San Bruno Creek
Encyclopedia
San Bruno Creek is an intermittent stream that rises on the eastern slopes of the Northern Santa Cruz Mountains
in San Mateo County, California
, USA. The headwaters descend a relatively steep canyon east of Skyline Boulevard in a tortuous course. Comparison of topographic maps from 1896 and 1939 illustrates the extreme modification in the lower reaches due to urban development from the rapidly expanding population
. The San Bruno Creek watershed was originally settled by a tribe of the Ohlone
, and later this locale was part of the Spanish missions' landholdings.
A hiking trail winds along San Bruno Creek representing an important link in the San Francisco Bay
Trail; in fact, this link is needed to make up for lack of access along a large bay front area occupied exclusively by San Francisco International Airport
; thus, the Bay Trail must detour a full two miles inland from the bay to meet the San Bruno Creek Trail.
, who are imputed to have lived there as early as 2000 BC. One Buriburi campsite has been identified along San Bruno Creek, which may have had a population of 15 to 25 people. This watershed
was first explored by Europe
ans in 1769 by a Spanish expedition led by Gaspar de Portola
. Later, more extensive explorations by Bruno Hecate resulted in the naming of San Bruno Creek after St. Bruno of Cologne, the founder of a medieval monastic order
. This creek later gave its name to the community.
With the establishment of the San Francisco de Asis
(St. Francis of Assisi) mission, much of the catchment basin became pasture
for grazing
mission livestock
. Following the decline of the missions, the San Bruno Creek watershed became part of Rancho Buri Buri
granted to José de la Cruz Sánchez
, the eleventh Alcalde (mayor) of San Francisco. Dairy farms later became common in much of the area.
One of the earliest maps showing San Bruno Creek appeared in 1893, prepared by Andrew Cowper Lawson, professor of geology at the University of California, Berkeley
.
At that time San Bruno Creek was drawn as sharing headwaters with another creek which drained away from the bay into what is now called Crystal Springs Reservoir
. Later development of the reservoir
by the city of San Francisco and lower reach urbanization by the city of San Bruno
modified greatly the upper and lower reaches of the watercourse
.
in the middle to upper basin varies between about 70 to 150 feet (21 to 46 m), and flows generally eastward toward the Bay. This wooded upper reach watershed consists of a mixed oak woodland with coast live oak, Quercus agrifolia, as a dominant species. Other larger plants are the California Bay Laurel and the understory species Toyon
. The understory also includes the following wildflower
s: evening primrose (Renothera ovata), wild radish (Raphanus
satira), wild cucumber (Marah fabaceus), scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius
), miners lettuce (Montia perfoliata), fillaree (Erodium
cicutarium), vetch (Vicia
americana), sweet clover (Melilotus indius), lupine (Lupinus sp.), and California poppy (Eschscholzia californica).
Santa Cruz Mountains
The Santa Cruz Mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are a mountain range in central California, United States. They form a ridge along the San Francisco Peninsula, south of San Francisco, separating the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco Bay and the Santa Clara Valley, and continuing south,...
in San Mateo County, California
San Mateo County, California
San Mateo County is a county located in the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. It covers most of the San Francisco Peninsula just south of San Francisco, and north of Santa Clara County. San Francisco International Airport is located at the northern end of the county, and...
, USA. The headwaters descend a relatively steep canyon east of Skyline Boulevard in a tortuous course. Comparison of topographic maps from 1896 and 1939 illustrates the extreme modification in the lower reaches due to urban development from the rapidly expanding population
Overpopulation
Overpopulation is a condition where an organism's numbers exceed the carrying capacity of its habitat. The term often refers to the relationship between the human population and its environment, the Earth...
. The San Bruno Creek watershed was originally settled by a tribe of the Ohlone
Ohlone
The Ohlone people, also known as the Costanoan, are a Native American people of the central California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the late 18th century, the Ohlone inhabited the area along the coast from San Francisco Bay through Monterey Bay to the lower Salinas Valley...
, and later this locale was part of the Spanish missions' landholdings.
A hiking trail winds along San Bruno Creek representing an important link in the San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
Trail; in fact, this link is needed to make up for lack of access along a large bay front area occupied exclusively by San Francisco International Airport
San Francisco International Airport
San Francisco International Airport is a major international airport located south of downtown San Francisco, California, United States, near the cities of Millbrae and San Bruno in unincorporated San Mateo County. It is often referred to as SFO...
; thus, the Bay Trail must detour a full two miles inland from the bay to meet the San Bruno Creek Trail.
History
Prehistorically the banks of San Bruno Creek were settled by the Buriburi tribe of the OhloneOhlone
The Ohlone people, also known as the Costanoan, are a Native American people of the central California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the late 18th century, the Ohlone inhabited the area along the coast from San Francisco Bay through Monterey Bay to the lower Salinas Valley...
, who are imputed to have lived there as early as 2000 BC. One Buriburi campsite has been identified along San Bruno Creek, which may have had a population of 15 to 25 people. This watershed
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
was first explored by Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
ans in 1769 by a Spanish expedition led by Gaspar de Portola
Gaspar de Portolà
Gaspar de Portolà i Rovira was a soldier, governor of Baja and Alta California , explorer and founder of San Diego and Monterey. He was born in Os de Balaguer, province of Lleida, in Catalonia, Spain, of Catalan nobility. Don Gaspar served as a soldier in the Spanish army in Italy and Portugal...
. Later, more extensive explorations by Bruno Hecate resulted in the naming of San Bruno Creek after St. Bruno of Cologne, the founder of a medieval monastic order
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
. This creek later gave its name to the community.
With the establishment of the San Francisco de Asis
San Francisco de Asís
San Francisco de Asis is a town within the municipality of the Atotonilco El Alto located in the southeastern part of the state of Jalisco in Mexico. It is named after the Italian Saint Francis of Assisi. At the time of the census of 2005 the town had a population of 5,167 inhabitants...
