By Michael Webster
San Mateo Creek is notable for being one of the last un-channelized streams in Southern California. San Mateo Creek is a stream in the United States, whose watershed mostly straddles the border of Orange and San Diego Counties. It is about 22 miles long, flowing in a generally southwesterly direction. Draining a broad valley bounded by the Santa Ana Mountains and Santa Margarita Mountains.
It has been reported that it is one of the least developed watersheds on the South Coast of Southern California. San Mateo Creek's drainage basin covers 139 square miles, much of which is in the Cleveland National Forest and Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.
It has dismayed many and surprised others that there is reported gold in the San Mateo Creek in the Santa Ana Mountains. This creek and the entire mountains are surrounded by one of the most populated ares in the country. Prospectors rarely find gold near big cities as they go looking for the precious metal. (gold). The best mining occurred southwest of Los Angeles near the border of Orange County and Riverside County.
According to legend the gold was found here long before the Europeans or Spanish arrived. Southern California doesn't come to mind when you think of California gold. It is not known for its gold strikes as the famous northern parts of the state such as the 49'ers. Some old timers have reported they have made their living by mining for gold in these mountains in past generations.
Folks amazingly can still prospect and stake claims on public lands in the area, Folklore has it the Spanish and Mexicans were doing some mining in this region long before the Gold Rush to California started. These were small operations, More often it was just lone prospectors recovering gold from the creeks.
Folks amazingly can still prospect and stake claims on public lands in the area, Folklore has it the Spanish and Mexicans were doing some mining in this region long before the Gold Rush to California started. These were small operations, More often it was just lone prospectors recovering gold from the creeks.
The early miners were crushing ores and recovering precious gold from hard rock caves like this one 
and placer finds. It is believed they were not just mining gold, but were also mining silver, lead, ten and other minerals.
It has been reported that there are parts of Arrastras that remain and that have been found throughout the area. I myself have seen at least remnants of one very old Arrastras , I have also spotted tailing piles, where I believe the early Indians used blanket time rags to sift and separate the medals from the over burden. An Arrastra (or Arastra) is a primitive mill for grinding and pulverizing (typically) gold or silver ore. The simplest form of the arrastra as shawn below is two or more flat-bottomed drag stones placed in a circular pit paved with flat stones, and connected to a center post by a long arm.
The first known inhabitants of the area were Native Americans primarily of the Acjachemen and Luiseño groups, followed by the Spanish who established Ranchos in the area. The creek's usually perennial flow made it an important source of irrigation water, then in the later 19th century, there was a gold rush in the upper watersheds of water in the San Mateo and Lucas creeks. Today most of the little development in the watershed is now agriculture-based.
Other areas of interest to prospectors in the San Mateo Creek watershed includes the subwatersheds of Los Alamos Canyon Creek, Tenaja Canyon Creek, Devil Canyon Creek and Cristianitos Creek with its tributaries of Talega and Gabino Creeks. Although grazing activities have hurt the biological quality of the semi-arid, Mediterranean-climate watershed, it still supports numerous biological communities including riparian zones, grassland and coastal sage scrub.
Placer mining has taken place in San Juan Creek, Lucas Canyon, San mateo and other drainages in this area. Of course, there is very little water in this part of the country, so traditional placer mining techniques often don’t work well here so some damming may be necessary.
This can be both good and bad. While it creates additional challenges by requiring you to either pack in water, or use a dry method like metal detecting or dry washing, this has also limited interest by other miners.
The 22-mile long San Mateo Creek begins its course in a canyon in the extreme southeastern end of the Santa Ana Mountains, which lie mostly in Riverside County. From there, the creek continues through a steep and narrow gorge for the first part of its course, then a broad and shallower valley for the second part. It receives four major tributaries and many smaller ones on its generally southwest journey to the Pacific Ocean.
