Dennis Martin Creek
| Martin Creek | |
| Dennis Martin Creek | |
| stream | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | California |
| Region | San Mateo County |
| City | Woodside, California |
| Source | Northeast slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains |
| - location | Woodside |
| - elevation | 1,400 ft (427 m) |
| - coordinates | 37°22′49″N 122°15′31″W / 37.38028°N 122.25861°W |
| Mouth | Confluence with Corte Madera Creek |
| - location | Border of Woodside, California and Stanford University |
| - elevation | 358 ft (109 m) |
| - coordinates | 37°24′36″N 122°14′18″W / 37.41000°N 122.23833°WCoordinates: 37°24′36″N 122°14′18″W / 37.41000°N 122.23833°W |
Martin Creek, known locally as Dennis Martin Creek, is a 1.4-mile-long (2.3 km) north by northeastward-flowing stream originating just east of Skyline Boulevard in the Santa Cruz Mountains, near the community of Skylonda in San Mateo County, California, United States. It flows through the town of Woodside before joining Sausal Creek on Stanford University lands just across the border from Woodside. Sausal Creek enters Corte Madera Creek, which in turn enters San Francisquito Creek below Searsville Reservoir and flows to San Francisco Bay.
The namesake of Dennis Martin Creek has a fascinating history. Dennis Martin was the Canadian-American son of William Martin, who with his parents and siblings, began a cross-country trek from Missouri to California in 1844. At the urging of a Jesuit priest, the Martin family 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 party became the first pioneers to cross the Sierra Nevada into California. Their route was the same as that chosen by the ill-fated Donner Party two years later. Upon reaching Truckey's Lake (now Donner Lake) on November 14, 1844, the party left six of their eleven wagons because of difficulties getting the wagons 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 only by trapping High Sierra foxes 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 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. Upon learning of the plight of Moses Schallenberger, twenty-three-year-old Martin crossed the snowbound Sierras in mid-winter to rescue Schallenberger at Donner Lake in February, 1845. Martin showed Schallenberger how to construct proper snowshoes and successfully the two recrossed the Sierras to the Central Valley.
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Wikipedia