Temecula Creek, formerly known as the Temecula River,Gerald A. Waring, UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Water-Supply Paper 429, Ground Water In The San Jacinto And Temecula Basins, California, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1919
/ref> runs U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
accessed March 16, 2011 through southern

Riverside County Riverside County is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,418,185, making it the fourth-most populous county in California and the 10th-most populous in the Unit ...

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 ...

, United States, past the rural communities of Radec and Aguanga, and ending southeast of the original city center of

Temecula Temecula (; es, Temécula, ; Luiseño: ''Temeekunga'') is a city in southwestern Riverside County, California, United States. The city had a population of 110,003 as of the 2020 census and was incorporated on December 1, 1989. The city is a t ...

. The creek is filled with boulders and is typically dry and sandy. It is a relatively undeveloped coastal-draining watershed. Until the 1920s, water flowed in Temecula Creek year-round.

History

Luiseño The Luiseño or Payómkawichum are an indigenous people of California who, at the time of the first contacts with the Spanish in the 16th century, inhabited the coastal area of southern California, ranging from the present-day southern part of L ...

Indian rancheria named ''Temeca'' or ''Temeko'' was named as early as 1785. In 1828 ''Temecula'' became the name of a rancho of

Mission San Luis Rey Mission San Luis Rey de Francia ( es, Misión San Luis Rey de Francia) is a former Spanish mission in San Luis Rey, a neighborhood of Oceanside, California. This Mission lent its name to the Luiseño tribe of Mission Indians. At its prime, ...

Alfred Kroeber Alfred Louis Kroeber (June 11, 1876 – October 5, 1960) was an American cultural anthropologist. He received his PhD under Franz Boas at Columbia University in 1901, the first doctorate in anthropology awarded by Columbia. He was also the first ...

noted that the name may be derived from the Luiseño word ''temet'' meaning "sun". The village of Temecula originated on a bluff on the south bank of Temecula Creek opposite the old Wolf's Store according to an 1853 survey. In 1948, the owners of the Vail Ranch built a dam on Temecula Creek, the

Vail Lake Vail Lake is a large reservoir in western Riverside County, southern California. Geography It is located on Temecula Creek, in the Butterfield Valley, south of Oak Mountain, of the Black Hills, in the Santa Margarita River watershed. It is app ...

Dam, approximately above the confluence with the Santa Margarita River. Today the lake is a public recreational use area.

Watershed

Temecula Creek originates on the north slope of Aguanga Mountain, flows northeast to Dodge Valley, where it continues northwest through Dodge Valley, Oak Grove Valley, Dameron Valley,

Aguanga Valley Aguanga (; Luiseño: ''Awáanga'', meaning "dog place") is a census-designated place located within the Inland Empire, Riverside County, California. It is located about east of Temecula and south-southeast of Hemet. Aguanga lies at an elevati ...

, Radec Valley,

Butterfield Valley Butterfield Valley is a valley along the course of Temecula Creek, in Riverside County, California. Its lower end is now filled by Vail Lake. It heads at and its mouth is at the site of the Vail Lake Dam at the head of the deep canyon Temecula Cr ...

, into Vail Lake Reservoir, after which it flows southwest through

Pauba Valley Pauba Valley is a valley along the course of Temecula Creek, in Riverside County, California. It heads to the east at , the mouth of the gorge of Temecula Creek Canyon at the foot of Oak Mountain. Its mouth in the west is at an elevation of , w ...

Temecula Valley The Temecula Valley is a graben rift valley in western Riverside County, California. The Temecula Valley is one of the graben valleys making up the Elsinore Trough, created by the Elsinore Fault Zone. It lies between the Wildomar Fault on the ea ...

where it joins Murrieta Creek. Temecula Creek has a slightly larger drainage area than

Murrieta Creek Murrieta Creek runs southeasterly through southwestern Riverside County, California, United States, through the cities of Wildomar, Murrieta, and Temecula, ending southeast of the city center of Temecula, where it has its confluence with Temecul ...

. The

Santa Margarita River The Santa Margarita River which with the addition of what is now Temecula Creek, was formerly known as the Temecula River, is a short intermittent river on the Pacific coast of southern California in the United States, approximately U.S. Geologi ...

begins at the confluence of the two creeks at the head of Temecula Canyon. With the encroachment of homes on both sides of Temecula Creek, portions may be channelized.

