Lake Cunningham

This article is about the lake in California. For the lake in British Columbia, see Cunningham Lake. For the lake in the Bahamas, see Lake Cunningham (Bahamas).

Lake Cunningham
Lake Cunningham Show map of California Lake Cunningham Show map of the United States
Location	East San Jose, California
Coordinates	37.336615°N 121.808317°W / 37.336615; -121.808317
Type	Retention basin
Basin countries	United States
Water volume	590 acre-feet (730,000 m^3)

Lake Cunningham is an artificial lake in Lake Cunningham Park, in East San Jose, California, near the Eastridge Mall and Eastridge Transit Center. It is not a geological feature recognized in the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). It is located on Capitol Expressway and stands next to Reid–Hillview Airport. The Lake Cunningham Skate Park and Raging Waters 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.^[1]

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.^[2]

The lake and park are named after James Farnham Cunningham who owned the land before the city acquired it for flood control.^[3]

Gallery

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See also

• List of lakes in California
• List of lakes in the San Francisco Bay Area

References

1. Coyote Creek Watershed Historical Ecology Study; Santa Clara Valley Water District 2006
2. Pat Ferraro, former Santa Clara Valley Water District Board of Directors member; 23 years, six terms of service.
3. "People: James F. Cunningham". santacruztrains.com. Retrieved 21 October 2020.

• "Lake Cunningham Regional Park History". Lake Cunningham Park. Archived from the original on 2009-10-28. Retrieved 2009-03-26.

External links

• Lake Cunningham Regional Park at City of San Jose Department of Parks, Recreation & Neighborhood Services