Bell Station (or
Bell's Station) is an
unincorporated areaIn law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality. To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city or town with its own government. Thus, an unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...
located along
State Route 152State Route 152 is a state highway that runs near the latitudinal middle of the U.S. state of California from Watsonville to Route 99 southeast of Merced...
between
Casa de FrutaCasa de Fruta is a large roadside attraction located in Hollister, California, USA in the Pacheco Valley of Northern California, along State Route 152. Casa de Fruta was founded as an orchard by the Bisceglia brothers, who were Italian immigrants, in 1908...
and
Pacheco PassPacheco Pass, elevation , is a mountain pass located in the Diablo Range in southeastern Santa Clara County, California. It is the main road over the hills separating the Santa Clara Valley and the Central Valley....
near the southeast extent of
Santa Clara County, CaliforniaSanta Clara County is a county located at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. As of 2000 it had a population of 1,682,585. The U.S. Census estimate for 2008 was 1,764,499. The county seat is San Jose. The highly urbanized Santa Clara Valley within Santa...
.
A Department of Transportation (Caltrans) maintenance station used to exist in this area. A California Department of Forestry fire station is west of Bell Station along SR152.
The
ZIP CodeThe ZIP code is the system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service . The letters ZIP, a backronym for Zone Improvement Plan, are properly written in capital letters and were chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...
is 95020 and the community is inside
area code 408North American area code 408 is a telephone area code in California that includes Gilroy, Morgan Hill, Saratoga, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Milpitas, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Cupertino, and San Jose. It was created in a 1959 split from area code 415 in a flash-cut with no permissive dialing period...
.
History
The location was originally
Hollenbeck's Station, (possibly after the namesake of the Sunnyvale street of the same name). It was renamed for Lafayette F. Bell who built a saloon at the entrance to a toll road over
Pacheco PassPacheco Pass, elevation , is a mountain pass located in the Diablo Range in southeastern Santa Clara County, California. It is the main road over the hills separating the Santa Clara Valley and the Central Valley....
. Later, Bell bought the road over Pacheco Pass from
Andrew FirebaughFirebaugh is a city in Fresno County, California, United States. The population was 5,743 as of the 2000 census. ZIP Code for the community is 93622 and the city is located inside area code 559. Firebaugh is located on the west side of the San Joaquin River west of Fresno, at an elevation of 151...
and began charging a toll for passage. A Bell's Station Post Office was established by the U.S. Postal Service from 1873-1914.
Some references say the locale was a stop on the
Butterfield Overland MailThe Butterfield Overland Mail Trail, also known as the Oxbow Route, the Butterfield Overland Stage, or the Butterfield Stage, was a stagecoach route in the United States, operating from 1857 to 1861. It was a conduit for the United States mail from two eastern termini, Memphis, Tennessee and St...
stagecoach route. The stagecoach route to San Francisco from the American midwest was known to have stops every ten miles or so along its length.
Geography
Bell Station is an officially-defined geographic feature of type
locale in the National Geographic Names Database. The feature ID number is 218994. The location also appears on the US Geological Survey 7.5-minute quadrangle "Pacheco Peak, California" and the 1921 "Gilroy Hot Springs, California" 15-minute quadrangle.
The US Geological Survey latitude and longitude for the locale is given as . The area is about 350 feet above mean sea level (AMSL).
Sources
External links