Matadero Creek

File:Allardt Map of 1862 Adobe Creek.jpg

Matadero Creek was called Arroyo del Matadero on maps from the 1830s and 1840s, and matadero means slaughtering place in Spanish. On the 1862 Allardt Map of the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad, Matadero Creek is denoted as Crosby's Creek.{{cite map |title=Map of the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad: as located by the directors |author=William J. Lewis |publisher=Britton & Company |location=San Francisco |year=1862 }} In 1853, Elisha Crosby bought a 250-acre parcel of Rancho Santa Rita, really Rancho Rincon de San Francisquito, from the Robles family, and founded Mayfield Farm, but she lost it only 3 years later.{{cite journal |title=The Creeks of Barron Park – Part One in the Barron Park Association Newsletter |author=Douglas Graham |journal=Barron Park Association Newsletter |url=http://www2.bpaonline.org/bp-news/pdfs/Summer08.pdf |access-date=2011-11-13 }} On the March 5, 1863 map "Plat of the Rancho Rincon de San Francisquito", it is denoted as Matadero Creek.{{cite map |title= Plat of the Rancho Rincon de San Francisquito |date=1863-03-05 |author= E. T. Beale |publisher=Surveyor General |url=http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/hb329004cp/?order=2&brand=calisphere |access-date=2012-02-26 }} On the Palo Alto Topo Map of 1899, it was referred to as Madera Creek, a name which suggests its prior value as a source of timber (madera in Spanish).

In 1875 French financier Jean Baptiste Paulin Caperon, better known as Peter Coutts, purchased land in Mayfield and four other parcels around three sides of today's College Terrace – more than a thousand acres extending from today's Page Mill Road to Serra Street and from El Camino Real to the foothills. Coutts named his property Ayrshire Farm. His fanciful {{convert|50 |foot||adj=mid| tall}} brick tower near Matadero Creek likely marked the south corner of his property. Leland Stanford started buying land in the area in 1876 for a horse farm, called the Palo Alto Stock Farm. Stanford bought Ayrshire Farm in 1882.{{cite journal |title=A Brief Human and Natural History of Stanford's Dish Open Space |author=Christy Holloway |journal=Sandstone and Tile |pages=15–20 |date=Spring–Summer 2011 |publisher=Stanford Historical Society |url=http://histsoc.stanford.edu/STbackfiles.shtml |access-date=2012-03-25 }}

Famous author Wallace Stegner lived near Matadero Creek at 13456 South Fork Lane in nearby Los Altos Hills, while a professor at Stanford University. Stegner became one of the town's most prominent residents. In 1962, he co-founded the Committee for Green Foothills, an environmental organization dedicated to preserving and protecting the hills, forests, creeks, wetlands and coastal lands of the San Francisco Peninsula.{{cite web |title=Committee for Green Foothills |url=http://www.GreenFoothills.org/index.shtml |access-date=2012-07-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120707002231/http://www.greenfoothills.org/index.shtml |archive-date=2012-07-07 }} Stegner's famous Wilderness Letter (1960), "helped win passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964," per Utah Gov. Huntsman in 2009.[http://stegner100.com stegner100.com] Stegner Centennial Utah Web site. Retrieved 2-24-09. Full text of letter at The Wilderness Society [http://www.colorado.edu/AmStudies/lewis/west/wilderletter.pdf Web site. Retrieved 2-24-09.] Los Altos Hills named the Stegner Pathway for the author who lived for many years just uphill from that pathway running from Three Forks Lane to Edgerton Road.{{cite web |title=Los Altos Hills History Anthology 1956–2016 |editor=Alexander Atkins |date=2016 |publisher=Town of Los Altos Hills |url=http://www.losaltoshills.ca.gov/DocumentCenter/Home/View/677 |access-date=August 28, 2016 }}

File:Matadero Creek at Hillview Avenue with Great Blue Heron.jpg]]

