Bear Creek (San Francisquito Creek tributary)

History

The Spanish called the creek Arroyo de la Presa, meaning "creek of the dam", and it was part of the Rancho Cañada de Raymundo land grant. A foreclosure sale in 1861 records, "Arroyo de la Presa, now called by the Americans Bear Gulch...which heads near the summit of the mountains (Sierra Morena)". In 1850, Mexican war veteran James H. Ryder was working for Dr. Robert Orville Tripp’s lumber company, which used oxen to haul the logs to what is now Redwood City, where they were then floated to San Francisco. When two oxen went missing, Ryder went looking for them only to be attacked by a California grizzly bear (Ursus arctos californicus) with two cubs when he stopped for a drink at a creek. Severely mauled, he survived — and the creek became known as Bear Gulch Creek and James Ryder became known as "Grizzly" Ryder.

''Indomitable'' salmon

The large wooden salmon sculpture that sits outside Buck's of Woodside restaurant was carved to commemorate a salmon's remarkable return journey to the Prairie Creek Fish Hatchery where it was born. On 2 December 1964, Superintendent Ken Johnson hatchery near Orick, Humboldt County, California found a 2-year-old marked coho salmon swimming in a tank of newborn fish, exactly where he had been raised two years earlier. To reach the tank, he had to travel from the Pacific Ocean up Redwood Creek, turn into Lost Man Creek, run up a ditch, through a 1.5 ft culvert under Highway 101, through a storm sewer, and up the hatchery waste water through a 4 in drainage pipe, making a 90 degree turn and a 2.5 ft vertical jump inside the pipe. Finally, he rammed through an overhead wire mesh screen, probably by jumping, to get into the rearing pond. The fish was rapidly nicknamed Indomitable by the local press. Looking for how he got into the tank, workers found 72 more marked coho jack salmon of the same age class stuck in the flume or drainage pipe on the way to the hatchling pond. The story of Indomitable received massive press coverage, inspired a book, and continues to be cited as one of the amazing feats of animal migration.{{cite book

After the Prairie Creek Hatchery closed in 1992, the original Davis salmon sculpture was sold by the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors and is currently installed outside Buck's of Woodside, by a minor tributary of Bear Creek called Dry Creek.

Watershed

The Bear Creek mainstem is formed by the confluence of Bear Gulch Creek and West Union Creek near the intersection of Kings Mountain Road and Highway 84 in Woodside, California. The candelabra pattern of the numerous creeks and gulches that culminate in Bear Creek formed due to the motion of the San Andreas Fault. The Bear Creek watershed drains 13 sqmi.

Water diverted from the creek at Woodside Diversion Dam and Lower Bear Gulch Creek Diversion Dam is stored in Bear Gulch Reservoir and provides as much about 20% of Woodside's drinking water, rising to 50% in the winter months, with the balance coming from Hetch Hetchy. It also supplies water to residents of Menlo Park, Atherton, and Portola Valley. The Woodside Diversion Dam was built around 1840 as a grist mill and is located within the 1,200-plus acre California Water Service Company watershed, and there is a second diversion taken from the lower portion of Bear Gulch Creek near Manzanita Road in Woodside.The California Water Service purchased the Bear Gulch Water Co. from the University of California in 1936. Precessor water companies include Arroyo de La Presa (1863), Corte Madera Water Co. (1863-1873), Menlo Park Water Company (1873-1889) and Bear Gulch Water Company (1889-1936).

Ecology

In the Bear Creek sub-basin of the San Francisquito Creek watershed, adult steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) migrate from the Bay to the freshwater streams of mainstem Bear creek, and its West Union, Bear Gulch and Dry Creek tributaries to spawn. They are listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. Steelhead smolt spend the first two years of their lives in freshwater, requiring perennial streams, or at least pools, to survive. The anomalously low gradient of the channel of West Union Creek is also related to the fault and creates high quality steelhead habitat, as do the numerous seeps and springs along the fault. The permanent pools created by these seeps and springs are crucial to the survival of steelhead young.

In a 2001 report thirty four barriers to trout migration were identified within Bear Creek and its West Union Creek, Bear Gulch, Squealer Gulch, and McGarvey Gulch tributaries.

References

References

1. {{cite gnis. 218820. Bear Creek
2. "The National Map".
3. {{cite gnis. 253851. Morena Sierra
4. Robert A. Leidy. (2005). "Historical Distribution and Current Status of Steelhead/Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in Streams of the San Francisco Estuary, California". Center for Ecosystem Management and Restoration.
5. Roscoe D. Wyatt. (1947). "Historical Names and Places in San Mateo County". San Mateo County Title Company.
6. (October 1861). "Sheriff Sale". San Mateo County Gazette News.
7. Erwin G. Gudde. (2004). "California Place Names: The Origin and Etymology of Current Geographical Names". University of California Press.
8. Grizzly Ryder. (2009). "A Woodside Reminiscence". BiblioLife.
9. Linda Hubbard Gulker. (May 7, 2013). "Bear Gulch Reservoir hides in plain sight in Atherton, providing water for local residents". InMenlo.
10. (December 6, 1964). "Salmon's Journey Termed Amazing". The New York Times.
11. (November 2018). "Indomitable Salmon". System 99 Trails.
12. "Indomitable Salmon Memorial "Floyd Davis" Sculpture Carved in Wood".
13. "General Plan 2012: Watersheds and Streams". Town of Woodside.
14. (June 2025). "2010 Urban Water Management Plan Bear Gulch District". California Water Service Company.
15. Jerry J. Smith. (2001). "Adult Steelhead Passage in the Bear Creek Watershed". San Francisquito Creek Watershed Council.
16. "The Creeks that Flow through Woodside". Bear Creek League of Advocates for the Watershed (Bear CLAW).