Alambique Creek
Alambique Creek is located in California
Alambique Creek
Location of the mouth in California
EtymologySpanish language
Location
CountryUnited States
StateCalifornia
RegionSoutheastern San Mateo County
CityWoodside, California
Physical characteristics
Source 
 • locationWunderlich County Park
 • coordinates37°24′06″N 122°14′38″W / 37.40167°N 122.24389°W / 37.40167; -122.24389[2]
 • elevation1,930 ft (590 m)
MouthSausal Creek
 • location
Middle Searsville Pond (Middle Searsville Marsh) just above Searsville Lake
 • coordinates
37°24′12″N 122°14′52″W / 37.40333°N 122.24778°W / 37.40333; -122.24778[1]
 • elevation
342 ft (104 m)

Alambique Creek, or Arroyo Alembique, is a 2.7-mile-long (4.3 km)[1] stream located in San Mateo County, California, in the United States. It is a tributary to Corte Madera Creek and is part of the San Francisquito Creek watershed.[3]

History

Snippet of Easton's 1868 Official San Mateo County Map showing the historical town of Searsville in between Alambique Creek (Arroyo Alembique) and Sausal Creek (and its Martin Creek tributary). Searsville was inundated by Searsville Dam and Reservoir in 1891. Modified to also show Bear Creek and San Francisquito Creek.
Detail from 1857 Plat of Rancho El Corte de Madera
The creek flowed through the hamlet of Searsville

The creek's name is Spanish for "still," referring to a liquor distillery.[4] Older Spanish spells it alembique with an "e". The English spelling is alembic, a type of still that is used today. The e spelling dominates in the 1800s and continued on most maps until the 1930s. The name refers to moonshiners Tom Bowen and Nicholas Dawson, English seaman deserters, who built an illegal still on the creek in 1842.[3] The creek runs through Wunderlich Park in Woodside, California, where, in 1904, the creek was used by J. A. Folger for the first hydro-electrical power system in the region.[5]

Watershed

Alambique Creek begins below Skyline Boulevard on Bear Gulch Road near the intersection with Bear Glen Drive.[2] After crossing La Honda Road, and just south of the intersection of Mountain Home Road and Portola Road, Alambique Creek enters Lloyd's Pond (Upper Searsville Pond) which is currently impounded by the road-fill of Portola Road and a culvert. Of note, Lloyd's Pond is likely named for William Lloyd (1823-1895), who operated a blacksmith shop in historic Searsville, and who partnered with other early pioneers Dr. Robert O. Tripp, James "Grizzly" Ryder, and Alvinza Hayward, a bullwhacker from Amador County, to harvest the redwoods.[6] Next, Alambique Creek flows through a culvert under Portola Road into the Middle Searsville Pond (Middle Searsville Marsh) at its confluence with Sausal Creek.[1][7]

Ecology

Alambique Creek was once a historical steelhead trout (coastal rainbow trout) (Oncorhynchus mykiss irideus) spawning stream. In 1981, the creek was fish sampled and two stream resident rainbow trout which have been isolated from the Bay by Searsville Dam were collected where the creek crosses La Honda Road. In May 2002, the culvert beneath Highway 84 was identified as an impassable barrier to upstream migration.[8]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map Archived 2012-03-29 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 2012-02-11
  2. ^ a b "Alambique Creek". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  3. ^ a b Herb Dengler (1997). "History Recorded in a Name: Alambique Creek". Views. Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve. Archived from the original on 3 August 2011. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
  4. ^ William Bright; Erwin Gustav Gudde (30 November 1998). 1500 California place names: their origin and meaning. University of California Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-520-21271-8.
  5. ^ "Wunderlich Park". Division of Parks. County of San Mateo. 2008. Archived from the original on 23 June 2011. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
  6. ^ "Historic Resource Study for Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Mateo County" (PDF). National Park Service. 2010. p. 252. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
  7. ^ Janet M. Sowers (2005). "San Francisquito Watershed and Alluvial Fan, in Creek & Watershed Map of Palo Alto & Vicinity". Oakland Museum of California. Retrieved 2012-02-11.
  8. ^ Leidy, R.A.; G.S. Becker; B.N. Harvey (2005). "Historical distribution and current status of steelhead/rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in streams of the San Francisco Estuary, California" (PDF). Center for Ecosystem Management and Restoration, Oakland, CA. Retrieved 2012-02-11.

External links

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