Panoche Creek is a creek in San Benito and Fresno Counties,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, in the United States. Historical names include Arroyo de Panoche Grande (Big Sugarloaf Creek)Mildred B. Hoover, et al. ''Historic Spots in California''. 3rd edition. Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1966. p.89 and the anglicized Big Panoche Creek. For a time its lower reaches were called "Silver Creek." The source of Panoche Creek is a pond just east of

Panoche Pass Panoche Pass is a mountain pass within the Diablo Range in San Benito County, California connecting the southern extremity of the Santa Clara Valley in the west to the Panoche Valley and San Joaquin Valley in the east. The name ''Panoche Pass'' i ...

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 ...

. It flows to the east through the Panoche Valley 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 ...

west of Mendota near the former site of Hayes Station. Panoche Creek has the largest drainage area of any stream on the east slope of the Diablo Range.

History

Arroyo de Panoche Grande was part of a route between the Indian settlements of the central coast of California and the

. It was also a watering place on

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 Cali ...

between Arroyita de Panoche (Little Sugarloaf Creek) and

Arroyo de Cantua Cantua Creek, formerly in Spanish Arroyo de Cantúa, was named for José de Guadalupe Cantúa, a prominent Californio Ranchero in the 19th-century Mexican era of Alta California. The creek was formerly a tributary of the Fresno Slough, in years ...

(Cantua Creek). Spanish soldiers followed Panoche Creek on expeditions to explore the region. It was an area of frequent conflict with local native peoples, who raided mission properties and were subject to conversion during the period of Indian Reductions. Henry D. Barrows and Luther A. Ingersoll, ''A Memorial and Biographical History of the Coast Counties of Central California'', The Lewis Publishing Company, 1893, Chapter 3

Vaqueros The ''vaquero'' (; pt, vaqueiro, , ) is a horse-mounted livestock herder of a tradition that has its roots in the Iberian Peninsula and extensively developed in Mexico from a methodology brought to Latin America from Spain. The vaquero became t ...

and ''musteneros'' followed the creek into the San Joaquin Valley to round up cattle and horses, respectively. Both Panoche Creek and Panoche Valley, are referred to as the "Big Panoche", distinguishing them from the

Little Panoche Creek Little Panoche Creek formerly known as Arroyita de Panoche or Arroyo de Pannochita (Little Sugarloaf Creek) and later anglicized to Panochita Creek is a creek in Fresno County, California. The source of this creek is on the east slope of Glauc ...

, and valley.

References

{{Authority control Rivers of Fresno County, California Rivers of San Benito County, California Tributaries of the San Joaquin River Diablo Range Geography of the San Joaquin Valley El Camino Viejo Rivers of Northern California