San Mateo Creek has its source, at an elevation of 2800 feet, in the canyon on the west face of the unofficially named 3,591 ft. San Mateo Peak, at the western end of the ridge running west then northwest from Elsinore Peak to Morrell Canyon, south and west of the Morrell Potrero in the Elsinore Mountains. From its headwaters south of Lake Elsinore inside the Cleveland National Forest, San Mateo Creek runs southwards through the valley of the old Rancho at the Potrero de la Cienaga which as its name suggests feeds the creek with several springs. The canyon widens and deepens as it runs south for several miles it turns southeast to the Tenaja Falls where it tumbles down to its confluence with Los Alamos Canyon Creek, that comes in from the left. This creek with its tributary Wildhorse Canyon Creek and two unnamed arroyos drain the southern slopes of Elsinore Peak. Another unnamed arroyo drains the western Santa Rosa Plateau and the east slope of the Squaw Mountain highland and descends to the north to join the creek where it turns to the west.
From its confluence with Los Alamos Canyon Creek, San Mateo Creek turns its course southwest down San Mateo Canyon, cutting a deep arid canyon surrounded by slopes dissected by many side canyons between the Santa Ana and Santa Margarita Mountains where it is believed there was hard rock mining. At river mile (RM) 18 or river kilometer (RK) 28.9, Tenaja Canyon Creek, which flows generally northwest, comes in from the left. Shortly after, at RM 17.5 (RK 28.1) Bluewater Canyon Creek descends from Sitton Peak, to merge with San Mateo Canyon from the right. Nickel Canyon Creek also comes in from the right, descending from the Verdugo Potreroshortly afterward, joining San Mateo Creek just north of the Riverside – San Diego County line.
The creek then continues to flow southwards and Devil Canyon Creek draining the eastern slope of the Santa Margarita Mountains with its tributary, Cold Spring Canyon Creek, comes in from the left at RM 15 (RK 24.1). The Devil Canyon Creek confluence approximately marks the point where San Mateo Creek leaves the Cleveland National Forest. Soon, the narrow 2,500-foot (760 m)-deep canyon gives way to a broad alluvial valley. San Mateo Creek flows past Camp Pendleton, a United States Marine Corps amphibious training base. At RM 3.7 (RK 5.95) Cristianitos Creek, the largest tributary, joins from the right. Cristianitos Creek begins in extreme southeastern Orange County and drains about 29 square miles (75 km2), that includes its tributaries of Talega Canyon Creek and Gabino Canyon Creek and its tributary La Paz Canyon Creek that enter it from the left.
| San Mateo Creek[1] | |
| Arroyo de San Mateo[1], Rio San Mateo[1] | |
| River | |
San Mateo Creek Lagoon at the mouth
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San Mateo Creek then crosses under Interstate 5 and the railroad and then empties into a small, perennial freshwater lagoon bounded by a sandbar at San Onofre State Beach. The lagoon only empties into the sea during the rainy season. This portion of the creek is very close to San Clemente and a small residential area is just to the northeast side of the lagoon. The lagoon remains similar to its natural state as well, although it is increasingly becoming harmed by unnatural pollutants.
Geologically the San Mateo Creek watershed is dominated by the Santa Ana Mountains, whose underlying bedrock consists of Jurassic-age igneous and sedimentary rock, overlain by a few thousand vertical feet of Cretaceous-age granite, gabbro, and tonalite. Underneath the San Mateo Creek valley's several hundred feet of alluvial deposits, there are layers of sandstone, limestone, siltstone, mudstone, shale and conglomerate. These formations are present along most of the streams draining off the west slope of the Santa Ana Mountains and are practically identical as far north as Santiago Creek, which is in north-central Orange County nearly 50 miles away.
The alluvial deposits originate from the Wisconsinian glaciation, in which massive glaciers and ice sheets advanced over much of North America and shifted the global climate. During this roughly 60,000-year-long period that ended in approximately 8000 B.C., Southern California received up to 80 inches (2,000 mm) of rainfall per year, and this radical climate change coincided with a 300-to-400-foot (91 to 122 m) drop in sea level. As the sea levels fell, streams flowing into the Pacific from Southern California began to erode massive canyons in their floodplains.
Sources:
Wikipedia
Prospectors Journal
Cleveland National Forest
Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.
BLM
Open news sources
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