Carneros Creek (Napa River tributary)

History

A Mexican land grant named Los Carneros, which is Spanish for "sheep", dates to 1836 (Rancho Rincon de los Carneros) in what is now Napa County. Rancho Rincon de los Carneros, extending northeast from Carneros Creek to the Napa River, was granted to Nicolas Higuera around this time. Higuera also received Rancho Entre Napa, contiguous to the north along the creek. Carneros Creek forms the northeast border of the 1841 Mexican land grant Rancho Huichica which includes most of the Carneros region and Huichica Creek which is west of and parallel to Carneros Creek. Rancho Huichica was granted to Jacob P. Leese the first American pioneer to build a house in San Francisco. In the next year, Antonio Ortega, the Administrator of Mission San Francisco Solano, was granted a large rancho from Napa to Yountville. This area, which extended to Carneros Creek, above Higuera's grant, was later granted to Salvador Vallejo.

Watershed

The Carneros Creek official mainstem is 9.8 mi long.

Ecology

Carneros Creek is an anadromous steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) stream. Because these trout spend two years in freshwater before returning to the sea, only the perennial middle reach of the creek hosts trout year-round (between Old Sonoma Road and extending upstream about 4.2 mi where the channel goes dry in summer and fall).

References

References

1. {{gnis. 220626. Carneros Creek
2. U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. [http://viewer.nationalmap.gov/viewer/ The National Map] {{webarchive. link. (2012-03-29 , accessed September 26, 2012)
3. Julia Rubens Beagle. (2010). "Creating an Anticipatory Management Plan for Carneros Creek, Napa CA". University of California, Berkeley.
4. Erwin Gudde. (April 2004). "California Geographic Names".
5. Grossinger, R.. (2004). "Ecological, Geomorphic, and Land Use History of Carneros Creek Watershed: A component of the watershed management plan for the Carneros Creek watershed, Napa County, California. A Technical Report of the Regional Watershed Program, SFEI Contribution 70". San Francisco Estuary Institute.
6. Pearce, S.. (November 2016). "Channel Geomorphology Assessment: A component of the watershed management plan for the Carneros Creek watershed, Napa County, California. A Technical Report of the Regional Watershed Program, SFEI Contribution 67". San Francisco Estuary Institute.
7. Jonathan Koehler. (2003-04-01). "Fish Habitat Assessment".