Matadero Creek's mainstem begins at elevation 640 feet just north of Altamont Road and west of Black Mountain Road in Los Altos Hills. The creek has two significant tributaries, Arastradero Creek and Deer Creek. Arastradero Creek is protected by the Arastradero Preserve.{{cite web |title=Arastradero Preserve |publisher=City of Palo Alto |url=http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civica/filebank/blobdload.asp?BlobID=6049 |access-date=2010-08-21 }} Arastradero Creek begins at elevation 800 feet just south of the terminus of Alexis Drive in Palo Alto, and heads briefly west then north around the Palo Alto Hills Country Club where it is dammed to form small two small water bodies (Sobey Pond and Arastradero Lake), then joins Matadero Creek where Arastradero Road intersects Page Mill Road.{{Gnis|218335|Arastradero Creek}} Deer Creek begins at elevation 680 feet just north of Altamount Road and west of Taafe Road in Los Altos Hills, then flows northerly passing under Interstate 280 at the La Barranca Road underpass, where it turns west and parallels Purissima Road, crosses Arastradero Road and Deer Creek Road, before joining the Matadero Creek mainstem just south of Foothill Expressway and east of Page Mill Road. Deer Creek has also been labelled as Purisima Creek on some maps.{{gnis|253877|Deer Creek}} – The 1961–1969 USGS topo maps label Deer Creek as Purisima Creek, but the 1976 map corrects this; the next creek to the southeast is Purisima Creek, a tributary of Adobe Creek.

The Santa Rita Creek tributary, which drains the faculty housing area of Stanford, was artificially connected to Matadero Creek by the "Stanford Channel".{{cite web |title=Matadero Creek Watershed Map |publisher=Oakland Museum Watershed Maps |url=http://museumca.org/creeks/1450-OMMataderoBig.html |access-date=2010-11-07 }} Historically Santa Rita Creek terminated in the marshlands in historic Mayfield.

The Matadero Creek watershed drains {{convert|14|sqmi|km2|sigfig=2}}, of which {{convert|11|sqmi|km2|sigfig=2}} are mountainous land, and {{convert|3|sqmi|km2|sigfig=2}} are gently sloping valley floor. Downstream of Foothill Expressway Matadero Creek has been greatly modified for flood protection. From Highway 101 to El Camino Real the creek flows through a concrete trapezoidal channel. In 1990, the concrete trapezoidal channel was extended from the CalTrain tracks to El Camino Real. On the historic 1862 Allardt Map Barron Creek was a tributary of Adobe Creek, but on the 1899 Topo Map Barron Creek was tributary to Matadero Creek, although subsequently Barron Creek was connected to Adobe Creek north of U. S. Highway 101. However, during large storm events flow may be diverted to Matadero Creek from Barron Creek via the Barron Diversion Channel.{{cite web |title=Matadero Watershed, Santa Clara Valley Urban Runoff Pollution Prevention Program |url=http://www.scvurppp-w2k.com/ws_matadero.shtml |access-date=Jan 19, 2010 }}

On June 27, 2012, the creek suddenly dropped a foot and went dry below Matadero Avenue whereas it usually flows all summer from Bol Park to El Camino Real at the Creekside Inn. This may be related to the removal of toxic groundwater in the watershed, although it is normally cleaned and then returned to the creek.{{cite news |title=Matadero Creek dry-out puzzles residents |author=Sue Dremann |newspaper=Palo Alto Weekly |date=2012-08-16 |url=http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=26482 |access-date=2012-08-25 }} The creek remains perennial in Bol Park.

File:Three Gray fox in tree (Third behind tree) Matadero Creek Bill Leikam 06-20-2011.jpg es (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), the only tree-climbing canid in the Americas, den and forage for rodents, grasshoppers, and berries near the mouth of Matadero Creek in the Baylands]]

File:Brace for water landing, gear extended.jpg coming in for a water landing in the creek]]

In 2006, gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) were documented near the mouth of Matadero Creek. Populations of gray fox have increased in the South Bay since the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has culled non-native red fox (Vulpes vulpes) because the latter prey on endangered California clapper rail (Rallus longirostris obsoletus).{{cite news |title=Not Just for the Birds – Wildlife Refuge Provides Sanctuary for Gray Fox |author=Brian Popper |newspaper=Tideline |publisher=Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge |date=Summer 2006 |url=http://www.fws.gov/desfbay/Archives/Fox/Pages%20from%20tideline%20summer06-C.pdf |access-date=2011-12-11 }}

Steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) were supported by Matadero Creek historically, and at least as recently as the late 1980s. In 1905 John Otterbein Snyder collected O. mykiss (then called Salmo irideus) in "Madera Creek", today's Matadero Creek.{{cite book |title=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 |volume=30 |author=John Otterbein Snyder, United States Bureau of Fisheries |year=1905 |pages=330–332, 337 |publisher=General Printing Office |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P7tWAAAAMAAJ&q=madera&pg=PA327 |access-date=2011-01-16 }} A California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) field note from 1945 documents a fisherman's sighting of steelhead adults in Matadero Creek two years prior (1942/43 season). According to CDFG, steelhead were caught by local fishermen during 1985, 1986 and 1987 in Mayfield Slough at the confluence of Matadero and Adobe Creeks. At least six steelhead were noted passing the tidal gates at Mayfield Slough in the Palo Alto Flood Basin in April 1987. Also, 1986 CDFG correspondence identifies Matadero Creek as an anadromous steelhead trout stream with winter spawning runs. However, in February 1997, Leidy electrofished Matadero Creek at three sites between Laguna Street and the third downstream bridge crossing on Old Matadero Creek Road and no O. mykiss were found.{{cite web |title=Historical distribution and current status of steelhead/rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in streams of the San Francisco Estuary, California. |author=Leidy, R.A. |author2=G.S. Becker |author3=B.N. Harvey |url=http://www.cemar.org/pdf/santaclara.pdf |publisher=Center for Ecosystem Management and Restoration, Oakland, CA. |year=2005 |access-date=2011-01-16 }}

Regarding whether steelhead trout could have accessed Matadero Creek historically, since it appears to have terminated in an alluvial fan prior to reaching Bay marshlands, Snyder wrote in 1905 about a historical connection that formed when some willows deflected San Francisquito Creek to Matadero Creek, allowing Sacramento suckers (Catostomus occidentalis) to ascend the latter creek, where they had not been seen before despite eight years of monitoring. It is also possible that very high flows would have connected the historical Matadero Creek to the Bay's tidal marshes in flood years. Matadero Creek has been lengthened to connect to Adobe Creek in Mayfield Slough in the Palo Alto Flood Basin.

In June, 1980 local residents spotted a milky substance in the creek that was determined to be wheelchair cleaning solvent dumped into the waters by the Veterans Administration Medical Center. The large population of resident Pacific tree frogs (Pseudacris regilla regilla) near the creek was nearly extirpated. In the 1970s the "nightly tree frog chorus along Matadero Creek was almost deafening in the mating season and loud during all the warmer months", according to Barron Park historian, Douglas Graham. Despite several efforts to re-introduce tree frogs from neighboring Barron Creek and Lake Lagunita, as of 2008 they have only recovered to 5%-10% of their original numbers.{{cite news |title=The Creeks of Barron Park - Part One |author=Douglas Graham |work=Barron Park Association Newsletter |date=Summer 2008 |url=http://www.bpaonline.org/bp-news/pdfs/Summer08.pdf |access-date=2011-11-20 }}

Acterra monitors insects in the creek, which serve as indicator species for the cleanliness and health of the stream.{{cite news |title=Residents monitor Matadero Creek |newspaper=Palo Alto Weekly |author=Sue Dremann |date=2014-05-17 |url=http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2014/05/17/residents-monitor-matadero-creek |access-date=2014-06-27 }}

In 2022 a pair of North American beaver (Castor canadensis) were documented in the mouth of Matadero Creek in the Palo Alto Flood Basin.{{Cite web |last=Dremann |first=Sue |date=2023-08-25 |title=Juvenile beaver makes first appearance in over 160 years in Palo Alto Baylands |url=https://www.rwcpulse.com/top-story/juvenile-beaver-makes-first-appearance-in-over-160-years-in-palo-alto-baylands-7454053 |access-date=2023-08-26 |website=Redwood City Pulse |language=en}} A baby beaver was spotted on a trail camera in 2023.{{Cite web |last=Toohey |first=Grace |date=2023-09-11 |title=Baby beaver sighting brings hopes of comeback for California's little climate superheroes |url=https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-09-11/baby-beaver-sighting-inspires-hope-for-california-comeback |access-date=2023-09-11 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}} These beaver likely descended from beaver translocated to upper Los Gatos Creek at Lexington Reservoir in the 1980s, who subsequently migrated downstream to the Guadalupe River. Upon reaching saltwater, the beaver have used it to recolonize several other south San Francisco Bay tributaries.{{cite news |title=The beaver is back: Pair of the semiaquatic rodents spotted in Palo Alto |author=Sue Dremann |newspaper=Palo Alto Weekly |date=November 4, 2022 |url=https://paloaltoonline.com/news/2022/11/04/the-beaver-is-back-pair-of-the-semiaquatic-rodents-spotted-in-palo-alto |access-date=January 18, 2023}}

