Sweetwater River (California)

The river rises as an intermittent trickle flowing out of Upper Green Valley, deep in the semi-arid Cuyamaca Mountains near Stonewall Peak. It flows south-southwest, receiving Harper Creek from the left and Stonewall Creek from the right, then coursing through narrow valleys and passing the small town of Descanso. As the river enters the Cleveland National Forest, it cuts through a steep and spectacular rocky gorge and crosses under a high bridge of Interstate 8. Shortly after leaving the national forest, it flows into Loveland Reservoir, formed by Loveland Dam, the first of two major dams along the Sweetwater.{{cite map

|publisher=ACME Mapper

|title=USGS Topo Maps for United States

|cartography=United States Geological Survey

|access-date=2011-01-20

|url=http://mapper.acme.com/}}

Continuing westwards, it receives the North Fork from the right, travels by the community of Rancho San Diego and passes through the Cottonwood Golf Club. The river then enters Sweetwater Reservoir, which is formed by Sweetwater Dam. Below the dam, the Sweetwater flows through Sweetwater Regional Park in a generally suburban area, passing the unincorporated town of Bonita. Bending northwest, the river enters a flood control channel and passes between National City and Chula Vista. California State Route 54 straddles the river, with eastbound lanes to the south and westbound lanes to the north, for a few miles between I-5 and I-805. The tidal portion of the river, which starts roughly here, is called the Sweetwater Marsh. The river empties into San Diego Bay about {{convert|7.5|mi|km}} southeast of downtown San Diego.

File:Sweetwaterriver4.jpg]]

This river drains a long, narrow basin of {{convert|230|mi2|km2}}{{cite web

|url=http://www.sweetwater.org/index.aspx?page=125

|title=Sweetwater River

|publisher=Sweetwater Authority

|access-date=2011-01-21}} in extreme southern California, with its mouth less than {{convert|20|mi|km}} north of the United States-Mexico border. Much of the river's watershed is mountainous, and the highest point is {{convert|5730|ft|m}} above sea level at Stonewall Peak in the Cuyamacas Mountains. A large portion of the drainage lies within the Cleveland National Forest, but few trees are actually supported by the arid climate. The Sweetwater is the largest river flowing into San Diego Bay.{{cite web

|url=http://www.sdbay.sdsu.edu/education/sweetwater.php

|title=The Sweetwater Watershed

|publisher=San Diego State University

|work=San Diego Bay Watersheds

|access-date=2011-01-21}}

Most of the drainage, nearly 64 percent, comprises wilderness or designated parks and open space. However, approximately 30% is urban development and part of the San Diego metro area. Native American reservations also occupy part of the land. The watershed has a human population of over 300,000; mostly residing in the residential cities of Chula Vista, National City, and others such as La Presa, Bonita and Rancho San Diego, all in the less rugged western portion of the basin.

The eastern drainage divide of the Sweetwater watershed lies on the main divide of the Cuyamacas, which also separates streams of the Pacific slope from streams draining to the endorheic basin of the Salton Sea farther to the east. To the north, the Sweetwater basin shares borders with those of the San Diego River and the smaller streams that drain portions of National City and San Diego. On the south, it is bordered by the Otay River and Tijuana River drainages – specifically for the Tijuana, the subwatershed of Cottonwood Creek, the river's main tributary in the U.S.{{cite map

|url=http://ca.water.usgs.gov/sandiego/images/maps/homepage/Plate_1c_pp_size16X22-b.pdf

|title=Coastal Basins of San Diego County, California, and Northern Baja California, Mexico

|publisher=U.S. Geological Survey

|work=California Water Science Center

|cartography=USGS

|access-date=2011-01-21}}

Before reaching San Diego Bay, the river flows into {{convert|316|acre|km2|adj=on}} Sweetwater Marsh, a part of San Diego National Wildlife Refuge. Adjacent to the marsh is the Chula Vista Nature Center hosting nature walks and an aviary with native birds such as burrowing owls, egrets and herons.{{cite web |title=Sweetwater Marsh |publisher=U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service |url=http://www.fws.gov/sandiegorefuges/sweetwater.htm |access-date=2010-07-03}}

