Monte Bello Ridge
| Black Mountain | |
|---|---|
View of the Santa Cruz Mountains from the summit of Black Mountain on a cloudy day
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| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 2,812 ft (857 m) NAVD 88 |
| Coordinates | 37°19′08″N 122°08′51″W / 37.318788108°N 122.147496339°WCoordinates: 37°19′08″N 122°08′51″W / 37.318788108°N 122.147496339°W |
| Geography | |
| Location |
Santa Clara County, California United States |
| Parent range | Santa Cruz Mountains |
| Topo map | USGS Mindego Hill |
Black Mountain is a summit on Monte Bello Ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains of west Santa Clara County, California, south of Los Altos and Los Altos Hills, and west of Cupertino; it is within the Palo Alto city limits though not near the developed part of the city. 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. Early Spanish explorers commonly named tree- or chaparral-covered summits which look black in the distance Loma Prieta, from the Spanish (loma-hill, prieta-dark). The Spanish also called the middle portion of the Santa Cruz Mountains the Sierra Morena meaning (morena-brunette, sierra-mountain range), extending from Half Moon Bay Road (California State Route 92) south to a gap at Lexington Reservoir, and which includes a summit called Sierra Morena. There are over 100 "" in California.
After extensive logging operations in the nineteenth century, Italian farmers and winemakers settled on the flanks of Montebello Ridge. Dairies in the Santa Cruz Mountains supplied much of the milk for San Francisco and the Peninsula. There was a large dairy near what is now the Montebello Open Space Preserve's main parking area on Page Mill Road, and cattle freely grazed the slopes of Black Mountain. Ranch buildings dotted the landscape.
Oseo Perrone, a physician and immigrant from Mattarana, La Spezia Province, Italy, came to San Francisco in 1881, became interested in viticulture and purchased a large ranch at 2,600 feet (790 m) on Black Mountain in 1885 where he, and then his nephew of the same name, began production of Montebello Winery (now Ridge Vineyards) wine in 1892.
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Wikipedia