Don's Home California Putah Creek Timeline & Personal Memories

Includes my history relevant to Putah Creek.

• 3 million years ago The California Central Valley is created as the Pacific plate moves along the San Andras fault taking part of the North American plate with it and the Sierra Nevada microplate pulls away.
  The edge of the North American plate rose up leaving the central valley in the middle. Over the next 3 million years, erosion created numerous streams Putah was likely one of them. *
• 2 million to 10,000 years ago there were eruptions in the Clear Lake Volcanic field. Mt Konocti, and Mt Cobb, the headwaters of Putah Creek, are the highest ones.
  This is where the headwaters of Putah creek are on Mt Cobb.
• 655,000-758,000 years ago, California's Central Valley was covered by a shallow body of water known as Lake Corcoran.
• 1869 My Great Grandfather Jonathan Sikes, who came to California from Ohio for the gold in 1850, established a ranch 1½ miles south of the South Fork of Putah creek on Tremont and Sikes Rd. under the Homestead act of 1862
  There were a lot of settlers establishing farms in the area then.
  
• 1871 A levee on main branch of Putah creek going thru Davis broke and created a new branch to the South.
  They start to deepen it to reroute the steam to the south, but it continued to break thru the levees and go thru the North Branch and flood Davis
  
• In the late 1800's they stopped it from going into the north branch. *
• 1905 The University of California Berkeley's College of Agriculture, set up an experimental farm in Davis,
• 1936 The Arboretum was founded to support teaching and research at the UC Berkeleys College of Agriculture North Campus at Davis.
  The first plantings in the Arboretum took place in 1936 during Cal Aggie Labor Day. On this day, student workers planted trees and shrubs along the Waterway, spanning from the bridge on California Avenue to the Redwood Grove.
  My father was a student then, but I never heard him talk about Putah Creek.
  
• In 1938 The Davis Campus was re-named "The UC College of Agriculture at Davis".
  
• late 1940s the Army Corps of Engineers added levees to what is now the South Fork Putah Creek.
• 1953 - 1957: Monticello Dam was built creating Lake Berryessa.
• In 1959 UCD gained full university status as the University of California at Davis. See UC Davis History.
• 1950's and 60's I made many trips across Putah Creek to visit my grandparents for the holidays. The old bridge was lower so at times flood waters would go over the bridge.
  I don't ever recall eating our pumpkin pie on the banks of Putah Creek.
• 1965 at a UC Davis student workday I worked on cleaning up junk, dead limbs and shrubs along a section of stagnant Putah Creek near where Putah Creek Lodge is now for a small picnic area.
• 1962-1965 Putah creek was a frequent location for student beer busts. My recollection is a little fuzzy.
• 1996 - Putah Creek Accord: Approved by the Solano County Water Agency and- a coalition was formed between the Putah Creek Council, UC Davis, and the City of Davis to request greater in-stream flows for fish.
• 2000 Habitat Restoration for Chinook Salmon in Putah Creek begins following the putah Creek Acccord.
• Lower Putah Creek Watershed Management Action Plan 2005
  
• June 2012 - I rented Putah Creek Lodge for a wedding reception for my son Tom McBride and daughter-in-law, both with UCD Neuroscience graduate degrees.
  
• 2017 Phase one of the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden's Waterway improvement project began
• 2019 I moved back to California from New Jersey and joined "The Rovers" one of many cleanup volunteer crews for the Arboretum.
• 2023 A Rover friend, Nori, and I were walking along the creek in the Riparian Reserve and passed another walker who had just seen a mountain lion near the I-80 underpass. We moved out path up the Levee Rd. I found this footprint the next day. Fish and Game said they regularly follow the creek.
• 2024 - Started Phase 2 and 3 of the Arboretum Waterway Flood Protection and Habitat Enhancement Project

Links:
Discover the History of the Arboretum and the Memories Made Here