Islais Creek[pronunciation?] or Islais Creek Channel (previously known as Du Vrees Creek, Islais Channel and Islais Swamp)[7] is a small creek in San Francisco, California. The name of the creek is derived from a SalinanNative American word "slay" or "islay", the name for the Prunus ilicifolia wild cherries. Around the time of the Gold Rush, the area became an industrial hub, and the condition of the creek worsened. After the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the city decided to reclaim the creek using earthquake debris, reducing the waterbody to its present size. Though much of Islais Creek has been converted to an underground culvert, remnants still exist today at both Glen Canyon Park and Third Street. Several community organizations are dedicated to preserve these remnants, as they are important wildlife habitats.
The historic Islais Creek, the largest body of water in the city covering an area of nearly 5,000 acres (7.813sqmi; 20.234km2),[4] had two main branches. One originated near the southern slope of Twin Peaks, slightly north of Portola Drive. It flowed downstream southeastward through the Glen Canyon Park paralleling Bosworth Street and eventually reaching the bottom of the Mission Street viaduct at I-280.[8][9] The other branch began at the intersection of Cayuga Avenue and Regent Street. It flowed generally eastward along Mission Street and reached the I-280 viaduct. Together, as a wider creek, it ran parallel to Alemany Boulevard and I-280[10] and debouched into the Islais Creek estuary, near Industrial Street and Oakdale Avenue.[4][11]Precita Creek, a nearby creek that originated from Noe Valley, also joined Islais Creek at the Cesar Chavez Street and Evans Avenue intersection.[12][13]
From its sources in the Glen Canyon, the entire creek stretched about 3.5 miles (5.6km) to the San Francisco Bay. The mouth was nearly 2 miles (3.2km) wide, providing up to 85% of the drinking water in San Francisco.[9][13] Due to urban development, however, the watershed of Islais Creek has been reduced by roughly 80% from its historical extent.[8] A large number of neighborhoods in San Francisco today, such as Bernal Heights, Hunters Point, Visitacion Valley, parts of the Mission and Potrero Hill, were once covered by the extent of the creek.
In 2007, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which manages the city's water, began investigating the possibility of "daylighting" underground portions of the creek.[14] As of 2009, remnants of the creek remain inside the Glen Canyon Park[8] and a 1-mile (1.6km) channel near Third Street where Islais Creek debouched into the bay.
Upper Islais Creek in Glen Canyon Park, San Francisco
History
A T Third Street light rail train crossing the Islais Creek Bridge, a bascule-type drawbridge that carries 3rd Street over Islais CreekThe creek's copra crane remnant in 2014, with an iron shape hanging in the center, with the word ISLAIS cut into it
The name Los Islais first appeared on Mexican maps in 1834,[15] named for the Islay cherries that grew wildly in the area. By 1850, water from the creek was used by farmers to irrigate crops.[1] The Gold Rush marked the decline of the creek as large numbers of gold rushers swarmed into the city.[1]
A railroad trestle was built over the creek and tidal flats in the 1860s and in a lawsuit that went up to the California Supreme Court called The People of the State of California ex relatione The Board of State Harbor Commissioners VS. The Potrero And Bay View Railroad Company, Islais Creek was declared a non-navigable waterway in 1883.
In 1871, the area along the creek became known as the city's "New Butchertown"[10] when more than 100 slaughterhouses opened. Since then, the condition of the creek deteriorated, literally becoming a dumping place of garbage, sewage, animal waste, and unsold meat products. The condition became so bad that the creek was commonly referred to as "Shit Creek" by San Franciscans, according to historian Karl Kortum.[15][16][17]
After the 1906 earthquake, San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to fill the creek with earthquake debris, reducing the creek to its present size.[13] During World War II, it served as docking areas for large ocean-going tugs. The area also located the largest copra coconut processing plant in the United States West Coast.[4] In fact, the abandoned five-story high copra crane, used to transport large amount of copras from ships to the plant as late as 1974, still remains on the creek bank preserved as a historic landmark.[1][18] In the 1950s, Islais Creek was home to the largest sardinecanning industry in the world.[10] The deteriorated condition of the creek gradually improved after the construction of a water treatment plant in 1970.[1] Today, the majority of the creek is covered and transformed into a culvert with its remnants flowing at Glen Canyon and near the bay.
