San Antonio Creek (Marin County, California)

Last updated
San Antonio Creek
Arroyo de San Antonio [1]
Etymology Spanish
Location
Country United States
State California
Region Marin and Sonoma counties
Physical characteristics
Source 
  location7 mi (11 km) southwest of Petaluma, California
  coordinates 38°10′54″N122°44′36″W / 38.18167°N 122.74333°W / 38.18167; -122.74333 [2]
  elevation790 ft (240 m)
Mouth Petaluma River
  location
west of Lakeville
  coordinates
38°9′30″N122°32′39″W / 38.15833°N 122.54417°W / 38.15833; -122.54417 [2]
  elevation
0 ft (0 m) [2]
Length17.5 mi (28.2 km) [2]

San Antonio Creek is a northward then eastward-flowing stream in the California, United States, counties of Marin and Sonoma that forms part of the boundary between those counties. It empties into the tidal portion of the Petaluma River.

Contents

History

Two permanent Coast Miwok villages were located on San Antonio Creek: Meleya (southwest of Petaluma, California) and Amayelle. [3]

San Antonio Creek is one of many California places named by the early Spanish colonists after Saint Anthony of Padua, a patron of the Franciscan Order. The creek traverses the Rancho Laguna de San Antonio land grant, dated May 6, 1839 and November 25, 1845, given by Governor Pío Pico to Bartolomé Bojorquez in 1845. [4]

Course

San Antonio Creek springs from the southwest flank of Antonio Mountain [5] in Marin County. Historically, a natural laguna or shallow lake existed at the headwaters of San Antonio Creek, different from the Laguna de San Antonio, which exists to the west at the headwaters of Chileno Creek. The San Antonio Creek headwaters laguna was drained for agricultural purposes sometime between 1860 and 1885. [6] From the headwaters the creek runs north 2 mi (3.2 km) into Chileno Valley. Turning east-southeast, it begins to define the county line. It passes under Chileno Valley Road and Point Reyes-Petaluma Road, then parallels San Antonio Road eastward to U.S. 101. It crosses under U.S. 101 where it was diverted around 1930 to the Schultz Slough and the Petaluma River. This diversion is 5.2 miles (8.4 km) upstream from its historical connection to the San Antonio Slough just west of Hog Island in the wetlands south of Petaluma, California. The diversion upstream lowered the creek's gradient, contributing to aggradation of sediments in the lower reaches. [6]

Ecology

San Antonio Creek was historically perennial in its lower reaches and perhaps for most of its length. [6] Up until the mid-1900s, steelhead trout were fairly common in the watershed. Although steelhead were seen in 2000, they appear to be extinct from the watershed. California roach and threespine stickleback, which commonly co-exist with steelhead, are still found. [7]

The largest striped bass ((Morone saxatilis)) ever landed with tackle and line was caught in 1912 by Charles R. Bond in San Antonio Creek, weighing 87 lb 8 oz (39.7 kg) and 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) long, according to a photograph in the Marin Rod and Gun Club. A newspaper article in 1909 mentions Charles Bond as catching a 55-pound (25 kg) striper in the "San Antone Slough". [8]

Bridges

The U.S. 101 bridges are each two lanes wide and 120 ft (37 m) long. The northbound bridge was built in 1929 and reconstructed in 1979. The southbound bridge was built in 1947. There is also a bridge at San Antonio Road 0.6 mi (1.0 km) north of U.S. 101; built in 1917, it is a concrete tee beam 101 ft (31 m) long. Marshall Petaluma Road crosses the creek on a 25 ft (8 m) concrete tee beam built in 1929. Point Reyes Petaluma Road crosses on a 102 ft (31 m) concrete continuous slab built in 1964. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coast Miwok</span> Tribe of Native American people

