Los Gatos Creek formerly known as Arroyo Pasajero or Arroyo Poso de Chane, is a creek in

Fresno County, California Fresno County (), officially the County of Fresno, is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 1,008,654. The county seat is Fresno, the fifth-most populous city in Cali ...

. Its source is in the north end of Garcia Canyon in the

Diablo Range The Diablo Range is a mountain range in the California Coast Ranges subdivision of the Pacific Coast Ranges in northern California, United States. It stretches from the eastern San Francisco Bay area at its northern end to the Salinas Valley are ...

near Benito Pass. From there it runs through Los Gatos Canyon, in the eastern foothills of the Diablo Range, then passes across Pleasant Valley, north of

Coalinga Coalinga ( or ) is a city in Fresno County and the western San Joaquin Valley, in central California about 80 miles (128 km) southeast of Salinas. It was formerly known as ''Coaling Station A'', ''Coalingo'', and ''Coalinga Station''. The ...

, where Warthan Creek joins it east of the town. Then it flows eastward to its confluence with

Jacalitos Creek Jacalitos Creek formerly known as Arroyo de Jacelitos (Creek of Little Huts), is a creek in Fresno County, California. Its source is 0.96 km (0.6 mi) north of Andrews Peak, in the Diablo Range. From there it runs east then northeast be ...

, before it passes to the north of the Guijarral Hills, into the

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven c ...

, where it is joined by

Zapato Chino Creek Zapato Chino Creek formerly known both as Arroyo de Las Polvarduras (Creek of the Dust Clouds) and Arroyo de Zapata Chino (Chinese Shoe Creek), is a creek in Fresno County, California. Its source is in Zapato Chino Canyon on the east slope of ...

. Some 19th-century maps show Los Gatos Creek and others on the west side of the

reaching the

North Fork Kings River distributary North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

after it turned south toward

Tulare Lake Tulare Lake () (Spanish: ''Laguna de Tache'', Yokuts: ''Pah-áh-su'') is a freshwater dry lake with residual wetlands and marshes in the southern San Joaquin Valley, California, United States. After Lake Cahuilla disappeared in the 17th century ...

. This probably reflected what happened in extremely wet years like 1852, 1861–62 and 1873–74, before the advent of agricultural diversion. Most maps showed them only extending a short way from the foothills, their normal extent in years of normal rainfall. Today Los Gatos Creek does not flow east of 1.9 miles northwest of

Huron Huron may refer to: People * Wyandot people (or Wendat), indigenous to North America * Wyandot language, spoken by them * Huron-Wendat Nation, a Huron-Wendat First Nation with a community in Wendake, Quebec * Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi ...

except in times of flood but no farther than the

California Aqueduct The Governor Edmund G. Brown California Aqueduct is a system of canals, tunnels, and pipelines that conveys water collected from the Sierra Nevada Mountains and valleys of Northern and Central California to Southern California. Named after Cali ...

History

Los Gatos Creek, originally Arroyo Pasajero (Traveler Creek) or Arroyo Poso de Chane (Pool of the Chane), included the Poso de Chane, a pool or waterhole on the creek, northwest of the Guijarral Hills, 6 miles from Coalinga. This pool was once the site of a village of native Americans called the Chane by the Spanish. This location became a small Spanish and later a Mexican settlement, and a way station on the

El Camino Viejo El Camino Viejo a Los Ángeles ( en, the Old Road to Los Angeles), also known as El Camino Viejo and the Old Los Angeles Trail, was the oldest north-south trail in the interior of Spanish colonial Las Californias (1769–1822) and Mexican Alta Cal ...

. The Poso de Chane and the settlement was destroyed in the

Great Flood of 1862 The Great Flood of 1862 was the largest flood in the recorded history of Oregon, Nevada, and California, occurring from December 1861 to January 1862. It was preceded by weeks of continuous rains and snows in the very high elevations that began in ...

. However as late as 1925 the course of Los Gatos Creek east of the Guijarral Hills was referred to as Arroyo Pasajero on a USGS Topographic map of Coalinga.{{Cite web , url=http://cricket.csuchico.edu/scripts/PortWeb.dll?query&field1=Filename&op1=starts+with&value1=CA_881.JPG&template=mapsSID&catalog=topoMaps , title=USGS Topo: Coalinga, Edition Date:1912 reprinted 1925, Scale 1: 125000; from California Historic Topographic Map Collection -Meriam Library, California State College, Chico, accessed December 5, 2011 , access-date=December 6, 2011 , archive-url=https://archive.today/20120707055902/http://cricket.csuchico.edu/scripts/PortWeb.dll?query&field1=Filename&op1=starts+with&value1=CA_881.JPG&template=mapsSID&catalog=topoMaps , archive-date=July 7, 2012 , url-status=dead Los Gatos Creek is remembered as the site of a plane crash in 1948 which was the subject of a song by

Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer-songwriter, one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American socialism and anti-fascism. He has inspired ...

, "

Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) "Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)" is a protest song with lyrics by Woody Guthrie and music by Martin Hoffman detailing the January 28, 1948 crash of a plane near Los Gatos Canyon, west of Coalinga in Fresno County, California, United Stat ...

Los Gatos Creek County Park

Los Gatos Creek flows through Los Gatos Creek County Park.

References

Rivers of Fresno County, California Parks in Fresno County, California Diablo Range Geography of the San Joaquin Valley Regional parks in California El Camino Viejo Rivers of Northern California