The Guadalupe River is a short river in California that runs from the Santa Cruz Mountains flowing north through San Jose, California, and emptying into the San Francisco Bay at Alviso. The river's course is contained completely in Santa Clara County. Running generally parallel to the river is the Silver Creek Fault. Much of the river is surrounded by parks. The river flows through Almaden Quicksilver County Park, home to former mercury mines dating back to when the area was governed by Mexico. The entire 3 mile downtown stretch, from Interstate 280 to Interstate 880, is part of the Guadalupe River Park and Gardens, one of the largest urban parks currently in development in the United States The river is the home to the only known salmon spawning run through a major U.S. downtown area (outside of Anchorage, Alaska). However, the salmon run is considered endangered, so salmon fishing is currently illegal. Additionally, due to the mercury contamination in the river water, eating other types of fish caught from the Guadalupe River is actively and strongly discouraged.
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History
In 1777, Mission Santa Clara de Thamien and el Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe were founded along the river, but both had to be moved away from the river because of mosquitos in the summertime and flooding during the winter. The historic De Anza Expedition covered much of Santa Clara County, traversing western areas enroute from Monterey to San Francisco, and traveling around the south end of San Francisco Bay and thence through the eastern portions of the county on the return trip after exploration of parts of the East Bay. Juan Bautista de Anza camped along the banks of the Guadalupe River on his 1776 expedition. Specifically he used Expedition Camp 97: On March 30, 1776 near the present–day site of Agnews State Hospital (Santa Clara County, 2001) On July 9, 2005, the fossilized bones of a mammoth were discovered in the Lower Guadalupe River near the Trimble Road overcrossing. The discovery was made by San Jose resident and Guadalupe-Coyote Resource Conservation District volunteer Roger Castillo while walking his dog.[1][2]
Flooding
The river occasionally floods in downtown San Jose, south of downtown, as well as in Alviso. Flooding prompted President Clinton to declare a National Disaster Area in 1995 and 1997. In March 1995, flooding of this river around the San Jose Arena caused the cancellation of a San Jose Sharks game, the only rainout in the history of the National Hockey League.[1] A major flood control project, designed to control a 100-year flood, was completed in December, 2004. The greatest Guadalupe River flood on record occurred in 1955 and was part of the legendary Christmas Week Floods when the Guadalupe River flooded 8,300 acres. [3]
Water quality
The Guadalupe Watershed was an area of intense activity during the California Gold Rush, with the quicksilver mines within Santa Clara County supporting the gold refinement process.{Crimp, 1976) Thus, Mercury toxicity and its effects on surrounding humans and wildlife is a major concern for the area, . Because mercury is an effective magnet for gold, miners during the Gold Rush would regularly lined their sluices with Mercury to amalgamate the gold. An estimated 6,500 tons of mercury was lost in the system of creeks and rivers along the coast between 1850 and 1920, and is currently being detected today in the local streams, animal life, and riverbeds of these affected tributaries.
See also
References
- Guadalupe River flood control project, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
- Fuller, Amanda; Addressing the Environmental Mercury Problem in Watersheds: Remediation in the Guadalupe River Watershed, San Jose, California (PDF); University of California, Berkeley; 2002.
- Sanders, Robert; Elephants in San Jose? (HTML); University of California, Berkeley, 2005.
- unknown; Mammoth bones found in San Jose (HTML); Santa Clara Valley Water District; 2005.
- Santa Clara County, California: Historic and Interpretive Sites (2001)
- Russell, Daniel L., ‘'Derivation of Numeric Wildlife Targets for Methylmercury in the Development of a Total Maximum Daily Load for the Guadalupe River Watershed'‘, U.S Fish and Wildlife Service, April, 2005
- David Crimp, Leda Patmore, C. Michael Hogan, Harry Seidman and Vivian Paparigian, Final Environmental Impact Report, Almaden Quicksilver Park, prepared by Earth Metrics Inc. for the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department (1976)
