Lexington began as a sawmill built in 1848; Zachariah “Buffalo” Jones called it Jones Mill, and in 1860 John P. Hennings renamed it for his hometown, Lexington, Kentucky. It was the halfway stop for stages between San Jose and Santa Cruz until the 1880 railroad passed it by.
Alma, a mile south, was the railroad stop. The ruins that appear in dry years are Alma’s: in 2008, when the reservoir was drawn down for dam work, foundations, old pavement and a 1926 bridge over Black Creek came back into view.