Tributaries of Temecula Creek

* Pechanga Creek * Vail Lake Dam,

** Kolb Creek ***

Arroyo Seco Creek Arroyo Seco is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed March 10, 2011 tributary stream to Schell Creek in southern Sonoma County, California, United States. In Spanish ''ar ...

** Wilson Creek *** Cahuilla Creek ****

Hamilton Creek (Cahuilla Creek) Hamilton Creek is a tributary stream of Cahuilla Creek, (itself a tributary of Wilson Creek, Temecula Creek, and the Santa Margarita River), in Riverside County, California. Its mouth is found in the Anza Valley at an elevation of . Its sourc ...

* Long Canyon Creek * Cottonwood Creek * Tule Creek * Chihuahua Creek * Rattlesnake Creek * Kohler Canyon

Ecology

Biologically diverse, supporting both coastal and desert fauna and flora, it is bounded by the Agua Tibia Wilderness area and the

Cleveland National Forest Cleveland National Forest encompasses 460,000 acres (), mostly of chaparral, with a few riparian areas. A warm dry mediterranean climate prevails over the forest. It is the southernmost U.S. National Forest of California. It is administered by th ...

. The creek supports

coastal sage scrub Coastal sage scrub, also known as coastal scrub, CSS, or soft chaparral, is a low scrubland plant community of the California coastal sage and chaparral subecoregion, found in coastal California and northwestern coastal Baja California. It is w ...

, including

Jojoba Jojoba (; botanical name: ''Simmondsia chinensis'')also commonly called goat nut, deer nut, pignut, wild hazel, quinine nut, coffeeberry, and gray box bushis native to the Southwestern United States. ''Simmondsia chinensis'' is the sole specie ...

alluvial fan An alluvial fan is an accumulation of sediments that fans outwards from a concentrated source of sediments, such as a narrow canyon emerging from an escarpment. They are characteristic of mountainous terrain in arid to semiarid climates, but a ...

scrub,

mesquite Mesquite is a common name for several plants in the genus ''Prosopis'', which contains over 40 species of small leguminous trees. They are native to dry areas in the Americas. They have extremely long roots to seek water from very far under grou ...

bosque A bosque ( ) is a type of gallery forest habitat found along the riparian flood plains of stream and river banks in the southwestern United States. It derives its name from the Spanish word for 'woodlands'. Setting In the predominantly ar ...

mix,

coast live oak ''Quercus agrifolia'', the California live oak, or coast live oak, is a highly variable, often evergreen oak tree, a type of live oak, native to the California Floristic Province. It may be shrubby, depending on age and growing location, but is ...

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

, and mature Fremont cottonwood-

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist s ...

woodland. In addition to

riparian A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the terrestrial biomes of the Earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks ar ...

breeders, birds include

least Bell's vireo Bell's vireo (''Vireo bellii'') is a songbird that migrates between a breeding range in Western North America and a winter range in Central America. It is dull olive-gray above and whitish below. It has a faint white eye ring and faint wing bar ...

, Nuttall's

quail Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally placed in the order Galliformes. The collective noun for a group of quail is a flock, covey, or bevy. Old World quail are placed in the family Phasianidae, and New Wor ...

, ladder-backed woodpecker, and

and Gambel's quail. Arroyo southwestern

toad Toad is a common name for certain frogs, especially of the family Bufonidae, that are characterized by dry, leathery skin, short legs, and large bumps covering the parotoid glands. A distinction between frogs and toads is not made in scientif ...

are also found in Temecula Creek.

North American beaver The North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') is one of two Extant taxon, extant beaver species, along with the Eurasian beaver (''Castor fiber''). It is native to North America and introduced in South America (Patagonia) and Europe (primari ...

(''Castor canadensis'') may gradually raise the water table and return portions of the stream to perennial flow at sitei such as its confluence with Murrieta Creek. However, cattle grazing along Temecula Creek have injured its

understory In forestry and ecology, understory (American English), or understorey (Commonwealth English), also known as underbrush or undergrowth, includes plant life growing beneath the forest canopy without penetrating it to any great extent, but abov ...

References

{{Authority control Rivers of Riverside County, California Washes of California Cleveland National Forest Temecula, California