View source for Martin Creek (Sausal Creek tributary)

{{Infobox river
| name               = Martin Creek
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| name_other         = Dennis Martin Creek<ref>{{cite book |title=Historic Spots in California, 3rd edition |author=Mildred B. Hoover |year=1966 |publisher=Stanford University Press |location=Stanford, California |page=400 }}</ref>
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| subdivision_type1  = Country
| subdivision_name1  = [[United States]]
| subdivision_type2  = State
| subdivision_name2  = [[California]]
| subdivision_type3  = Region
| subdivision_name3  = [[San Mateo County, California|San Mateo County]]
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| subdivision_type5  = City
| subdivision_name5  = [[Woodside, California]]
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| source1            = Northeast slope of the [[Santa Cruz Mountains]]
| source1_location   = [[Woodside, California|Woodside]]
| source1_coordinates= {{coord|37|22|49|N|122|15|31|W|display=inline}}<ref name=gnis>{{gnis|228169|Martin Creek}}</ref>
| source1_elevation  = {{convert|1400|ft|abbr=on}}
| mouth              = Confluence with [[Corte Madera Creek (San Mateo County, California)|Corte Madera Creek]]
| mouth_location     = Border of [[Woodside, California]] and [[Stanford University]]
| mouth_coordinates  = {{coord|37|24|36|N|122|14|18|W|display=inline,title}}<ref name=gnis/>
| mouth_elevation    = {{convert|358|ft|abbr=on}}<ref name=gnis/>
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'''Martin Creek''', known locally as '''Dennis Martin Creek''', is a {{convert|1.4|mi|km|adj=mid|-long}}<ref name=NHD>U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. [http://viewer.nationalmap.gov/viewer/ The National Map] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120329155652/http://viewer.nationalmap.gov/viewer/ |date=2012-03-29 }}, accessed September 18, 2011</ref> north by northeastward-flowing [[stream]] originating just east of [[California State Route 35|Skyline Boulevard]] in the [[Santa Cruz Mountains]], near the community of [[Sky Londa, California|Skylonda]] in [[San Mateo County, California]]. It flows through the town of [[Woodside, California|Woodside]] before crossing Portola Road and joining [[Sausal Creek (San Mateo County)|Sausal Creek]] on [[Stanford University]] lands just across the border from Woodside. Sausal Creek enters [[Searsville Dam|Searsville Reservoir]], which flows to [[San Francisco Bay]] via [[San Francisquito Creek]].
== History ==
[[File:Easton Map 1868 Official Map of the County of San Mateo, California- Including City and County of San Francisco by A.S. Easton, County Surveyor, S.M.C. 1868.jpg |thumb |right |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.]]
Dennis Martin, the Canadian-American son of William Martin, and his parents and siblings began a cross-country trek from Missouri to California in 1844. At a Jesuit priest's urgings, they had joined two other Irish families—the Murphys and the Sullivans—to leave Missouri in search of “Catholic institutions” in the West. The [[Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party]] became the first pioneers to cross the [[Sierra Nevada (U.S.)|Sierra Nevada]] into California. Their route was the same chosen by the ill-fated [[Donner Party]] two years later.<ref name=Davids/> On reaching Truckey's Lake (now [[Donner Lake]]) on November 14, 1844, the party left six of their eleven wagons because of difficulties getting them over what would become [[Donner Pass]]. Eighteen-year-old [[Moses Schallenberger]] spent the winter there alone, watching over the wagons, surviving the impassably deep snows by trapping [[Sierra Nevada red fox|fox]]es for food. The rest of the party spent the winter in the upper [[Yuba River]] valley, until most of the men were enticed to fight with [[John A. Sutter|Captain John Sutter]] for Mexican California Governor [[Manuel Micheltorena]], in exchange for promises of land grants. Instead of joining them, Dennis Martin returned to the upper Yuba with supplies for the women and children. On learning of Moses Schallenberger's plight, 23-year-old Martin crossed the snowbound Sierras in mid-winter to rescue Schallenberger at Donner Lake in February, 1845.<ref name="Dorothy Regnery">{{cite journal |title=Dennis Martin once owned Stanford's backlands, including SLAC, Jasper Ridge, and Webb Ranch |author=Dorothy Regnery |journal=Stanford Historical Society Newsletter |date=September 1983 |url=http://histsoc.stanford.edu/pdfST/ST7no3.pdf |accessdate=2011-09-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927162417/http://histsoc.stanford.edu/pdfST/ST7no3.pdf |archive-date=2011-09-27 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He showed Schallenberger how to construct proper snowshoes and the two successfully recrossed the Sierras to the Central Valley.<ref>{{cite book |title=Moses Schallenberger at Truckey's Lake, 1844-1845 |author=Moses Schallenberger |editor=Charles H. Todd |publisher=19th Century Publications |location=Winters, California |year=2007 }}</ref>
