2011-12-27

Laguna Creek




Laguna Creek

Laguna Creek
Lake Creek
River
Country United States
State California
Region San Francisco Peninsula
County San Mateo County
Tributaries
- left South Fork Laguna Creek, Fault Creek, Spring Creek, Adobe Gulch
- right Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct
Landmark Crystal Springs Reservoir
Source
- location Edgewood County Park
- elevation 630 ft (192 m)
- coordinates 37°27′48″N 122°17′10″W / 37.46333°N 122.28611°W
Mouth Confluence with Upper Crystal Springs Reservoir (originally with San Mateo Creek (San Francisco Bay Area))
- elevation 285 ft (87 m)
- coordinates 37°28′57″N 122°19′19″W / 37.4825°N 122.32194°W

Laguna Creek (Spanish for: Lake Creek) is a perennial stream that flows northeasterly 2.6-mile-long (4.2 km) along the San Andreas Fault from Woodside in San Mateo County, California, and after crossing the Phleger Estate and Filoli, enters Upper Crystal Springs Reservoir, where it was a historic tributary to San Mateo Creek. San Mateo Creek then carries its waters over Crystal Springs Dam northeast to San Francisco Bay.

History

After discovering San Francisco Bay from Sweeney Ridge on November 4, 1769, the Portolà expedition descended what Portolà called the Cañada de San Francisco, now known as San Andreas Creek, to its confluence with San Mateo Creek. Just downstream from here was Laguna Creek's confluence with San Mateo Creek. Crossing San Mateo Creek just above its canyon, Portola's party proceeded south along Laguna Creek and camped on a lake called by him Laguna Grande, now covered by Upper Crystal Springs Reservoir. The campsite is marked by California Historical Marker No. 94 "Portola Expedition Camp", located at Crystal Springs Dam, on Skyline Boulevard, 0.1 mi south of Crystal Springs Road. Then Portola continued south and descended from the foothills along San Francisquito Creek to established his base camp at El Palo Alto, in modern day Palo Alto, California. The Laguna Creek and Laguna Grande place names are shown on the 1856 plat maps/diseños of Rancho de las Pulgas and Rancho Cañada de Raymundo and Easton's 1868 map of San Mateo County.

Raimundo, a native of Baja was sent out by the padres of Mission Santa Clara to capture runaway Mission Indians in 1797. On August 4, 1840 he was granted the Rancho Cañada de Raymundo and on the 1856 Rancho Pulgas and 1868 Easton maps, the valley of Laguna Creek was referred to as the Cañada de Raymundo and Laguna Grande became alternatively known as Lake Raymundo.

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. The Spring Valley Water Company named the lakes, the Spring Valley Lakes, after the company. The original Spring Valley was between Mason and Taylor Streets, and Washington and Broadway Streets in San Francisco, where the water company started. When the company went south for more water, the Spring Valley name was carried south too. Laguna Grande was submerged when the Spring Valley Water Company built an earthen dam in 1877 (this was the first Crystal Springs Dam), forming Upper Crystal Springs Reservoir. The old earthen dam became a causeway between Upper and Lower Crystal Springs Reservoirs when the latter was formed by Herman Schussler's concrete Crystal Springs Dam, which dammed up San Mateo Creek to form the lower reservoir in 1888. The causeway is now crossed by Highway 92.

Filoli, the estate of Spring Valley Water Company tycoon William Bourn, is now an historic site. The staff there currently refers to Laguna Creek as "Orchard Creek", and its tributaries on the historic estate as Fault Creek and Spring Creek.

Watershed

Laguna Creek used to be 1.8 miles longer, or 4.4-mile-long (7.1 km) total, before its confluence with San Mateo Creek was submerged by the Lower Crystal Springs Reservoir in 1888. After descending the western slope of Edgewood County Park it is joined on the left (heading downstream) by the South Fork Laguna Creek, then locally named Fault Creek, then Spring Creek, then on the right by the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct and Pulgas Water Temple just before entering Upper Crystal Springs Reservoir. Adobe Gulch is the northernmost of several tributaries (and the only one named by the USGS) that descend the eastern flank of the Santa Cruz Mountains to Upper Crystal Springs Reservoir (and historically, Laguna Creek).

Ecology

Fog drip may play a key role in the precipitation in the upper watershed. On Cahill Ridge (just west of San Mateo Creek and east of Pilarcitos Creek, at an altitude of 1,000 feet, Oberlander measured fog drip beneath 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.

The headwaters of Laguna Creek are just north of Interstate 280 in the Edgewood County Park and Nature Preserve, where the Friends of Edgewood Natural Preserve work to preserve the unique serpentine native grasslands, habitat which is critical to the threatened Bay Checkerspot butterfly (Euphydryas editha bayensis).

See also

References

External links


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