(St. Francis of Assisi) mission, much of the catchment basin became pasture
Pasture
Pasture is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep or swine. The vegetation of tended pasture, forage, consists mainly of grasses, with an interspersion of legumes and other forbs...
for grazing
Grazing
Grazing generally describes a type of feeding, in which a herbivore feeds on plants , and also on other multicellular autotrophs...
mission livestock
Livestock
Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...
. Following the decline of the missions, the San Bruno Creek watershed became part of Rancho Buri Buri
Rancho Buri Buri
Rancho Buri Buri was a Mexican land grant in present day San Mateo County, California given in 1835 by Governor José Castro to José Antonio Sánchez. The name derives from the Urebure village of the Ramaytush speaking Yelamu tribe of Ohlone people who were settled by the banks of San Bruno Creek...
granted to José de la Cruz Sánchez
José de la Cruz Sánchez
José de la Cruz Sánchez was the eleventh Alcalde of San Francisco in 1845.-Life:José de la Cruz Sánchez was the eldest son of José Antonio Sánchez grantee of Rancho Buri Buri in present day San Mateo. José de la Cruz married Josefa Ramona Eduarda Mercado y Sal and they had eight children...
, the eleventh Alcalde (mayor) of San Francisco. Dairy farms later became common in much of the area.
One of the earliest maps showing San Bruno Creek appeared in 1893, prepared by Andrew Cowper Lawson, professor of geology at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
.
At that time San Bruno Creek was drawn as sharing headwaters with another creek which drained away from the bay into what is now called Crystal Springs Reservoir
Crystal Springs Reservoir
Crystal Springs Reservoir is a pair of artificial lakes located in the northern Santa Cruz Mountains of San Mateo County, California situated in the rift valley created by the San Andreas Fault just to the west of the cities of San Mateo and Hillsborough, and I-280...
. Later development of the reservoir
Reservoir
A reservoir , artificial lake or dam is used to store water.Reservoirs may be created in river valleys by the construction of a dam or may be built by excavation in the ground or by conventional construction techniques such as brickwork or cast concrete.The term reservoir may also be used to...
by the city of San Francisco and lower reach urbanization by the city of San Bruno
San Bruno, California
San Bruno is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States. The population was 41,114 at the 2010 census.The city is adjacent to San Francisco International Airport and Golden Gate National Cemetery.-Geography:San Bruno is located at...
modified greatly the upper and lower reaches of the watercourse
Watercourse
A watercourse is any flowing body of water. These include rivers, streams, anabranches, and so forth.-See also:* physical geography* Environmental flow* Waterway* Hydrology* Wadi-External links:...
.
Upper reach
The upper one half mile (800 m) of San Bruno Creek is the most rugged and natural reach as the stream winds through steep canyons of about 45 degrees in slope. The underlying geological formation of this upper catchment basin is Pleistocene Colma Formation, which continues eastward in the basin under most of the San Francisco Bay Flood Plain. Principal flows of the creek are within the winter months of November to March, the only season of meaningful rainfall in the Bay Area. GroundwaterGroundwater
Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock...
in the middle to upper basin varies between about 70 to 150 feet (21 to 46 m), and flows generally eastward toward the Bay. This wooded upper reach watershed consists of a mixed oak woodland with coast live oak, Quercus agrifolia, as a dominant species. Other larger plants are the California Bay Laurel and the understory species Toyon
Toyon
Heteromeles arbutifolia , and commonly known as Toyon, is a common perennial shrub native to California down to Baja California....
. The understory also includes the following wildflower
Wildflower
A wildflower is a flower that grows wild, meaning it was not intentionally seeded or planted. Yet "wildflower" meadows of a few mixed species are sold in seed packets. The term "wildflower" has been made vague by commercial seedsmen who are interested in selling more flowers or seeds more...
s: evening primrose (Renothera ovata), wild radish (Raphanus
Raphanus
Raphanus is a genus within the flowering plant family Brassicaceae. Two or three species are currently classified in Raphanus. They include the cultivated radish, Raphanus sativus and the common wild radish or jointed charlock, R. raphanistrum. Some authors accept the podding or rattail radish, R...
satira), wild cucumber (Marah fabaceus), scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius
Cytisus scoparius
Cytisus scoparius, the Common Broom and Scotch Broom, syn. Sarothamnus scoparius, is a perennial leguminous shrub native to western and central Europe,....
), miners lettuce (Montia perfoliata), fillaree (Erodium
Erodium
Erodium is a genus of the botanical family Geraniaceae. The genus includes about 60 species, for the most part originating in the Mediterranean or Western Asian regions...
cicutarium), vetch (Vicia
Vicia
Vicia is a genus of about 140 species of flowering plants commonly known as vetches. It is in the legume family . Member species are native to Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Africa. Some other genera of their subfamily Faboideae also have names containing "vetch", for example the...
americana), sweet clover (Melilotus indius), lupine (Lupinus sp.), and California poppy (Eschscholzia californica).
See also
- Colma CreekColma CreekColma Creek is a small creek that flows toward the San Francisco Bay from near San Bruno Mountain. The source starts north of the Guadalupe Parkway. It flows down southwest and makes a 90 degree bend to flow southeastward. The creek loses elevation as it flows through the cities of Daly City and...
- The Shops at TanforanThe Shops at TanforanThe Shops at Tanforan is a redeveloped, regional shopping mall in San Bruno, California. It is located in the Peninsula of the San Francisco Bay Area, 10 miles south of San Francisco. It is served by the adjacent San Bruno Bay Area Rapid Transit station, as well as several local SamTrans bus...
- List of watercourses in the San Francisco Bay Area