Temescal Creek (''Temescal'',

Mexican Spanish Mexican Spanish ( es, español mexicano) is the variety of dialects and sociolects of the Spanish language spoken in Mexican territory. Mexico has the largest number of Spanish speakers, with more than twice as many as in any other country in ...

for " sweat lodge", is one of the principal watercourses in the city of

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the ...

, United States. The word "temescal" is derived from ''temescalli/temazcalli'' (variously transliterated), which means " sweat house" in the

Nahuatl Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have small ...

language of

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

. The name was given to the creek when it became part of the Peralta's Rancho San Antonio. It is surmised that the Peraltas or perhaps one of their ranch hands (

vaquero 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 ...

s) had seen local indigenous (

Ohlone The Ohlone, formerly known as Costanoans (from Spanish meaning 'coast dweller'), are a Native American people of the Northern California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the late 18th century, the Ohlone inhabited the ...

) structures along the creek similar to those in other parts of

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the A ...

which were called ''temescalli'' or "temazcalli". Three forks begin in the

Berkeley Hills The Berkeley Hills are a range of the Pacific Coast Ranges that overlook the northeast side of the valley that encompasses San Francisco Bay. They were previously called the "Contra Costa Range/Hills" (from the original Spanish ''Sierra de l ...

in the northeastern section of Oakland (also referred to as the

Oakland hills Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay ...

south of the Caldecott Tunnel), part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, coming together in the Temescal district of Oakland, then flowing westerly across Oakland and Emeryville to

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water f ...

. The north fork of Temescal Creek was renamed "Harwood's Creek" in the mid 19th century after an early claimant to grazing lands in the canyon above the Claremont neighborhood, retired sea captain and Oakland wharfinger William Harwood. It was renamed yet again "Claremont Creek" in the early 20th century after a residential development in the same vicinity, today's Claremont district. The middle fork flows through Temescal Canyon mostly in underground culverts, beneath the Grove Shafter Freeway starting near the

Caldecott Tunnel The Caldecott Tunnel is an east–west highway tunnel through the Berkeley Hills between Oakland and Orinda, California. Its four bores carry California State Route 24. Named after Thomas E. Caldecott, former mayor of Berkeley, it opened in 19 ...

and underneath the interchange with State Route 13. It joins the south fork at Lake Temescal. Before the Caldecott tunnel project (1934–37), this fork entered the lake via a prominent inlet that was traversed by a trestle bridge of the Sacramento Northern Railroad. The inlet was filled in and the trestle replaced by a large concrete embankment which exists to this day. The south fork begins in the northern section of Oakland's Montclair district, flowing southwest out of a canyon in the hills alongside Thornhill Road, then turning abruptly northwestward in the linear valley formed by the

Hayward Fault The Hayward Fault Zone is a right-lateral strike-slip geologic fault zone capable of generating destructive earthquakes. This fault is about long, situated mainly along the western base of the hills on the east side of San Francisco Bay. It run ...

. It then flows into

Lake Temescal Lake Temescal is a small reservoir in the Oakland hills, in northeastern Oakland, California. It is the centerpiece of Temescal Regional Recreation Area, also known as Temescal Regional Park (and originally, Lake Temescal Regional Park). It is a p ...

, a natural

sag pond A sag pond is a body of fresh water collected in the lowest parts of a depression formed between two sides of an active strike-slip, transtensional or normal fault zone. Formation A sag pond is formed along a strike-slip fault, which may creat ...

which was dammed in the 19th century to increase its capacity for use as a

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contr ...

. Lake Temescal is now a public park. The creek continues out of the northernmost corner of Lake Temescal into another underground culvert. The tunnel follows the Grove Shafter Freeway and briefly re-emerges next to Saint Albert's Priory next to Presley Way and Miles Avenue. It continues westerly around the end of the

shutter ridge A shutter ridge is a ridge which has moved along a fault line, blocking or diverting drainage. Typically, a shutter ridge creates a valley corresponding to the alignment of the fault that produces it. Shutter ridges occur exclusively at strike-sl ...

in the Rockridge district of Oakland, where it joins the north fork (Claremont Creek) at approximately the intersection of Forrest Street and Miles Avenue. A small section of above-ground creek exists as the Rockridge-Temescal Greenbelt parallel to Claremont Avenue between the Grove Shafter Freeway and Telegraph Avenue. A pumping station at the top of the greenbelt diverts water from the tunnel and pumps it up to the surface creek. After Telegraph Avenue the tunnel continues east underneath the Temescal Community Garden and Temescal Creek Parks, then follows 53rd Street through Emeryville to its mouth at

Bay Street Bay Street is a major thoroughfare in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the centre of Toronto's Financial District and is often used by metonymy to refer to Canada's financial services industry since succeeding Montreal's St. James ...