In pre-American times, the Sweetwater River was a small but year-round stream, lined on both banks by extensive riparian forests, marshes and floodplains. It is believed that humans first arrived in the San Diego Bay area between 20,000 and 30,000 years ago.{{cite web

|url=http://www.sandiegohistory.org/timeline/timeline.htm

|title=Timeline of San Diego History

|publisher=San Diego History Center

|access-date=2011-02-11}} The Kumeyaay called this river Ah-ha-ooo-mulk, meaning "water sweet". The villages they had included Sekwan and Hamacha on the middle portion of the stream; Amotaretuwe to the north, and Ekwiamak in the headwaters portion.{{cite web

|url=http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/california/dieguenoindianhist.htm

|title=Diegueño Indian Tribe

|publisher=Access Genealogy

|access-date=2011-02-11}}{{cite web

|url=http://www.fourdir.com/diegueno.htm

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011025204508/http://fourdir.com/diegueno.htm

|url-status=usurped

|archive-date=October 25, 2001

|title=Diegueno (Kumeyaay)

|publisher=Four Directions Institute

|date=2007-08-03

|access-date=2011-02-11}}

The first European to arrive in the region was probably Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, who sailed his ship, the San Salvador, into San Diego Bay on September 28, 1542. Cabrillo did not stay in the area for long, but his visit helped Spain lay claim to the area.{{cite web

|url=http://www.sandiegohistory.org/online_resources/cabrillo.html

|title=Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo

|publisher=San Diego History Center

|access-date=2011-02-11}} The Spanish established settlements in the area in the 1760s mainly clustering around Mission San Diego de Alcala, calling the river Agua Dulce. From 1795, the lower part of the watershed was part of the Rancho del Rey (Ranch of the King) under Spain, this land south of the Presidio of San Diego, that later became the Rancho de la Nación. In an attempt to save some of the lands of the San Diego Mission from secularization, their lands in the middle reach of the Sweetwater were given by the mission padres to Apolinaria Lorenzana in 1833. These lands became the Rancho Jamacha and Rancho San Juan de Las Secuas. Later, after passing from the hands of Mexico to the United States, emigrants began arriving in the San Diego area in great numbers, many of them settling along the Sweetwater, establishing irrigated farms. Sweetwater Dam was built in 1888 to provide storage for agricultural and municipal uses.{{cite web

|url=http://www.sweetwater.org/index.aspx?page=126

|title=Sweetwater Reservoir

|publisher=Sweetwater Authority

|access-date=2011-02-11}} By the late 1800s, the stream was described as having "practically no living water, except at its extreme sources and for 10 or 20 miles down from the summit of the range"Mead et al., p. 359 presumably because of the large irrigation diversions.

File:Sweetwater Dam.jpeg, the lowermost dam on the river, in 1917]]

On its journey to the sea, the Sweetwater is interrupted by three dams. The first is Palo Verde Dam, a small rockfill structure about {{convert|2.5|mi|km}} southeast of Alpine, serving mainly for recreation and flood control. Several miles below Palo Verde lies the much larger Loveland Dam (Sweetwater Falls Dam), which forms Loveland Reservoir. Below here, the Sweetwater is free flowing until about {{convert|8|mi|km}} above the mouth, where Sweetwater Dam forms the last and largest, Sweetwater Reservoir.

Loveland and Sweetwater are both operated by the Sweetwater Authority. The former serves mainly for flood control while Sweetwater functions as a reserve water storage facility for the cities downstream, including San Diego, National City and Chula Vista and also as a terminus for piped-in water from the San Diego Aqueduct.

Recently the discovery of a western pond turtle (Actinemys marmorata), an IUCN Red List endangered species, in a tributary of the Sweetwater River near Jamul, California, alerted wildlife officials that the turtle is still extant in the area.{{cite news |title=Pond turtle surprises caretakers at wildlife refuge |author=Karen Kucher |newspaper=San Diego Union-Tribune |date=2010-06-01 |url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jun/01/pond-turtle-surprises-caretakers-at-wildlife/ |access-date=2010-07-03 }} The nearby San Diego National Wildlife Refuge is home to endangered birds such as the least Bell's vireo (Vireo bellii pusillus) and California gnatcatcher (Polioptila californica) and the rare Quino checkerspot (Euphydryas editha quino) butterfly.