Coast Miwok are Indigenous people of California that were the second-largest tribe of the Miwok people. Coast Miwok inhabited the general area of modern Marin County and southern Sonoma County in Northern California, from the Golden Gate north to Duncans Point and eastward to Sonoma Creek. Coast Miwok included the Bodega Bay Miwok, or Olamentko (Olamentke), from authenticated Miwok villages around Bodega Bay, the Marin Miwok, or Hookooeko (Huukuiko), and Southern Sonoma Miwok, or Lekahtewutko (Lekatuit). While they did not have an overarching name for themselves, the Coast Miwok word for people, Micha-ko, was suggested by A. L. Kroeber as a possible endonym, keeping with a common practice among tribal groups and the ethnographers studying them in the early 20th Century and with the term Miwok itself, which is the Central Sierra Miwok word for people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stevens Creek (California)</span> Creek in Santa Clara County, California

Stevens Creek is a 20.9-mile-long (33.6 km) stream in Santa Clara County, California. The creek originates in the Santa Cruz Mountains on the western flank of Black Mountain in the Monte Bello Open Space Preserve near the terminus of Page Mill Road at Skyline Boulevard. It flows southeasterly through the Stevens Creek County Park before turning northeast into Stevens Creek Reservoir. It then continues north for 12.5 miles (20.1 km) through Cupertino, Los Altos, Sunnyvale and Mountain View before emptying into the San Francisco Bay at the Whisman Slough, near Google's main campus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Petaluma River</span> River in California, United States

The Petaluma River is a river in the California counties of Sonoma and Marin that becomes a tidal slough for most of its length. The headwaters are in the area southwest of Cotati. The flow is generally southward through Petaluma's old town, where the waterway becomes navigable, and then flows another 10 mi (16 km) through tidal marshes before emptying into the northwest corner of San Pablo Bay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Copeland Creek (California)</span> River in California, United States

Copeland Creek is a 9.0-mile-long (14.5 km) perennial stream that rises on Sonoma Mountain in Sonoma County, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Americano Creek</span> Stream in California

Americano Creek is a 7.5-mile (12 km) long westward-flowing stream in the California counties of Sonoma and Marin. It flows into the Estero Americano, a 9.2 mi (15 km) long estuary, and thence to the Pacific Ocean. This article covers both watercourses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Redwood Creek (Marin County)</span> River in California, United States

Redwood Creek is a mostly perennial stream in Marin County, California. 4.7 miles (7.6 km) long, it drains a 7-square-mile (18 km2) watershed which includes the Muir Woods National Monument, and reaches the Pacific Ocean north of the Golden Gate at Muir Beach.

Tolay Creek is a 12.5-mile-long (20.1 km) southward-flowing stream in southern Sonoma County, California, United States, which flows through Tolay Lake and ends in north San Pablo Bay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark West Creek</span> Stream in the state of California

Mark West Creek is a 29.9-mile-long (48.1 km) stream that rises in the Mayacamas Mountains of Sonoma County, California, United States. Tributaries of Mark West Creek include Porter Creek and Hummingbird Creek, both of which originate in the same mountain range. Discharge waters of Mark West Creek reach the Russian River after a confluence with the Laguna de Santa Rosa. The Community Clean Water Institute has developed a program for monitoring pollutants in Mark West Creek.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicasio Creek</span> River in California, United States

Nicasio Creek is an 11.9-mile-long (19.2 km) stream in Marin County, California, United States and is the primary tributary of Lagunitas Creek, which flows, in turn, into Tomales Bay, and the Pacific Ocean. The Nicasio Reservoir, formed in 1961 by Seeger Dam, is located on this stream.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stemple Creek</span> Stream in Sonoma and Marin Counties, CA

Stemple Creek is a 16 mi (26 km) long, westward-flowing stream in the California counties of Sonoma and Marin, which feeds into the Estero de San Antonio. Its waters ultimately reach Bodega Bay, part of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary on the Pacific Ocean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Estero de San Antonio</span> River in California, United States

Estero de San Antonio is a stream in the northern California counties of Marin and Sonoma which empties into Bodega Bay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adobe Creek (Sonoma County, California)</span> River in California, United States

Adobe Creek is a southward-flowing stream in Sonoma County, California, United States, which flows past the historic Rancho Petaluma Adobe on the creek's 7.5-mile (12.1 km) course to its confluence with the Petaluma River. It has also been called Casa Grande Creek.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lichau Creek</span> River in California, United States

Lichau Creek is an 8.9-mile-long (14.3 km) southwest-flowing stream in Sonoma County, California, United States, which flows through the town of Penngrove and discharges into the Petaluma River.