Mouth area

Temescal Creek is a

perennial stream A perennial stream is a stream that has continuous flow of surface water throughout the year in at least parts of its catchment during seasons of normal rainfall, Water Supply Paper 494. as opposed to one whose flow is intermittent. In the abse ...

, and as such, was highly valued by early

settler A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a pioneer. Settle ...

s. At its mouth, the indigenous

people (Chochen/Huichin band), and their predecessors, built up the shellmound of Emeryville, the largest and most studied shellmound on the shoreline of San Francisco Bay. When the area was part of the Peralta's Rancho San Antonio, the site near the shellmound was one of the landings for the ranch where their cattle and hides were loaded for shipping. Cattle and other livestock were slaughtered in this vicinity right up through the early 20th century for various meatpacking plants in an area which became known as "Butchertown". It is believed that Temescal Creek once supported a population of

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead (sometimes called "steelhead trout") is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coast ...

, though urbanization and the damming at Lake Temescal have led to their decline. Archeological evidence indicates that

coho salmon The coho salmon (''Oncorhynchus kisutch;'' Karuk: achvuun) is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family (biology), family and one of the five Pacific salmon species. Coho salmon are also known as silver salmon or "silvers". The scientif ...

were also likely found at one time in the creek. The Emeryville Shellmound is also notable for its remains of

beaver Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers a ...

(''Castor canadensis''). Today, the creek is mostly underground in

culvert A culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe, reinforced concrete or other material. In the United Kingdo ...

s in the flatlands, but many stretches are open above Lake Temescal. In 2000, a segment of the creek below the tracks of the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

in Emeryville became accessible to the public after the demolition of one of the buildings of the historic Sherwin-Williams paint factory in early 2000. Temescal Creek now flows in an open culvert through the 2002 Bay Street Mall development. This is just about the spot where the Emeryville Shellmound once stood. A small informational park commemorating the creek and the

presence at the site is situated here. At Shellmound Street, which runs approximately along the original Bay shoreline, the creek returns to a culvert which takes it to

. This straight course, however, is a later imposition - the original course of the creek bent south and entered the Bay near the northern edge of the

IKEA IKEA (; ) is a Dutch multinational conglomerate based in the Netherlands that designs and sells , kitchen appliances, decoration, home accessories, and various other goods and home services. Started in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA has been ...

property. Temescal Creek near the mouth area is channelized with concrete linings. The mouth of Temescal Creek at the discharge to

is fully tidal and consists of

mudflat Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal f ...

s and

marsh A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found ...

land. Historically both banks of Temescal Creek in the lower area of Emeryville were part of the San Francisco Bay tidal

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

and were extensively filled from about 1900 through the 1970s. Fill included slag, soil and other inert materials originating from the Judson Steel plant.Earth Metrics Inc, "Environmental Site Assessment, Chiron Site, Emeryville, California", Report no. 7911, March, 1989 The Judson plant occupied much of the lower reach banks in Emeryville; Judson used this reach for metal recycling/recovery. Foundations remained of a shear, tin baler, scale, and conveyor as late as 1990 when the lower banks were renamed the "

Chiron In Greek mythology, Chiron ( ; also Cheiron or Kheiron; ) was held to be the superlative centaur amongst his brethren since he was called the "wisest and justest of all the centaurs". Biography Chiron was notable throughout Greek mythology ...

" site and re-developed.

References

* ''Durham's Place-Names of the San Francisco Bay Area'', by David L. Durham, Published 2000 by Quill Driver Books,

External links

Friends of Temescal Creek
{{Oakland, California Rivers of Alameda County, California Berkeley Hills Tributaries of San Francisco Bay Emeryville, California Geography of Oakland, California Subterranean rivers of the United States Rivers of Northern California

Mouth area

See also

References

External links