Cerrito Creek
| Cerrito Creek | |
| stream | |
| Name origin: "cerrito", Spanish for little hill, referring to Albany Hill] | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | California |
| Regions | Contra Costa County, Alameda County |
| Tributaries | |
| - left | North Fork Cerrito Creek (California), Unnamed creeks north of Fairmount Ave. (California) |
| - right | Middle/Blackberry |
| Cities | Albany, El Cerrito, Berkeley, Kensington, Richmond |
| Primary source | Berkeley Hills |
| - location | above Arlington Avenue, Berkeley |
| - elevation | 500 ft (152 m) |
| - coordinates | 37°54′7″N 122°16′34″W / 37.90194°N 122.27611°W |
| Secondary source | Berkeley Hills |
| - location | above Arlington Avenue, Kensington |
| Mouth | San Francisco Bay |
| - location | south of Pt. Isabel, north of Albany Hill Richmond |
| - elevation | 0 ft (0 m) |
| - coordinates | 37°53′49″N 122°18′43″W / 37.89694°N 122.31194°WCoordinates: 37°53′49″N 122°18′43″W / 37.89694°N 122.31194°W |
| Length | 2 mi (3 km) |
Cerrito Creek is one of the principal watercourses running out of the Berkeley Hills into San Francisco Bay in northern California. It is significant for its use as a boundary demarcation historically, as well as presently. In the early 19th century, it separated the vast Rancho San Antonio to the south from the Castro family's Rancho San Pablo to the north. Today, it marks part of the boundary between Alameda County and Contra Costa County. The main stem, running through a deep canyon that separates Berkeley from Kensington, is joined below San Pablo Avenue by a fan of tributaries, their lower reaches mostly in culverts. The largest of these is Middle or Blackberry Creek, a southern branch.
The creek is named for Albany Hill, formerly called Cerrito de San Antonio, a prominent (elevation 294 ft.) isolated hill on the shoreline of San Francisco Bay in Albany (The hill is now some distance inland due to Bay fill). Cerrito Creek, joined by a fan of other small creeks, formerly meandered to the Bay through a large marsh just north of the hill.
The creek played a part in history larger than its size. Because it divided the two land-grant ranches, it became the division between Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. With Alameda County settled more densely in the early 20th Century boom that followed the San Francisco earthquake, the area just north of the county line became the home of jazz joints, gambling, brothels and other pursuits requiring a light hand from the law. This lasted until a post-World-War-II reform movement in the City of El Cerrito.
The marsh at the creek's mouth also played a curious bit part in history. Regarding such wetlands as useless, 19th and 20th Century settlers set out to fill it, locating a slaughterhouse and dump there. An early 20th Century typhoid scare, however, led to closing of the dump. This left Berkeley, booming with new residents after the great San Francisco earthquake, without a place for its garbage. A new dump south of the hill was quickly arranged, in what is now the City of Albany. Women of that unincorporated area were upset, but they lacked the vote. One morning, they sought to turn back the garbage wagon with guns. Although they gave up when the sheriff ordered them to disperse, male residents who had formerly resisted incorporation then quickly voted to incorporate the city of Ocean View—soon renamed Albany to avoid confusion with the Oceanview district of Berkeley.
...
Wikipedia