Martin worked for [[John A. Sutter|Captain John A. Sutter]] in the summer of 1845, who sent him to supervise three Indians cutting redwood on the San Francisco Peninsula. While so employed, Dennis Martin met a fellow Irishman, John Coppinger.<ref name=Davids>{{cite web |title=A Short Hike to Schilling Lake and Dennis Martin Creek, Thornewood Open Space Preserve (In Search of Sawmills on the Peninsula) |author=Tom Davids |url=http://www.weeklywalker.com/Walks%20by%20county/San%20Mateo/Thornewood_Schilling-Dennis%20Martin%20Cr..htm |accessdate=2011-09-18 }}</ref> Then Martin sought and found gold on the [[Mokelumne River|Mokelumne]] and [[Stanislaus River|Stanislaus]] Rivers in partnership with Daniel Murphy, his transcontinental companion, and [[Charles Maria Weber]], the founder of [[Stockton, California|Stockton]]. Quickly making his fortune in gold, Martin bought 1,500 acres of land north of San Francisquito Creek from his friend John Coppinger, the grantee of [[Rancho Cañada de Raymundo]], for $1,500. This property is now marked by the [[SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory|Stanford Linear Accelerator Center]]. Then he purchased the wooded slopes of the creek he named for himself from the [[Rancho Corte de Madera]] including much of the modern day [[Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve]], the [[Ladera, California|Ladera]] subdivision and the Webb Ranch. Martin established an upper and lower sawmill on Dennis Martin Creek, the lower mill about a half-mile downstream from Schilling Lake.<ref>{{cite book |title=Sawmills in the Redwoods: Logging on the San Francisco Peninsula, 1849-1967 |author=Frank Merriman Stanger |publisher=San Mateo County Historical Association |year=1967 |page=28 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EvbWAAAAMAAJ&q=dennis+martin |accessdate=2011-09-18 }}</ref> Martin encouraged his relatives and friends in [[Canada]] and [[Missouri]] to join him, and many of these made up the early population of the historic mill town of Searsville, inundated by [[Searsville Dam]] in 1892. After financial misfortune and land disputes typical of the era,<ref>{{cite news |title=Sheriff Sale |publisher=San Mateo County Gazette News |date=October 1861 |url=http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sanmateo/history/gazette/smnews44.htm |accessdate=2011-09-18 }}</ref> his lands were bought by [[Leland Stanford]] in November, 1882. Dennis Martin died in June 1890 and was buried at the St. Dennis Cemetery (Martin had built his own church) on his former property (by then Stanford's).<ref name="Dorothy Regnery"/>
The creek's watershed includes the historic Thornewood House, a 1920s estate built by Julian Thorne and surrounded by 3.5 acres of landscaping and gorgeous valley views. This 87-acre estate was willed to the [[Sierra Club Foundation]] and later given to the [[Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District]]. Currently, the house and 10-acre private leasehold are closed and under restoration.<ref name=Thornewood>{{cite web |title=Thornewood Open Space Preserve |publisher=Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District |url=http://www.openspace.org/preserves/pr_thornewood.asp |accessdate=2011-09-18 }}</ref>
Schilling Lake<ref>{{cite gnis|232649|Schilling Lake}}</ref> is named for August Schilling, the “King of Spice”, who founded [[A. Schilling & Company]] in San Francisco in 1881. Schilling purchased the land from Julian Thorne, who purchased it from Edward Preston (attorney), who purchased it from the pioneer and lumberman, Dennis Martin.<ref name=Davids/>
== Watershed ==
Martin Creek drains second growth [[Sequoia sempervirens|coast redwood]] (''Sequoia sempervirens'') forest as it descends the northeastern slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains. It traverses the Thornewood Open Space Preserve where it is met by an ephemeral stream that drains Schilling Lake. Shortly after crossing under Old La Honda Road the creek reaches the [[San Andreas Fault]] zone and crosses Portola Road where the ground becomes nearly level and it is one of a nexus of half a dozen creeks that coalesce in a large freshwater marsh to form [[Corte Madera Creek (San Mateo County, California)|Corte Madera Creek]]. Dennis Martin Creek flows into Sausal Creek just upstream of the reservoir area at the Family Farm Road bridge. From there Sausal Creek is joined by Corte Madera Creek just before entering [[Searsville Dam|Searsville Reservoir]]. Old maps show that Dennis Martin Creek and [[Alambique Creek]], both tributaries of [[Sausal Creek (San Mateo County, California)|Sausal Creek]], surrounded the historic town of [[Searsville, California|Searsville]] before it was inundated by the [[Searsville Dam|Searsville Dam and Reservoir]].<ref>{{cite web
|title= San Francisquito Watershed and Alluvial Fan, in Creek & Watershed Map of Palo Alto & Vicinity
|author= Janet M. Sowers
|publisher=Oakland Museum of California
|url=http://museumca.org/creeks/1460-SFrancisquitoWS-Big.html
|year= 2005
|accessdate= 2011-09-18}}
</ref>
== Ecology ==
Dennis Martin Creek and the other Corte Madera Creek tributaries and mainstem were historically [[steelhead trout]] (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') streams; however, access to the creek has been blocked since 1890 by [[Searsville Dam]].<ref name=Skinner>{{cite book|author=Skinner, John E. |year=1962 |title=The Freshwater Fish and Fisheries of the San Francisco Bay Area |url=http://www.estuaryarchive.org/archive/skinner_1962/7/ |publisher=California Department of Fish and Game, Water Projects Branch Report no. 1. Sacramento, California: California Department of Fish and Game |accessdate=2010-09-20 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726035220/http://www.estuaryarchive.org/archive/skinner_1962/7/ |archivedate=2011-07-26 }}</ref><ref name=Leidy>{{cite web
|title=Historical distribution and current status of steelhead/rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in streams of the San Francisco Estuary, California.
|author=Leidy, R.A., G.S. Becker, B.N. Harvey
|url= http://www.cemar.org/pdf/sanmateoandsanfrancisco.pdf |publisher=Center for Ecosystem Management and Restoration, Oakland, CA.
|year=2005
|accessdate=2011-09-18 }}</ref> According to local historian Dorothy Regnery's notes from her 1966 interview with Edgar H. Batchelder, who was 2 years old when his father became caretaker of Searsville dam in 1897, his "favorite place to fish for trout was in Dennis Martin Creek."<ref>{{cite interview |subject2=E.H. Barchelder personal interviews |title=Dorothy F. Regnery papers |year=1966 |last1=Regnery |first1=Dorothy |publisher=Department of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries |page=5 |volume=M0479, box 6, folder 13<!--|accessdate=2011-09-18-->}}</ref>
== Recreation ==
Hiking trails are available in the 167 acre Thornewood Open Space Preserve, part of the [[Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District]] system, including the Bridal Trail and an easy walk to Lake Schilling along the wooded 3/4 mile Schilling Lake Trail. The preserve is accessed from the south side of La Honda Road (Highway 84), 1.6 miles past its intersection with Portola Road in Woodside.<ref name=Thornewood/>
== See also ==
*[[List of watercourses in the San Francisco Bay Area]]
== Books ==
* {{Cite book |last=Crane |first=Bo |date=2015 |title=The Life and Times of Dennis Martin |publisher=Bo Crane Books |location=Palo Alto, California  |isbn=978-0-9962771-0-5}}
== References ==
{{reflist}}
== External links ==
*[http://museumca.org/creeks/1460-SFrancisquitoWS-Big.html San Francisquito Watershed & Alluvial Fan] at [[Oakland Museum of California]] website
*[http://www.sanfrancisquito.org/ San Francisquito Watershed Council]
*[http://museumca.org/creeks/1460-OMSFrancisquitoUpr.html# Upper Watershed San Francisquito Creek Watershed] prepared by the [[Oakland Museum of California]]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110807063241/http://www.woodsidetown.org/PDF/Woodside_creeks_flyer.pdf The Creeks that Flow through Woodside] by the Bear Creek League of Advocates for the Watershed (Bear CLAW)
{{Santa Cruz Mountains}}
[[Category:Woodside, California]]
[[Category:Portola Valley, California]]
[[Category:Rivers of San Mateo County, California]]
[[Category:Rivers of Northern California]]
[[Category:Tributaries of San Francisquito Creek]]