Coyote Creek (Marin County)
Encyclopedia
Coyote Creek is a stream in the Richardson Bay watershed, draining Tamalpais-Homestead Valley, California
Tamalpais-Homestead Valley, California
Tamalpais-Homestead Valley is a census-designated place in Marin County, California, United States. The population was 10,735 at the 2010 census.-Geography:...

 (Tam Valley) eastward into Richardson Bay
Richardson Bay
Richardson Bay is a shallow, ecologically rich arm of San Francisco Bay, managed under a Joint Powers Agency of four Northern California cities. The Richardson Bay Sanctuary was acquired in the early 1960s by the National Audubon Society. The bay was named for William A...

, Marin County, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The stream originates on Coyote Ridge and flows 2.5 miles to the Bay at the south end of Bothin Marsh
Bothin Marsh
Bothin Marsh is a half acre wetlands in Marin County, California. Parts of the wetlands are in Bothin Marsh Open Space Preserve, a regional park.-Natural history:The marsh, positioned at the northern arm of Richardson Bay is fed by Mill Creek...

.

History

The Richardson Bay watershed is located on the aboriginal lands of the Coast Miwok
Coast Miwok
The Coast Miwok were the second largest group of Miwok Native American people. The Coast Miwok inhabited the general area of modern Marin County and southern Sonoma County in Northern California, from the Golden Gate north to Duncans Point and eastward to Sonoma Creek...

. Spanish colonization began in neighboring Sausalito, California
Sausalito, California
Sausalito is a San Francisco Bay Area city, in Marin County, California, United States. Sausalito is south-southeast of San Rafael, at an elevation of 13 feet . The population was 7,061 as of the 2010 census. The community is situated near the northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge, and prior to...

 in 1775, when Juan de Ayala
Juan de Ayala
Juan Manuel de Ayala y Aranza was a Spanish naval officer who played a significant role in the European exploration of California, since he and the crew of his ship the San Carlos are the first Europeans known to have entered the San Francisco Bay.Ayala was born in Osuna, Andalucía...

 sailed the first ship (the San Carlos) into San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...

. These explorers named the area Saucelito (“little willows”) after the vegetation spotted from shipboard. When the Mission San Rafael Arcángel
Mission San Rafael Arcángel
Mission San Rafael Arcángel was founded in 1817 as a medical asistencia of the Mission San Francisco de Asís as a hospital to treat sick Native Americans of the Bay Area, making it Alta California's first sanitarium. The weather was much better in the North Bay than in San Francisco, and helped...

, established in 1817, was secularized by the Mexican government in 1834, the mission lands were granted to prominent Californios as ranchos. The Rancho Corte Madera del Presidio
Rancho Corte Madera del Presidio
Rancho Corte Madera del Presidio was a Mexican land grant in present day Marin County, California given in 1834 by Governor José Figueroa to John Reed. Corte Madera del Presidio means the "lumber mill of the Presidio". The grant encompassed what is now southern Corte Madera, Mill Valley,...

 (literally, “place where wood is cut for the Presidio”) included a sawmill for processing redwood trees, cattle and horse ranches, a brickyard, and a stone quarry. Sausalito became an important ferry port, connecting Marin to San Francisco. The railroad brought supplies from the north to be shipped across San Francisco Bay.

Habitat and Ecology

Historically, Coyote Creek hosted California Golden Beaver (Castor canadensis subauratus) whose beaver dams likely played a role in removing sediment and improving over-summering habitat for steelhead and salmon smolt.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK