Secret Ravine is a perennial

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...

of Miners Ravine which shortly thereafter runs into Dry Creek in

Placer County, California Placer County ( ; Spanish for "sand deposit"), officially the County of Placer, is a county in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 404,739. The county seat is Auburn. Placer County is included in the Grea ...

. Its course lies within the cities of Rocklin, Loomis, and Roseville, as well as unincorporated parts of Placer County. It passes through the campus of

Sierra College Sierra College is a public community college in Rocklin, California. It is part of the Sierra Joint Community College District, a district that covers over , serves Placer, Nevada and parts of El Dorado and Sacramento counties. History The c ...

. Over its entire length the creek runs near the

Interstate 80 Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from downtown San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one o ...

freeway. It is an area becoming increasingly suburbanized. It was the site of placer mining operations during the

California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...

, and areas of

tailings In mining, tailings are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction (gangue) of an ore. Tailings are different to overburden, which is the waste rock or other material that overlie ...

remain to this day. Later the drainage was a locale for

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

quarrying.

History

The

Rocklin Cemetery Rocklin Cemetery is a historic public cemetery, located at 4090 Kannasto Street in Rocklin, Placer County, California. History Rocklin Cemetery's early history is unknown. However there are two theories; its first burial around 1850, during the ...

is very close to the ravine. An old Indian cemetery was farther up the drainage. In 1869 some laid-off

Chinese railroad workers The history of Chinese Americans or the history of Overseas Chinese, ethnic Chinese in the United States includes three major waves of Chinese emigration, Chinese immigration to the United States, beginning in the 19th century. Chinese immigrant ...

moved to Secret Ravine to mine. They also raised vegetables which they marketed locally. They were driven out during the anti-Chinese

pogrom A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russia ...

of September 1876. This area is still known as China Gardens. * Drainage area: * Stream length: * Elevation at source: * Elevation at confluence: The Secret Ravine Post Office operated from 1854 to 1868. The U.S. Census for 1860 lists it as the address for

Jean Baptiste Charbonneau Jean Baptiste Charbonneau (February 11, 1805 – May 16, 1866) was a Native American-French Canadian explorer, guide, fur trapper, trader, military scout during the Mexican–American War, ''alcalde'' (mayor) of Mission San Luis Rey de Franc ...

- mountain man and son of

Toussaint Charbonneau Toussaint Charbonneau (March 20, 1767 – August 12, 1843) was a French-Canadian explorer, trader and a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He is also known as the husband of Sacagawea. Early years Charbonneau was born in Boucherv ...

and the

Lewis and Clark Expedition The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select gro ...

's guide

Sacagawea Sacagawea ( or ; also spelled Sakakawea or Sacajawea; May – December 20, 1812 or April 9, 1884)Sacagawea
...

Parks

* ''Loomis Basin Community Park'' is off King Road just east of Loomis. The park consists of a North and a South division on each side of Secret Ravine. Giant boulders dot this wooded area.

Places named for the Secret Ravine tributary

* Secret Ravine Parkway, in Roseville * Secret Ravine Road, in an unincorporated area east of Loomis * Secret Ravine School,

Newcastle, California Newcastle is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Placer County, California, Placer County, California. Nestled in the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada foothills, Newcastle is located northeas ...

* Secret Ravine Vineyard and Winery, in Loomis * Secret Ravine Way, in Rocklin ''NOTE: A second Secret Ravine, also in Placer County, flows into the North Fork of the

American River , name_etymology = , image = American River CA.jpg , image_size = 300 , image_caption = The American River at Folsom , map = Americanrivermap.png , map_size = 300 , map_caption ...

near Colfax. It was alternatively called Robbers Ravine.'' California's Geographic Names - "Secret Ravine"
/ref>

References

External links

Secret Ravine Adaptive Management Plan

Wintering at Secret Ravine
(tale from the Gold Rush days) {{coord, 38, 45, 34, N, 121, 15, 23, W, display=title Rivers of Placer County, California California Gold Rush Roseville, California Rivers of Northern California