San Mateo Creek (San Francisco Bay Area)

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Coordinates: 37°34′30″N 122°18′17″W / 37.57500°N 122.30472°W / 37.57500; -122.30472
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with San Mateo Creek (Southern California).
San Mateo Creek
Arroyo De San Mateo,
Arroyo De San Matheo
Saint Matthew
Location
CountryUnited States
StateCalifornia
RegionSan Francisco Peninsula
CountySan Mateo County
CitiesHillsborough, San Mateo
Physical characteristics
Source 
 • coordinates37°35′35″N 122°26′59″W / 37.59306°N 122.44972°W / 37.59306; -122.44972
 • elevation1,000 ft (300 m)
Mouth 
 • coordinates
37°34′30″N 122°18′17″W / 37.57500°N 122.30472°W / 37.57500; -122.30472
 • elevation
7 ft (2.1 m)
Length12 mi (19 km)
Discharge 
 • locationSan Francisco Bay
Basin features
Tributaries 
 • leftSan Andreas Creek
 • rightLaguna Creek, Polhemus Creek

San Mateo Creek (Spanish for: St. Matthew Creek) is a perennial stream whose watershed includes Crystal Springs Reservoir, for which it is the only natural outlet after passing Crystal Springs Dam.

History

Early survey of San Mateo Creek in 1856

After discovering San Francisco Bay from

Portolà called the Cañada de San Francisco, now San Andreas Creek (or possibly San Mateo Creek). "Laguna Grande" is where the party camped (now covered by the Upper Crystal Springs Reservoir). The Laguna Grande place name is also shown on the 1840s diseño del Rancho Cañada de Raymundo[2] and an 1856 plat.[3] The campsite is marked by California Historical Marker No. 94 "Portola Expedition Camp".[4] They camped here a second time on November 12, on their return trip.[5]

San Andreas fault
(misspelled) when the fault was discovered to be the creator of the valley.

In 1776, the expedition led by Captain Juan Bautista de Anza, rather than stay on the coast as Portola had done, followed an inland route from Monterey, California established by Pedro Fages in 1770. De Anza descended the Santa Clara Valley to San Francisco Bay and followed its western shoreline up the peninsula to San Francisco. The de Anza party selected the sites for Mission San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores) and the Presidio of San Francisco. De Anza picked up Portola's trail at San Francisquito Creek, following the Cañada de San Andrés north from there. On the return to Monterey, the party camped on the banks of San Mateo Creek on March 29, 1776.

de Anza Expedition's 1776 camp site, CHL no. 47 at Arroyo Court

In de Anza's diary on March 29, 1776, he wrote: "Night having fallen, at a quarter past six I went down to the arroyo of San Andreas and to another, that of San Matheo, where it descends to empty into the estuary. There I found in our camp nearly all the men of the village, very friendly, content, and joyful, putting themselves out to serve us in every way, a circumstance which I have noted in all the natives seen from the 26th up to now, but one which I had not experienced theretofore since leaving the people of the Colorado River."[7]

It is likely that de Anza had met the Ssalson tribe of Ohlone people. The records of the Mission San Francisco de Asís indicate that the Ssalson had three villages along San Mateo Creek and San Andreas Creek named Altagmu, Aleitac, and Uturbe. By 1794, the members of the tribe had moved to the mission.[8]

Shortly thereafter, the rest of the de Anza party – families, soldiers, and priests on their way to help establish the presidio and mission – also camped here for three days, June 24–27, 1776. A plaque labelled "California State Historical Landmark No. 47 Anza Expedition Camp" is located at Arroyo Court, one block west on West 3rd Avenue, San Mateo.[9]

Watershed

San Mateo Creek's source elevation is at almost 1,000 feet on Sweeney Ridge from which it flows southeasterly (in a valley east of Cahill Ridge and west of Sawyer Ridge) for 11.2 km (7 mi) before entering the northwest arm of

Sierra Nevada. The two Crystal Springs lakes and San Andreas Lake used to be known as Spring Valley Lakes for the Spring Valley Water Company which owned them. Lower Crystal Springs Reservoir now covers the town of Crystal Springs which grew up around a resort of the same name.[6]

From the

watercourse lies entirely within San Mateo County and flows generally eastward to discharge into San Francisco Bay
.