Many local community organizations were set up to improve the condition of the creek and nearby areas. Friends of Islais Creek, established back in 1984, and David Erickson, a local community figure, were committed to build a waterfront park in Islais Creek. The initial plan for a park was finally launched in 1988 with a $50,000 grant from the State Department of Water Resources as well as community groups in The Bayview. With an additional of $100,000 federal and local grants as well as supports from non-profit organizations and governmental agencies, namely the Sierra Club, San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni), Department of Public Works, Public Utilities Commission, Port of San Francisco, and Caltrans, the park was finished in 1998.[1][19][20] Located adjacent to Pier 80 on the shores of the creek, the Muwekma Ohlone Park or the Muwekma Ohlone Sanctuary is named after the native inhabitants and has since become an important habitat for a wide array of wildlife, including the Pacific Chorus Frog and Mission blue butterfly.[9][13]
On November 19, 2001, construction crews, while preparing to drill an electrical conduit (consisting of six large 115kV electrical cables) across the creek for the Muni MetroT Third Street light rail line, cracked the concrete sewer underground which carries more than 80 million gallons of sewage a day. The incident flooded the creek and its adjacent Muwekma Ohlone Park with sewage. The park had to be excavated to make way for the repairing of the sewer pipe.[19][21] It was estimated that it would take more than $101,660 to repair and $65,000 for wildlife habitat restoration.[19]
The remaining Islais Creek Park is next to Cargo Way and 3rd Street. It is home to a historical information sign, a short trail, public art created from a copra loading crane, and a pier with a dock for small boats.[22]
As of December, 2017, the copra crane is lying on its side and the restoration project on hold due to jurisdiction and cost problems.[23]
Health hazard
Since Islais Creek is a culvert that carries storm water, domestic sewage, and industrial wastewater, it is possible for the sewage to overflow. Such overflow can cause a public health hazard as Islais Creek displays higher level of heavy metals, PCBs, bacteria, as well as organochlorines than other parts of the San Francisco Bay.[24][25]
Transportation
The Third Street Bridge is the major crossing of the creek, carrying T Third Street light rail line and Third Street.[26] It is a bascule-typedrawbridge. The Port of San Francisco extended Illinois Street across Islais Creek in 2006 to relieve traffic for Third Street.[27] This crossing also uses a bascule bridge.
↑ E. G. Gudde (1946). "The Solution of the Islay Problem". California Folklore Quarterly. 5 (3): 298–299. doi:10.2307/1495525. JSTOR1495525. Gudde concludes that the word "islay" originated in a Salinan word slay; Islay was the Spanish version of their word
↑ Source elevation derived from Google Earth search using GNIS source coordinates.
↑ According to the Geographic Names Information System by USGS, other lesser known variant names for Islais Creek or Islais Creek Channel include Arroyo Islais, El Arroyo De Los Yslais, Islar Creek, and Du Urees Creek.
↑ William C. Sharpsteen. "Vanished Waters of Southeastern San Francisco". California Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. XXI, No. 2, June 1941. The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco. Archived from the original on February 15, 2008. Retrieved May 25, 2008.
↑ Creek & Watershed Map of San Francisco (Map). 1: 25,800. Cartography by Oakland Museum of California. M.T. Ramirez-Herrera, J.M. Sowers, C.M. Richard. 2006. Archived from the original on December 4, 2008. Retrieved March 16, 2009.
The Ohlone, formerly known as Costanoans, are a Native American people of the Northern California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the late 18th century, the Ohlone inhabited the area along the coast from San Francisco Bay through Monterey Bay to the lower Salinas Valley. At that time they spoke a variety of related languages. The Ohlone languages make up a sub-family of the Utian language family. Older proposals place Utian within the Penutian language phylum, while newer proposals group it as Yok-Utian.
Bayview–Hunters Point is the San Francisco, California, neighborhood combining the Bayview and Hunters Point neighborhoods in the southeastern corner of the city. The decommissioned Hunters Point Naval Shipyard is located within its boundaries and Candlestick Park, which was demolished in 2015, was on the southern edge. Due to the southeastern location, the two neighborhoods are often merged. Bayview–Hunters Point has been labeled as San Francisco's "Most Isolated Neighborhood".
The East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) is a special district operating in Alameda County and Contra Costa County, California, within the East Bay area of the San Francisco Bay Area. It maintains and operates a system of regional parks which is the largest urban regional park district in the United States. The administrative office is located in Oakland.
The Bay Miwok are a cultural and linguistic group of Miwok, a Native American people in Northern California who live in Contra Costa County. They joined the Franciscan mission system during the early nineteenth century, suffered a devastating population decline, and lost their language as they intermarried with other native California ethnic groups and learned the Spanish language.
Lake Merritt is a lake located in a large tidal lagoon basin in the center of Oakland, California, just east of Downtown. It is named after Samuel Merritt, Oakland's mayor in 1867–1869, who had the lagoon dammed turning the varying tidal lagoon into a stable salt-water lake. It is surrounded by parkland and city neighborhoods. Historically significant as the first official wildlife refuge in the United States, designated in 1870, the lake has been listed as a National Historic Landmark since 1963. The circumference of the lake is 3.4 miles (5.5 km), with an area of 155 acres (63 ha).
Glen Park is a residential neighborhood in San Francisco, California, located south of Twin Peaks and adjacent to Glen Canyon Park.
Glen Canyon Park is a city park in San Francisco, California. It occupies about 70 acres (28 ha) along a deep canyon adjacent to the Glen Park, Diamond Heights, and Miraloma Park neighborhoods. O'Shaughnessy Hollow is a rugged, undeveloped 3.6 acres (1.5 ha) tract of parkland that lies immediately to the west and may be considered an extension of Glen Canyon Park.
