San Antonio Creek is a northward then eastward-flowing stream in the

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, United States, counties of

Marin Marin (French) or Marín (Spanish "sailor") may refer to: People * Marin (name), including a list of persons with the given name or surname * MaRin, in-game name of professional South Korean ''League of Legends'' player Jang Gyeong-hwan (born 19 ...

and Sonoma that forms part of the boundary between those counties. It empties into the tidal portion of the

Petaluma River The Petaluma River is a river in the California counties of Sonoma and Marin that becomes a tidal slough for most of its length. The headwaters are in the area southwest of Cotati. The flow is generally southward through Petaluma's old town, ...

History

Two permanent

Coast Miwok Coast Miwok are an indigenous people that was the second-largest group of Miwok people. Coast Miwok inhabited the general area of modern Marin County and southern Sonoma County in Northern California, from the Golden Gate north to Duncans Poi ...

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

s were located on San Antonio Creek: ''Meleya'' (southwest of

Petaluma, California Petaluma (Miwok: ''Péta Lúuma'') is a city in Sonoma County, California, located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Its population was 59,776 according to the 2020 census. Petaluma's name comes from the Miwok village na ...

) and ''Amayelle''. San Antonio Creek is one of many California places named by the early Spanish colonists after

Saint Anthony of Padua Anthony of Padua ( it, Antonio di Padova) or Anthony of Lisbon ( pt, António/Antônio de Lisboa; born Fernando Martins de Bulhões; 15 August 1195 – 13 June 1231) was a Portuguese Catholic priest and friar of the Franciscan Order. He was bo ...

, a patron of the Franciscan Order. The creek traverses the Rancho Laguna de San Antonio land grant, dated May 6, 1839 and November 25, 1845, given by Governor Pío Pico to Bartolomé Bojorquez in 1845.

Course

San Antonio Creek springs from the southwest flank of Antonio Mountain in Marin County. Historically, a natural laguna or shallow lake existed at the headwaters of San Antonio Creek, different from the Laguna de San Antonio, which exists to the west at the headwaters of Chileno Creek. The San Antonio Creek headwaters laguna was drained for agricultural purposes sometime between 1860 and 1885. From the headwaters the creek runs north into Chileno Valley. Turning east-southeast, it begins to define the county line. It passes under Chileno Valley Road and Point Reyes-Petaluma Road, then parallels San Antonio Road eastward to

U.S. 101 U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101 (US 101), is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, on the West Coast of the United States. It is also known as (The Royal Roa ...

. It crosses under U.S. 101 where it was diverted around 1930 to the Schultz Slough and the Petaluma River. This diversion is upstream from its historical connection to the San Antonio Slough just west of Hog Island in the

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...

s south of

. The diversion upstream lowered the creek's gradient, contributing to aggradation of sediments in the lower reaches.

Ecology

San Antonio Creek was historically perennial in its lower reaches and perhaps for most of its length. Up until the mid-1900s,

steelhead trout Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the common name of the anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or redband trout (O. m. gairdneri). Steelhead are native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific basin in Northeast Asia and ...

were fairly common in the watershed. Although steelhead were seen in 2000, they appear to be extinct from the watershed.

California roach The California roach (''Hesperoleucus symmetricus'') is a cyprinid fish native to western North America and abundant in the intermittent streams throughout central California. Once considered the sole member of its genus, it has recently been sp ...

and threespine stickleback, which commonly co-exist with steelhead, are still found. The largest striped bass (''(Morone saxatilis)'') ever landed with tackle and line was caught in 1912 by Charles R. Bond in San Antonio Creek, weighing and long, according to a photograph in the Marin Rod and Gun Club. A newspaper article in 1909 mentions Charles Bond as catching a striper in the "San Antone Slough".

Bridges

The U.S. 101 bridges are each two lanes wide and long. The northbound bridge was built in 1929 and reconstructed in 1979. The southbound bridge was built in 1947. There is also a bridge at San Antonio Road north of U.S. 101; built in 1917, it is a concrete

tee beam A T-beam (or tee beam), used in construction, is a load-bearing structure of reinforced concrete, wood or metal, with a -shaped cross section. The top of the -shaped cross section serves as a flange or compression member in resisting compress ...

long. Marshall Petaluma Road crosses the creek on a concrete tee beam built in 1929. Point Reyes Petaluma Road crosses on a concrete continuous slab built in 1964.

References

External links