Save the frogs. That’s what Stanford biologists were thinking they might do by creating new wetlands for the redlegged frog, a threatened species. While exploring a potential site near Old Page Mill Road (between Junipero Serra Boulevard and Interstate 280), they discovered debris that sent university archaeologist Laura Jones and her staff into both detective and excavation mode. Digging through history connected the location to a long-forgotten jail from the early 1900s, and the first physical investigation suggests
a concrete fortress with walls as
thick as 5 feet.
Jones says it took her months to pinpoint the jail’s origin: Stanford had leased the quarry in that area to the county, which built the jail and put prisoners at hard labor to mine rock for paving roads, including El Camino Real.
“There were also apparently houses nearby for the quarry superintendent and for the guards,” notes Jones. “We haven’t located those yet. But it sets up the possibility of comparing living conditions between the prisoners and the non-prisoners.” The biggest question may be whether prisoners were treated more humanely over time. That, too, may be possible to determine, explains Jones, by reconstructing how they were fed, supervised and sheltered over the more than 20 years the facility was in operation.