San Bruno Mountain is a fault-block horst in northern San Mateo County, California. Rising to a quarter-mile high peak directly out of San Francisco Bay, it also includes a smaller ridge in San Francisco. Viewed from downtown San Francisco, the mountain occupies the southern horizon. It is surrounded as well by the cities of Brisbane, Colma, Daly City, and South San Francisco, and has an important role in the history and life of these communities.
Temescal Creek is one of the principal watercourses in the city of Oakland, California, United States.
India Basin is a neighborhood, named after the body of water, in the southeastern part of San Francisco, California, considered to be part of the larger Bayview–Hunters Point neighborhood.
Dogpatch is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, roughly half industrial and half residential. It was initially a working class neighborhood, but has experienced rapid gentrification since the 1990s. It now has similar demographics to its western neighbor Potrero Hill – an upper middle-class working professional neighborhood.
Alameda Creek is a large perennial stream in the San Francisco Bay Area. The creek runs for 45 miles (72 km) from a lake northeast of Packard Ridge to the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay by way of Niles Canyon and a flood control channel. Along its course, Alameda Creek provides wildlife habitat, water supply, a conduit for flood waters, opportunities for recreation, and a host of aesthetic and environmental values. The creek and three major reservoirs in the watershed are used as water supply by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Alameda County Water District and Zone 7 Water Agency. Within the watershed can be found some of the highest peaks and tallest waterfall in the East Bay, over a dozen regional parks, and notable natural landmarks such as the cascades at Little Yosemite and the wildflower-strewn grasslands and oak savannahs of the Sunol Regional Wilderness.
The Los Gatos Creek runs 24 miles (39 km) in California through Santa Clara Valley Water District's Guadalupe Watershed from the Santa Cruz Mountains northward through the Santa Clara Valley until its confluence with the Guadalupe River in downtown San Jose. The Guadalupe River then continues onward into San Francisco Bay.
The Chochenyo are one of the divisions of the Indigenous Ohlone (Costanoan) people of Northern California. The Chochenyo reside on the east side of the San Francisco Bay, primarily in what is now Alameda County, and also Contra Costa County, from the Berkeley Hills inland to the western Diablo Range.
San Francisco Baykeeper is a nonprofit environmental advocacy organization that uses science and the law to protect, preserve, and enhance the health of the ecosystems and communities that depend upon the San Francisco Bay, the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary, and its watershed. SF Baykeeper is the only organization, governmental or non-profit, that regularly patrols the Bay by boat and drone to document sources of pollution.
Upper Penitencia Creek is actually one of two creeks by the name Penitencia Creek in the northeastern Santa Clara Valley of Santa Clara County, California. They are both tributaries of Coyote Creek. The upper creek was diverted southwestward, connecting it directly to Coyote Creek ca. 1850 by a farmer to irrigate his fields, permanently splitting Upper Penitencia Creek from Lower Penitencia Creek. Upper Penitencia Creek drains the western slopes of Mount Hamilton of the Diablo Range, and passes through Alum Rock Park, before ending at its confluence with Coyote Creek at Berryessa Road. In December 2018, the San Francisco Estuary Institute published a report commissioned by the Santa Clara Valley Water District to establish a vision for Upper Penitencia Creek's lower four miles focusing on ways "to expand flow conveyance and flood water storage from the Coyote Creek confluence upstream to the Dorel Drive bridge in a manner that works with the existing landscape features and supports habitats for native species".
Permanente Creek is a 13.3-mile-long (21.4 km) stream originating on Black Mountain in Santa Clara County, California, United States. Named by early Spanish explorers as Arroyo Permanente or Río Permanente because of its perennial flow, the creek descends the east flank of Black Mountain then courses north through Los Altos and Mountain View, discharging into southwest San Francisco Bay historically at the Mountain View Slough but now virtually entirely diverted via the Permanente Creek Diversion Channel to Stevens Creek and Whisman Slough in San Francisco Bay.
Precita Creek is a small creek in the Bernal Heights and Mission District neighborhoods of San Francisco, California. Its course is mirrored by the current Precita Avenue, which ran along the creek when it was laid out sometime during the early 1850s. The creek gets its name from precita, the Spanish word meaning dam or weir. The stream was buried before the beginning of the 20th century.
Potrero Point is an area in San Francisco, California, east of San Francisco's Potrero Hill neighborhood. Potrero Point was an early San Francisco industrial area. The Point started as small natural land feature that extends into Mission Bay of San Francisco Bay. The Point was enlarged by blasted and cuts on the nearby cliffs. The cut material was removed and used to fill two square miles into the San Francisco bay, making hundreds of acres of flat land. The first factories opened at Potrero Point in the 1860s. Early factories were powder magazine plant, the Pacific Rolling Mill Company and small shipyards. The large Union Iron Works and its shipyards were built at the site, stated in 1849 by Peter Donahue. To power the factories and neighborhood coal and gas-powered electricity works were built, later the site became Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E).
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