Walker Creek is a northwest-flowing stream in western Marin County, California, United States. It originates at the confluence of Salmon Creek and Arroyo Sausal, and empties into Tomales Bay south of Dillon Beach, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Novato Creek</span> River in California, United States

Novato Creek is a stream in eastern Marin County, California, United States. It originates in highlands between Red Hill and Mount Burdell above the city of Novato, California, and flows 17 miles (27 km) before emptying into San Pablo Bay south of Petaluma Point.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miller Creek (Marin County, California)</span> River in California, United States

Miller Creek is a 7.6-mile-long (12.2 km) stream in eastern Marin County, California, United States. It originates on Big Rock Ridge and empties into San Pablo Bay east of Marinwood. A middle school called Miller Creek Middle School was named after the creek and is home to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lynch Creek</span> River in California, United States

Lynch Creek is a 7.1-mile-long (11.4 km) stream in Sonoma County, California, United States which discharges into the Petaluma River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laguna Lake (California)</span> Lake in the state of California, United States

Laguna Lake is a shallow natural lake at the head of the Chileno Valley. It retains some water year round. The 200 acres (81 ha) lake is 0.5 miles (1 km) wide and 2 miles (3 km) long, straddling the Sonoma-Marin county line in northern California, United States. It is the source of Chileno Creek which flows 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) west to Walker Creek.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adobe Creek (Santa Clara County)</span> Stream in Santa Clara County, California

Adobe Creek, historically San Antonio Creek, is a 14.2-mile-long (22.9 km) northward-flowing stream originating on Black Mountain in the Santa Cruz Mountains. It courses through the cities of Los Altos Hills, Los Altos, and Palo Alto on its way to the Palo Alto Flood Basin and thence to southwestern San Francisco Bay in Santa Clara County, California, United States. Historically, Adobe Creek was a perennial stream and hosted runs of steelhead trout entering from the Bay, but these salmonids are now blocked by numerous flood control structures, including a tidal gate at the creek's mouth and a long concretized rectangular channel culminating in an impassable drop structure at El Camino Real. The co-founders of Adobe Systems both lived on Adobe Creek.

Chileno Creek is a stream in western Marin County, California, United States. It originates west of Petaluma, California at 220-acre Laguna Lake which straddles Marin and Sonoma Counties, from which it flows west 6.25 kilometres (3.88 mi) before joining Walker Creek, a tributary of Tomales Bay.

References

  1. Hoover, Mildred B.; et al. (1966). Historic Spots in California. 3rd edition. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. p. 176.
  2. 1 2 3 4 U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: San Antonio Creek
  3. "Access Genealogy: Miwok Indian Tribe". 9 July 2011.
  4. Erwin G. Gudde; William Bright (1998). 1500 California Place Names: Their Origin and Meaning. University of California Press. p. 330. ISBN   978-0-520-92054-5.
  5. "Antonio Mountain". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  6. 1 2 3 Collins, L., P. Amato and D. Morton (2000). Application of The SFEI Watershed Science Approach To San Antonio Creek Sonoma and Marin Counties CA (PDF) (Report). San Francisco Estuary Institute. Retrieved 2015-08-09.{{cite report}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. "San Antonio Creek Watershed". Marin County Department of Public Works. Retrieved 2015-08-09.
  8. Frank O'Donnell (December 26, 1909). "Huge Striped Bass Brought to Gaff". San Francisco Call. Vol. 107, no. 6. San Francisco, California. Retrieved 2015-08-09.
  9. "National Bridge Inventory Database".