It has been controversial whether beaver (Castor canadensis) were native to San Diego County. However, a report on the fauna of the county by Dr. David Hoffman in 1866 stated "Of the animal kingdom we have a fair variety: the grizzly bear, the antelope, the deer, the polecat, the beaver, the wildcat, the otter, the fox, the badger, the hare, the squirrel, and coyotes innumerable."{{cite journal |title=An Early San Diego Physician: David Hoffman |author=Clifford L. Graves |journal=The Journal of San Diego History |date=July 1964 |url=https://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/64july/hoffman.htm |access-date=2010-07-03 }} Indirect evidence of beaver in San Diego County includes a creek named Beaver Hollow which runs 3.25 miles into the Sweetwater River about 6.5 miles southwest of Alpine.{{gnis|269771|Beaver Hollow }}{{cite book |title=Durham's Place Names of San Diego County |author=David L. Durham |page=5 |publisher=Word Dancer Press |date=January 2001 |isbn=978-1-884995-32-3 }}{{cite book |author=Fetzer, Leland |title=San Diego County Place Names A to Z' |publisher=Sunbelt Publications |location=San Diego |year=2005 |page=10 |isbn=978-0-932653-73-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AOVyQyWDyqUC&dq=hollow&pg=PR16 |access-date=2011-11-20 }} Beaver Hollow is named on the USGS Topo Map for Cuyamaca in 1903, which is twenty years before California Department of Fish and Game began beaver re-introductions in California.{{cite web |title=Historical Topo Maps, San Diego County, Map Number 1 |date=December 1903 |url=http://www.muststayawake.com/SDAG/JPG/Cuy-topo300.jpg |access-date=2011-02-08 }}

The upper (above Descanso, California) Sweetwater River and several small tributaries hold wild rainbow trout (Oncorhyncus mykiss) populations, including Cold Springs Creek, Harper Creek, Japacha Creek, Jauquapin Creek, and Stonewall Creek.{{cite web |title=San Diego Trout Streams |publisher=San Diego Trout |url=http://www.sandiegotrout.org/sdstreams.html |access-date=2010-07-03 }}

{{Expand section|date=June 2011}}

In the narrow area west of Sweetwater Reservoir and east of the 125 lay Sweetwater County Park and Sweetwater Regional Park, the latter located just southeast of the former. These parks have trails ranging along the east rim of a canyon, at the bottom of which runs the second San Diego aqueduct. These trails are open to hikers, cyclists and equestrians. There is a footbridge at the northern end running from Quarry Rd to the trails.

The canyon is vegetated by palm trees, cottonwoods, arroyo willows and eucalyptus. Cactuses include desert barrel and teddy-bear cholla.

Closer to the ocean is the Sweetwater Marsh National Wildlife Refuge. The Chula Vista Nature Center is located inside the refuge. The nature center is oriented towards elementary school children. Inside are terrariums and aquariums. Outside are aviaries containing injured birds.

The refuge can only be accessed by bus. At the entrance is a parking lot, where one can wait for the bus to arrive. Inside the reserve there are well-maintained trails leading down to the bay. Commonly seen birds include the great egret, osprey, towhee, mallard, pintail, white-crowned sparrow and dowitcher.

Tributaries of the Sweetwater are listed from mouth to source:

{{col-begin}}

{{col-break}}

• Rice Canyon
• Long Canyon
• Spring Creek (San Diego County)
• Dehesa Creek
• Harbison Canyon
• North Fork Sweetwater River
• Beaver Hollow Creek
• Lawson Creek (San Diego)
• Taylor Creek (California)

{{col-break}}

• Viejas Creek
• Samagatuma Creek
• Descanso Creek
• Juaquapin Creek
• Japacho Creek
• Cold Stream (San Diego)
• Harper Creek
• Stonewall Creek

{{col-end}}

{{Cleanup gallery|date=November 2010}}

Image:Sweetwaterriver1.jpg|Sweetwater Reservoir

Image:Sweetwaterriver2.jpg|Bridge upstream from Sweetwater Reservoir

Image:Sweetwaterriver3.jpg|Boat launch ramp near mouth

Image:Sweetwaterriver4.jpg|Near Second Ave. in National City

Image:Sweetwaterriver5.jpg|Mouth of river

Image:Sweetwaterriver6.jpg|Near State Highway 79

Image:Sweetwaterriver7.jpg|Near Green Valley Campground

Image:PostcardSanDiegoCASweetwaterDam1907.jpg|Sweetwater Dam, about 1907

{{Reflist|33em}}

{{Commons category|Sweetwater River}}

• [http://www.sweetwater.org/default.htm Sweetwater Authority]
• [https://www.fws.gov/refuge/San_Diego_Bay/wildlife_and_habitat/Sweetwater_Marsh_Unit.html Sweetwater Marsh, a unit of the San Diego Bay National Wildlife Refuge]
• [http://www.bartleby.com/69/54/S18054.html Columbia Gazetteer of North America]

{{Southern California major watersheds}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Rivers of San Diego County, California

Category:Cuyamaca Mountains

Category:San Diego Bay watershed

Category:Geography of San Diego

Category:Chula Vista, California

Category:National City, California

Category:Rivers of Southern California