Mill Creek is a 14.5 miles (23.3 km) perennial stream

Stream

A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...

 that flows east from the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range into Mono Lake

Mono Lake

Mono Lake is a large, shallow saline lake in Mono County, California, formed at least 760,000 years ago as a terminal lake in a basin that has no outlet to the ocean...

, in Mono County, California

Mono County, California

Mono County is a county located in the east central portion of the U.S. state of California, to the east of the Sierra Nevada between Yosemite National Park and Nevada. As of the 2010 census, the population was 14,202, up from 12,853 at the 2000 census...

. It courses through Lundy Canyon and Lundy Lake, before passing through Mono City, California

Mono City, California

Mono City is a census-designated place in Mono County, California. It lies north of Mono Lake at the base of the Sierra Nevada mountains at the junction of U.S. Route 395 and California State Route 167, at an elevation of 6768 feet . The ZIP Code is 93541, mail to Mono City should be addressed Lee...

 on its way to Mono Lake.

Watershed

Approximately 81 percent of the annual runoff of Mill Creek in the Mono Basin has been attributed to snowmelt, occurring from April through September, and the remaining 19 percent of the annual streamflow occurs as base flow from October through March.

History

William O. Lundy obtained a timber patent here in 1880. The settlement near the May lundy Mine was first known as Mill Creek. diverted to generate hydroelectric power in the early years of the 20th century. In 1911, the Lundy Project was completed and the dam raised the natural outlet of Lundy Lake 37 feet to an elevation of 7,803 feet so that hydroelectric power could be generated by the Southern Sierra Power Company.

Ecology

It is controversial whether North American beaver (Castor canadensis) were native to Mill Creek and the Mono Basin. Beaver were introduced, or re-introduced, along Mill Creek in the Mono Basin

Mono Basin

The Mono Basin is an endorheic drainage basin located east of Yosemite National Park in California and Nevada. It is bordered to the west by the Sierra Nevada, to the east by the Cowtrack Mountains, to the north by the Bodie Hills, and to the south by the north ridge of the Long Valley...

 by the California Department of Fish and Game

California Department of Fish and Game

The California Department of Fish and Game is a department within the government of California, falling under its parent California Natural Resources Agency. The Department of Fish and Game manages and protects the state's diverse fish, wildlife, plant resources, and native habitats...

 in the 1950s. The population thrives above Lundy Reservoir for nearly the entire length of upper Lundy Canyon and in recent years has been spreading to nearby creeks, including Wilson Creek, DeChambeau Creek, and Lee Vining Creek. That beaver were once native to the eastern slope of the Sierra is supported by the fact that the Washo have a word for beaver, c'imhélhel and the northern Paiute of Walker Lake

Walker Lake (Nevada)

Walker Lake is a natural lake, 50.3 mi² in area, in the Great Basin in western Nevada in the United States. It is 18 mi long and 7 mi wide, located in northwestern Mineral County along the eastern side of the Wassuk Range, approximately 75 mi southeast of Reno...

, Honey Lake

Honey Lake

Honey Lake is an endorheic sink within the Honey Lake Valley located in northeastern California, near the Nevada border. Summer evaporation reduces the lake to a lower level of 12 km² and creates an alkali flat....

 and Pyramid Lake have a word for beaver su-i'-tu-ti-kut'-teh. When Stephen Powers

Stephen Powers

*This article is about the 19th-century journalist and historian of California Indians.Stephen Powers was an American journalist, ethnographer, and historian of Native American tribes in California. He traveled extensively to study and learn about their cultures, and wrote notable accounts of them...

 visited the northern Paiute to collect Indian materials for the Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...

 in preparation for the Centennial Exhibition of 1876

Centennial Exposition

The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. It was officially...

, he reported that the northern Paiute wrapped their hair in strips of beaver fur, made medicine from parts of beaver and that their creation legend included beaver. The presence of beaver dams has also been shown to either increase the number of fish, their size, or both, in a study of brook, rainbow and brown trout in Sagehen Creek, which flows into the Little Truckee River

Little Truckee River

The Little Truckee River is a river that is a tributary to its larger counterpart, the Truckee River, located in Nevada County in eastern California.-Description:...

 at an altitude of 5800 feet (1,767.8 m) and is a stream typical of the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada.

Hiking

The Lundy Canyon trail leads past several cascading waterfalls to Lake Helen, then becomes more moderate in the "20 Lakes Basin". Trails circle toward Saddlebag lake and to he foot of North Peak and Mount Conness on the Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park is a United States National Park spanning eastern portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in east central California, United States. The park covers an area of and reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain chain...

boundary.