Saratoga Creek

History

Saratoga Creek was originally called Arroyo Quito and then Campbell Creek after immigrant William Campbell, who operated a sawmill in 1848 in "Campbell's Redwoods" about three miles west of Saratoga, California, and also a stage station in 1852. The town of Campbell was founded by his son, Benjamin Campbell, in 1885. Other names for the creek included Big Moody Creek and San Jon Creek. The Board of Geographic Names officially decided on Saratoga Creek in May, 1954.

Watershed

Saratoga Creek originates on the northeastern slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains along Castle Rock Ridge at an elevation of 2050 ft.

Historically, Saratoga Creek and its San Tomas Aquino Creek tributary, and Calabazas Creek, were tributaries of the Guadalupe River upstream of Alviso. However, by 1876 the Guadalupe River had been moved from the Guadalupe Slough to connect to the more navigable Alviso Slough, making Saratoga Creek a direct tributary to the Guadalupe Slough. The historic watershed can be viewed in the Thompson and West 1876 maps. Thus, today Guadalupe Slough still receives the old tributaries of the Guadalupe River, Saratoga Creek and its San Tomas Aquino sub-tributary, and Calabazas Creek.

Upstream of Santa Clara, major tributaries of Saratoga Creek include Booker, Bonjetti and Congress Springs Creeks. Tributaries of Bonjetti Creek include McElroy Creek, Todd Creek, and Sanborn Creek. Congress Springs Creek was also known as Congress Hall Creek and is named for Congress Springs and the famous Congress Hall resort in Saratoga Springs, New York. California's Congress Hall resort at Congress Springs attracted tourists to the area until it burned down in 1903.

Most of Saratoga Creek contains natural channel with some modifications (e.g., gabion walls) and a few sections of hardened channel.

Ecology

Historically steelhead trout (coastal rainbow trout) (Oncorhyncus mykiss irideus) migrated from San Francisco Bay to spawn in Saratoga Creek and its tributaries. An 1877 report in the Sportsman Gazetteer touted the Congress Springs ("Congress Hall") tributary to San Franciscans for trout fishing. J. O. Snyder reported steelhead trout in Campbell Creek (now Saratoga Creek) in 1905. An impassable barrier at the confluence of San Tomas Aquino and Saratoga Creeks prevents salmonid fish passage to both creeks. However, stream resident rainbow trout are still found in Saratoga Creek.

Recently, three of the originally native fish species have been collected from the creek including California roach (Lavinia symmetricus), Sacramento sucker (Catostomus occidentalis occidentalis) and rainbow trout.

Physical proof of the historic presence of Golden beaver (Castor canadensis) in south San Francisco Bay tributaries is a Castor canadensis subauratus skull in the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History collected by zoologist James Graham Cooper in Santa Clara, California on Dec. 31, 1855. Cooper lived in Mountain View, California from October to December 1855 and collected most of his specimens on Saratoga Creek (then Quito Creek).

The upper portions of the Saratoga Creek watershed are vegetated with broadleaved upland forest, especially mixed evergreen forest, including Coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) and Coast Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii), and chaparral. Common riparian tree species along the upper reaches of Saratoga Creek include White alder (Alnus rhombifolia), Big Leaf maple (Acer macrophyllum), and California bay (Umbellularia californica). Native riparian plant species occurring along the lower portions of Saratoga Creek (from Monroe Street to Lawrence Expressway) include arroyo willow, box elder, Fremont cottonwood, western sycamore, red willow, yellow willow, blue elderberry, coffeeberry, coyote brush, and mule fat. Nonnative weedy species are common.

References

References

1. {{Gnis. 253826. Saratoga Creek
2. {{gnis. 219648. Booker Creek
3. {{gnis. 219641. Bonjetti Creek
4. {{gnis. 221453. Congress Springs Canyon
5. Durham, David L.. (1998). "Durham's Place Names of California's San Francisco Bay Area: Includes Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Contra Costa, Alameda, Solano & Santa Clara counties". Word Dancer Press, Sanger, California.
6. "Guadalupe Slough Watershed". Oakland Museum.
7. (1876). "Historical Atlas of Santa Clara County California". Thompson & West.
8. Durham, David L.. (1998). "Durham's Place Names of California's San Francisco Bay Area: Includes Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Contra Costa, Alameda, Solano & Santa Clara counties". Word Dancer Press, Sanger, California.
9. (2004). "California Place Names: The Origin and Etymology of Current Geographical Names". University of California Press.
10. "San Tomas Aquino Watershed". Santa Clara Valley Urban Runoff Pollution Prevention Program.
11. Charles Hallock. (1877). "The sportsman's gazetteer and general guide". "Forest and stream" publishing Company.
12. John Otterbein Snyder, United States Bureau of Fisheries. (1905). "Notes on the fishes of the streams flowing into San Francisco Bay, California in Report of the Commissioner of Fisheries to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1904". General Printing Office.
13. (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.
14. Watershed Assessment Subgroup, Santa Clara Basin Watershed Management Initiative. (August 2003). "Volume One Unabridged Watershed Characteristics Report, Chapter 7 "Natural Setting"". Santa Clara Valley Urban Runoff Pollution Prevention Program.
15. John Carlos Garza. (March 2008). "Population genetics of Oncorhynchus mykiss in the Santa Clara Valley Region, Final Report to the Santa Clara Valley Water District". Santa Clara Valley Water District.
16. "Castor canadensis subauratus, catalog #USNM 580354". Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
17. Coan, E.. (1982). "James Graham Cooper, Pioneer Western Naturalist". Univ. Press Idaho.