File:Jim McCarthy Adobe Creek Streamkeeper 2010.jpg

The Palo Alto Flood Basin was constructed in 1956 in order to prevent a repeat of the floods of 1955, when a high tide prevented the escape of heavy runoff from Matadero, Adobe, and Barron Creeks into the San Francisco Bay. The trapped runoff waters overflowed upstream creek banks and caused severe flooding in Palo Alto. In order to control the flow of water into the flood basin, a tidegate was placed at the confluence of Adobe Creek, Matadero Creek, and the San Francisco Bay, so that the flood basin could be maintained at approximately 2 feet below sea level, creating room to absorb floodwaters. The tidegate consists of several weirs and one operator-controlled sluice gate that enables tidal flows into the basin in order to improve water quality and for mosquito control. Three agencies oversee the tidegates: Santa Clara Valley Water District, City of Palo Alto, and Santa Clara County Vector Control. Because the trash grate and weirs separate the mouth of the flood basin from the San Francisco Bay estuary, large fish cannot swim freely between the Bay and the basin, unless the sluice gate is open. In addition, the tidegates are set to reduce tidal inflows into the basin, so that the basin is mostly freshwater. After a rainstorm the tidegate is kept closed, however this is precisely when steelhead trout in-migrations should occur.{{cite report |title=Research Results Regarding the Fish Die-Off at Palo Alto Flood Control Basin |publisher=City of Palo Alto Public Works Department Environmental Compliance Division |date=November 2002 }}

From November 16 to 20, 2002, approximately 100 striped bass (Morone saxatilis), 5 bat rays (Myliobatis californica) and 2 leopard sharks (Triakis semifasciata) were found dead in the Flood Control Basin in both Adobe and Matadero Creeks within one mile of the tidegate. The fishkill was attributed to the first large rainstorm washing a large amount of leaf litter into the basin, leading to eutrophication and low dissolved oxygen. This is supported by the fact that the dead fish were all large (requiring more oxygen) at 2 to 4 feet long and the mouths and gills of the bass were fully extended open.

File:Wallace Stegner Pathway along Matadero Creek.jpg|The Wallace Stegner Pathway along Matadero Creek in Los Altos Hills, California

File:Deer Creek going under La Barranca Rd.jpg|Deer Creek approaching the culvert at La Barranca Road, Los Altos Hills

File:Concretization of Matadero Creek accelerates flows, causing severe channel incision now threatening Page Mill Road above I280 Jan 2011.jpg|Concretization of Matadero Creek's banks (in back of shot) accelerates stream flows, causing severe channel incision which is now threatening Page Mill Road below the Arastradero Road intersection Jan. 2011

File:Matadero Creek Trail.jpg|View of Interstate 280 from the Matadero Creek Trail, which crosses the hill between Matadero Creek and its Deer Creek tributary

File:Matadero Creek with donkeys from Bol Park.jpg|left|Matadero Creek and the Barron Park donkeys, viewed from the trail through Bol Park

File:Matadero Creek at Cornelis Bol Park in Barron Park, Palo Alto, California.jpg|left|upright 2|Matadero Creek at Cornelis Bol Park in Barron Park, Palo Alto, California

File:Matadero Creek by Caltrain.jpg|After crossing to the north of Lambert Ave in Palo Alto, Matadero Creek makes a turn to the southeast along the Caltrain tracks before crossing under them.

File:Matadero Creek at Ross Road.jpg|Matadero Creek from Ross Road bridge

File:Matadero Creek at W Bayshore Rd.jpg|Matadero Creek at West Bayshore Road, near Highway 101 in Palo Alto, looking south. The concrete channel is very wide by then to carry large flows.

• List of watercourses in the San Francisco Bay Area
• Palo Alto, California
• Rancho Rincon de San Francisquito

{{reflist}}

• {{gnis|228215|Matadero Creek - Geographic Names Information System}}
• [http://museumca.org/creeks/1450-OMMatadero.html Matadero Creek Watershed map hosted by Oakland Museum]
• [http://www.sccreeks.org/ Santa Clara County Creeks Coalition]

{{Santa Cruz Mountains}}

Category:Rivers of Santa Clara County, California

Category:Rivers of Northern California

Category:Tributaries of San Francisco Bay