Bitterwater Creek (Buena Vista Lake)

Not to be confused with Bitterwater Creek.

Bitterwater Creek Bitter Creek [1]
Bitterwater Creek (Lake Buena Vista)
Etymology	Spanish
Native name	Arroyo de Amargosa (Spanish)
Location
Country	United States
State	California
Region	San Luis Obispo County, Kern County
Physical characteristics
Source	source
• location	just southwest of the southern extreme of the Elkhorn Hills, 6.3 miles southwest of Maricopa, California., San Louis Obispo County
• coordinates	34°59′47″N119°28′51″W / 34.99639°N 119.48083°W / 34.99639; -119.48083 [1]
Mouth	mouth
• location	dissipates in the dry lake bed of Buena Vista Lake, 3.7 miles north of Pentland., Kern County
• coordinates	35°06′50″N119°21′01″W / 35.11389°N 119.35028°W / 35.11389; -119.35028 [1]
• elevation	420 ft (130 m) [1]

Bitterwater Creek, formerly Arroyo de Amargosa (Bitter Creek), is a stream with its source just southwest of the southern extreme of the Elkhorn Hills, just west of and inside the San Luis Obispo County boundary, 6.3 miles southwest of Maricopa, California. The creek flows northwest to dissipate in the dry lake bed of Buena Vista Lake, 3.7 miles north of Pentland, Kern County, California. In years of heavy rainfall it would be a tributary to Buena Vista Lake, which has been dry for many years due to agricultural diversion.

History

Arroyo de Amargosa was a stream that provided a camping and watering place on El Camino Viejo at its "sink" near Maricopa, southwest of Buena Vista Lake, between Arroyo San Emigdio to the southeast and Aguaje de La Brea 20 miles to the northwest near McKittrick, California. ^[2]

References

1. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Bitterwater Creek
2. Mildred Brooke Hoover, Historic spots in California, Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1990, p.123