Ecology

A high-pressure natural gas main crosses the creek just below the Crystal Springs Dam.
The Ryder Park pedestrian bridge is the last crossing of San Mateo Creek before it flows into the Bay.

San Mateo Creek once hosted

steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) from the creek.[15] Historical records indicate that Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) occurred in at least two San Francisco Bay Area watersheds, San Mateo Creek in San Mateo County and San Leandro Creek in Alameda County.[15]

tanoak (Lithocarpus densiflorus), coast redwood and three Douglas fir trees, the latter 125 feet tall. He found that the trees most exposed produced the most precipitation and in five weeks of measurement (July 20-August 28, 1951) fog drip below the tanoak produced 59 inches of precipitation, more than the total annual precipitation on nearby grasslands and chaparral. The Douglas fir produced 7-17 inches of fog drip and appeared to provide unique conditions supporting the orchids giant helleborine (Epipactis gigantea) and phantom orchid (Cephalanthera austiniae), since these plants were found exclusively in these moist ridge tops.[16]

The upper reach of the lower watershed of San Mateo Creek below Crystal Springs Dam consists of open space and sparsely developed residential areas of the cities of Hillsborough and San Mateo, California. This upper reach consists of closed canopy

rare plants in the upper catchment basin.[17]

The middle reach consists of increasingly dense single family and multifamily residential land use along with some adjacent school, park and commercial uses. In the lower phase of the middle reach, San Mateo Creek is fully culverted through downtown San Mateo. In the lowest reach San Mateo Creek becomes tidal and discharges to San Francisco Bay between Ryder Park and Seal Point Park.

The creek mouth area contains

California clapper rail. San Mateo Creek was federally designated in 2002 as a section 303 impaired watershed for the substance diazinon;[18] however, diazinon has been banned for golf course use by the U.S. Government. There is one golf course that provides surface runoff
to San Mateo Creek in the city of San Mateo, and Crystal Springs Golf Course that drains to the Crystal Springs Reservoir.

Watercourse gallery

See also

References

  1. ^ a b U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: San Mateo Creek
  2. ^ "Diseño del Rancho Cañada de Raymundo". Calisphere, University of California. Retrieved 2011-10-09.
  3. ^ Erwin Gustav Gudde (1974). California Place Names. University of California Press. p. C-261. Retrieved 2011-10-09.
  4. ^ "California Historical Landmarks". California State Parks Office of Historic Preservation. Retrieved 2011-10-09.
  5. ^ "California Historical Landmarks". California Office of Historic Preservation. Retrieved 2010-07-13.
  6. ^
    ISBN 978-1-884995-14-9
    . Retrieved 2010-07-13.
  7. ^ de Anza; Juan Bautista (1776). Diary of Juan Bautista de Anza October 23, 1775 – June 1, 1776. University of Oregon Web de Anza pages. Retrieved 2010-07-13.
  8. ISBN 0-87919-132-5
  9. ^ "California Historical Landmarks". California Office of Historic Preservation. Retrieved 2010-07-13.
  10. ISBN 978-1-884995-14-9
    . Retrieved 2010-07-13.
  11. ISBN 978-0-89863-056-5
    .
  12. ISBN 978-0-87417-319-2
    . Retrieved 2011-10-11.
  13. ^ Robert A. Leidy; Gordon Becker; Brett N. Harvey (2005). "Historical Status of Coho Salmon in Streams of the Urbanized San Francisco Estuary, California" (PDF). California Fish and Game: 219–254. Retrieved 2011-09-19.
  14. ^ "Oncorhynchus kisutch". Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. Retrieved 2010-10-28.
  15. ^ a b Robert A. Leidy (April 2007). Ecology, Assemblage Structure, Distribution, and Status of Fishes in Streams Tributary to the San Francisco Estuary, California (Report). San Francisco Estuary Institute. Retrieved 2010-10-21.
  16. JSTOR 1933081
    .
  17. ^ Environmental Impact Report for the Hillsborough Highlands Estates, Earth Metrics Report 7803 (Report). California State Clearinghouse. November 1989.
  18. ^ Federal impairment profile for San Mateo Creek (PDF) (Report). June 2006. Retrieved 2010-07-11.
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External links

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