Codornices Creek

Cordonices Creek is a feature at the base of the Berkeley Rose Garden. This image shows heavy rains and the culvert.
Codornices Creek
Codornices Creek at Live Oak Park in Berkeley, California
Codornices Creek is located in California
Codornices Creek
Location of the mouth of Codornices Creek in California
Etymologycodornices, Spanish for quails
Location
CountryUnited States
StateCalifornia
RegionAlameda County
CitiesAlbany, Berkeley
Physical characteristics
SourceBerkeley Hills
MouthSan Francisco Bay
 • location
Golden Gate Fields
 • coordinates
37°53′17″N 122°18′35″W / 37.88806°N 122.30972°W / 37.88806; -122.30972[1]
 • elevation
0 ft (0 m)
Heavy rains in 2019 near the waterfall section by Tamalpais Street

Codornices Creek (sometimes spelled and/or pronounced "Cordonices"[1]), 2.0 miles (3.2 km) long,[2] is one of the principal creeks which runs out of the Berkeley Hills in the East Bay area of the San Francisco Bay Area in California. In its upper stretch, it passes entirely within the city limits of Berkeley, and marks the city limit with the adjacent city of Albany in its lower section. Before European settlement, Codornices probably had no direct, permanent connection to San Francisco Bay. Like many other small creeks, it filtered through what early maps show as grassland to a large, northward-running salt marsh and slough that also carried waters from Marin Creek and Schoolhouse Creek.[3] A channel was cut through in the 19th century, and Codornices flows directly to San Francisco Bay by way of a narrow remnant slough adjacent to Golden Gate Fields racetrack.[4]

  1. ^ a b U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Codornices Creek
  2. ^ U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map Archived 2016-06-30 at the Wayback Machine, accessed March 15, 2011
  3. ^ http://www.fivecreeks.org/maps/#coastal_survey (1856 map), http://www.fivecreeks.org/maps/#land_case_map (1861 map)
  4. ^ Friends of Five Creeks