton – inventor of RFID, founder of Proximity Devices, Inc *

Steve Wozniak Stephen Gary Wozniak (; born August 11, 1950), also known by his nickname "Woz", is an American electronics engineer, computer programmer, philanthropist, inventor, and entrepreneur, technology entrepreneur. In 1976, with business partner Steve ...

–

Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...

co-founder *

Chuck Robbins Charles H. Robbins (born 1965/1966) is an American businessman, and the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Cisco Systems. Early life Robbins was born in Grayson, Georgia, and educated at Rocky Mount High School in Rocky Mount, North C ...

–

Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...

CEO

Musicians

* Dredg – band formed in Los Gatos *

Casey Hensley Casey Hensley is an American female blues, swing, and rock and roll singer, songwriter and record producer. To date, Hensley has released two albums including her 2017 debut issue, ''Live''. The ''Los Angeles Times'' described Hensley as a "risi ...

– blues, swing, and rock and roll singer, songwriter and record producer, born in Los Gatos *

– violinist * Trapt – band formed in Los Gatos * Bassnectar – electronic music producer, DJ, and indirect cult leader from Los Gatos

Writers and journalists

– author and iconic figure in Beat Movement of 1950s and 1960s *

Victor Koman Victor Koman (born August 9, 1954) is an American science fiction and fantasy writer and agorist. A three-time winner of the Prometheus Award, Koman is mainly popular in the libertarian community. He is the owner of the publishing house KoPubCo. H ...

–

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

writer and publisher *

Ross Macdonald Ross Macdonald was the main pseudonym used by the American-Canadian writer of crime fiction Kenneth Millar (; December 13, 1915 – July 11, 1983). He is best known for his series of hardboiled novels set in Southern California and featur ...

– novelist, born in Los Gatos *

Rudy Rucker Rudolf von Bitter Rucker (; born March 22, 1946) is an American mathematician, computer scientist, science fiction author, and one of the founders of the cyberpunk literary movement. The author of both fiction and non-fiction, he is best known ...

– author * Josh Shipp – TV host, journalist and author *

John Steinbeck John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. (; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer and the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature winner "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social ...

– author, resident for several years * Charles Erskine Scott Wood – author, civil libertarian, soldier, and attorney * Sandy Hill – author, socialite, and second American woman to complete the

Seven Summits The Seven Summits are the highest mountains of each of the seven traditional continents. Climbing to the summit of all of them is regarded as a mountaineering challenge, first achieved on 30 April 1985 by Richard Bass. Climbing the Seven Summits ...

Politicians

Other

Rollo Beck Rollo Howard Beck (26 August 1870 – 22 November 1950) was an American ornithologist, bird collector for museums, and explorer. Beck's petrel and three taxa of reptiles are named after him, including a subspecies of Galápagos tortoise, ''Chelo ...

, ornithologist, was born in Los Gatos in 1870 * Mark Bingham and Todd Beamer – passengers of United Airlines Flight 93 on

9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerci ...

, believed to have stormed the cockpit after its hijacking * Eric Drew – activist and consumer advocate * Dan Jinks – American Film and Television Producer, Oscar Winner for American Beauty *

David Kinch David Kinch (born April 4, 1961) is an American chef and restauranteur. He owns and operates Manresa, a restaurant in Los Gatos, California, which was awarded three Michelin stars in 2016. Kinch's California cuisine has strong French, Catalan ...

– chef and restaurateur, owner of three Michelin star-rated

Manresa Manresa () is the capital of the Comarca of Bages, located in the geographical centre of Catalonia, Spain, and crossed by the river Cardener. It is an industrial area with textile, metallurgical, and glass industries. The houses of Manresa ...

in Los Gatos *

Charles A. Lockwood Charles Andrews Lockwood (May 6, 1890 – June 6, 1967) was a vice-admiral and flag officer of the United States Navy. He is known in submarine history as the commander of Submarine Force Pacific Fleet during World War II. He devised tactics ...

–

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Commander Submarine Force Pacific Fleet * Richard Thacker Morris – chairman of

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...

department of

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

Kenny Ortega Kenneth John Ortega (born April 18, 1950) is an American filmmaker, touring manager, and choreographer. He is known for directing the films ''Newsies'', '' Hocus Pocus'', ''The Cheetah Girls 2'', '' High School Musical'', '' Michael Jackson's T ...

– director, choreographer *

Steve Poizner Stephen Leo Poizner (born January 4, 1957) is an American businessman, technology entrepreneur, and former Republican California Insurance Commissioner and Gubernatorial candidate. Poizner also was an independent candidate in the 2018 Califo ...

– State Insurance Commissioner of California, candidate for Governor * Blessed Miguel Pro – Mexican Jesuit priest and martyr, studied in Los Gatos after fleeing persecution in Mexico. *

Tucker Reed Aisling Tucker Moore-Reed (born October 15, 1989), known by her pen name Tucker Reed, is an American novelist and disgraced civil rights activist who has been found liable for defamation and who was convicted of manslaughter in May 2020. Reed c ...

– Feminist author and convicted killer