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| South Yuba below Poorman Creek |
IN THE BEGINING
Where to begin? Since, in my estimation, the most characteristic Yuba watershed landscape is dominated by streams and ridges let’s begin with water. In the beginning, according to a Nisenan creation story, there was only infinite water and infinite sky. Where the line was drawn between the ocean and sky floated a raft. Two spirits,
Turtle and Peheipe, the clown, had floated on the water for as long as they
could remember. Eventually World Maker opened the sky to send down a feather
rope, which he descended after securing the raft. To make the world he required
a bit of earth found only at the bottom of the ocean. Turtle dove to the bottom
and returned with a tiny bit of earth beneath his nails for World Maker to create
the land, people, oaks and Coyote. This version is highly abridged but suffices
to make the point that it all begins with water.
NAMING THE YUBA RIVER
Mariano
Guadalupe Vallejo, Mexico’s Comandante-General of the "Free State of Alta
California", claimed that Gabriel Moraga, on an 1824 expedition for Spain, named the river Rio de las Uvas for the profusion of native grapes growing along the river. Uva is the Spanish word for grape. John
Sutter disagreed and said that he named it Yuba after a Nisenan village that
existed where Yuba City is located today. Sutter’s map is in the California
State Library and on it he named most of the Rancherias, or Native settlements.
But he did not name the one depicted on the Feather River across the river from
the mouth of the Yuba River – presumably this is the village of Yuba. Yuba
appears on various historic maps as Yubu, Yupu
or Juba.
THE YUBA RIVER
WATERSHED
Four rivers flow
from the Sierra Nevada to the Sacramento Valley, they are from north to south,
the Feather, the Yuba, the Bear and the American Rivers. The Feather River is
joined by the Yuba, Bear and American Rivers as it flows to the Sacramento
River, which flows to the San Francisco Bay delta and the Pacific Ocean.
Watershed has become a popular word but do you
understand what it means? There are various scientific definitions yet many
people can’t really visualize it. Here is my attempt to put it in plain words. A watershed
collects precipitation, it’s
basically a drainage basin or catchment that gathers and combines surface
water, lakes, streams, reservoirs, wetlands and all the underlying ground
water. Large watersheds typically contain many smaller watersheds. Ridges and
hills that separate watersheds form topographic boundaries or drainage divides.
In the Sierra Nevada a watershed seldom begins as
a single point source. I’m sure there’s a hydrologist out there who will take
issue but I’m seeing this from the perspective of a free-range primate. More
often a watershed begins with headwaters consisting of a series of streams fed
by precipitation, springs, seeps, wetlands and meadows that combine as they
respond to the pull of gravity. The series of ridges and peaks forming the
topographical arc defining the eastern boundary of the Yuba basin extends from Pilot
Peak (7,457’), near the LaPorte/Quincy Road on the north, to Lincoln Peak (8,383’),
just below Donner Pass on its south end. The Pacific Crest Trail between these
two points is approximately 83 miles long. Keep in mind that the trail is
longer than the actual crest because of changes in elevation, switchbacks, diversions
around insurmountable peaks, etc., but you get the idea.
The Yuba watershed
encompasses 1,339 square miles. Mt.
Lola at 9142’ is the highest peak in the Yuba watershed. All of the
precipitation and groundwater eventually funnels its way downslope and westward
to Marysville, in the Sacramento Valley at approximately 60’ above sea level.
Think of its shape as a rough and organic triangle with its broad side to the
east and upslope and its apex as a single stream to the west in the flatlands.
There are three
major forks of the Yuba River. The
North Yuba is the largest basin of the three. The major tributaries of
the North Yuba entering from the north are Chute Ravine, Dobbins Creek, Slate
Creek, Canyon Creek, Cherokee Creek, Fiddle Creek, Goodyears Creek and the Downie
River, a 5 ½ mile long tributary
of the North Yuba with a dendritic pattern of tributaries that includes
Rattlesnake, Lavezzola and Pauley Creeks, encompassing 34 square miles. East
of the Sierra Buttes (8,587’) are Salmon Creek, Howard Creek and Chapman Creek,
which originates at the base of Haskell Peak (8,107’). From the south and east
come Willow Creek, Indian Creek, Woodruff Creek, Jim Crow Creek, Milton Creek,
Haypress Valley Creek and Lincoln Valley Creek, which originates near Bonta
Saddle, close to Henness Pass.
The Middle Yuba is the shortest of the three forks but it
is the most rugged with steep slopes, three box canyons and little road access.
It originates above Jackson Meadow Reservoir in English Meadow and Moscove
Meadow, both on the east side of English Mountain (8,373’). Major tributaries
entering the Middle Yuba from the north include Moonshine Creek, Studhorse
Canyon, Oregon Creek, Indian Creek, Kanaka Creek, Wolf Creek and Pass Creek.
From the south Grizzly Creek, Bloody Run Creek and East Fork Creek contribute
to the flow.
The South Yuba is
the most populated and popular of the three forks. Major tributaries on the
north side include French Corral Creek, Shady Creek, Spring Creek, Humbug
Creek, Logan Canyon, McKilligan Creek, Poorman Creek, Canyon Creek, Fall Creek,
Fordyce Creek, Rattlesnake Creek and Castle Creek. On the south side the chief
tributaries are Kentucky Ravine, Owl Creek, Rush Creek, Meyers Ravine, Rock
Creek, Scotchman Creek and Diamond Creek.
The Middle Yuba joins the North Yuba about three miles
downstream from the New Bullards Bar Dam (1969). About ten miles downstream
from this confluence the South Yuba joins the North Yuba at Defiance Point, one
mile west of Bridgeport. The river beyond this point is simply the Yuba River,
also known as the Lower Yuba. Downstream on the Yuba River, Englebright Dam
(1941) creates an eight-mile long reservoir that extends upstream a short
distance past the mouth of the South Yuba.
Deer Creek, a major tributary, enters the Lower Yuba from the southeast below Englebright Dam. Below Parks
Bar, where State Highway 20 crosses the Yuba, Dry Creek, enters from the north near Long Bar. Marysville,
at the confluence of the Yuba and Feather Rivers, is approximately twenty miles
downstream from Englebright Dam.
The indigenous Nisenan named springs and streams, for instance the
contemporary Nisenan call Deer Creek “Ankula Seo.” Predictably our western ways
compel us to name places after "famous" people, like most of the streams listed above.
But in looking over the names you can also get a sense of the disparate origins
of the gold mining population. There are ten streams mentioned with such names,
for instance, French Corral, Kanaka Creek, English Mountain, Cherokee Creek and
Kentucky Ravine. Animals provided the third most popular category of names.
While some might see this as too much information, the
streams mentioned represent only a fraction of the complex system of drainages
that create the Yuba watershed. I’m trying to give you some sense of the
wonderful complexity of our neighborhood.
