The Salinas River (
Rumsen: ''ua kot taiauačorx'') is the longest river of the
Central Coast region of
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, running and draining .
It flows north-northwest and drains the
Salinas Valley
The Salinas Valley is one of the major valleys and most productive agricultural regions in California. It is located west of the San Joaquin Valley and south of San Francisco Bay and the Santa Clara Valley.
The Salinas River, which geologically ...
that slices through the central
California Coast Ranges
The Coast Ranges of California span from Del Norte or Humboldt County, California, south to Santa Barbara County. The other three coastal California mountain ranges are the Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges and the Klamath Mountains. ...
south of
Monterey Bay
Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean located on the coast of the U.S. state of California, south of the San Francisco Bay Area and its major city at the south of the bay, San Jose. San Francisco itself is further north along the coast, by ...
.
[ The river begins in southern ]San Luis Obispo County
San Luis Obispo County (), officially the County of San Luis Obispo, is a county on the Central Coast of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 282,424. The county seat is San Luis Obispo.
Junípero Serra founded the Mis ...
, originating in the Los Machos Hills of the Los Padres National Forest
Los Padres National Forest is a United States national forest in southern and central California. Administered by the United States Forest Service, Los Padres includes most of the mountainous land along the California coast from Ventura to Mo ...
. From there, the river flows north into Monterey County
Monterey County ( ), officially the County of Monterey, is a county located on the Pacific coast in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, its population was 439,035. The county's largest city and county seat is Salinas.
Montere ...
, eventually making its way to connect with the Monterey Bay
Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean located on the coast of the U.S. state of California, south of the San Francisco Bay Area and its major city at the south of the bay, San Jose. San Francisco itself is further north along the coast, by ...
, part of the Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...
, approximately south of Moss Landing. The river is a wildlife corridor
A wildlife corridor, habitat corridor, or green corridor is an area of habitat connecting wildlife populations separated by human activities or structures (such as roads, development, or logging). This allows an exchange of individuals between ...
, and provides the principal source of water from its reservoirs and tributaries for the farms and vineyard
A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyard ...
s of the valley.
Hydrology
In 1769, when the river was first discovered by non-Native peoples via the Portola expedition Portola may refer to:
* ''Portola'' (album), a 1998 album by Rose Melberg
* Portola, California
* Portola, San Francisco, California
People with the surname
* Gaspar de Portolá
Gaspar de Portolá y Rovira (January 1, 1716 – October 10, 1 ...
, it was reported by them as being a "river watering a luxuriant plain" filled with fish weighing . As of the end of 2016, the river had been transformed into little more than a dry bedded run-off feature for the majority of its length.
Until recently, the Salinas River had a continuous flow throughout the year, stretching back to at least 1941 – when United States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...
(USGS) began complete monitoring records in the Salinas area – through 1989. Most probably primarily due to recent increases in agricultural water demand in the Salinas Valley, and the resultant lowering of water tables, the lower reaches of the Salinas river (north of King City) remained entirely dry during the three years 2013–2016.
Nonetheless, with sufficiently heavy rains, and on rare occasions, this now normally dry runoff feature is still capable of quickly transforming itself back into a fast flowing river. In rainfall induced flood conditions, it can at times measure over a mile in width. During the 20th century, such flood conditions are reported to have generally occurred approximately once every 3–10 years. The last similar flooding event along the river was reported in 1998.
The atypical drought-breaking rains of the winter of 2016–2017 restored the river's flow to its lower northern reaches in January 2017.
The current most typical dry or zero flow state of the majority of the river may be more the result of human activity than of any recent changes in weather patterns. Rainfall patterns of recent years in the Salinas area have not significantly changed from historical average rainfall patterns; the 139-year average annual rainfall in Salinas is per year, and the average annual rainfall since 2000 is per year. Recent increases in water use, primarily in the agricultural sector, and the damming of the river and its tributaries may be contributing factors causing the now mostly dry condition of the riverbed.
The Monterey County Water Resources Agency currently operates a water use monitoring program which requires that all agricultural water users self-report annually on the estimated amount of groundwater pumped from the shrinking Salinas Valley aquifer. This is in contrast to some areas of the country where various water authorities both monitor and regulate water use for agriculture.
The previous ecosystem of the Salinas River, which once included steelhead trout, and numerous other species throughout the full length of a once year-round flowing river, has clearly been drastically impacted in recent years by the expanding heavy demands of agricultural water use in the Salinas Valley, and the resulting most typical dry-river conditions.
Despite regularly running dry, the Salinas River has at the same time had occasional notable floods. Amongst these were the flood of 1964 and the flood of 1995.
History
Hypothesized geological history
The geological history of the ancient Salinas River is currently held by tectonic plate theory to likely be rather unique among the many rivers of the western North American seaboard: The shifting position of the raised section of the Pacific Plate
The Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. At , it is the largest tectonic plate.
The plate first came into existence 190 million years ago, at the triple junction between the Farallon, Phoenix, and I ...
that the river flows through was in ancient times aligned with the North American Plate
The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, Cuba, the Bahamas, extreme northeastern Asia, and parts of Iceland and the Azores. With an area of , it is the Earth's second largest tectonic plate, behind the Paci ...
at a point far south of its present location.
The discovery of the Monterey Canyon, the remarkably deep submarine canyon
A submarine canyon is a steep-sided valley cut into the seabed of the continental slope, sometimes extending well onto the continental shelf, having nearly vertical walls, and occasionally having canyon wall heights of up to 5 km, from c ...
extending into the Pacific from the mouth of the Salinas River, is the basis for the proposal of what is presently thought to be the most probable geological history of the Salinas River.
The long and deep submarine
A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...
Monterey Canyon dwarfs all other such canyons along the Pacific coast of North America. However, the known flow-rates and drainage area of the Salinas River in no way indicate the river as it presently stands was ever capable of creating such a large submarine outflow canyon. The current theory is that at one point in the Miocene epoch, many millions of years ago, the river was probably located in the vicinity of what is now Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...
, having moved north to its present position due to tectonic plate drift at the same rate as currently. When the ancient Salinas river was in that southern location, it may have served as the mouth of a river that drained the catchment of the Colorado River
The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...
, that presently empties into the Sea of Cortez
The Gulf of California ( es, Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Bermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja C ...
in western Mexico
Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...
.
The Salinas River is also thought, about 700,000 years ago, to have been the outlet for prehistoric Lake Corcoran. Lake Corcoran once filled much of what is now California's Central Valley, prior to the lake having developed a route via the Carquinez Strait
The Carquinez Strait (; Spanish: ''Estrecho de Carquinez'') is a narrow tidal strait in Northern California. It is part of the tidal estuary of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin rivers as they drain into the San Francisco Bay. The strait is ...
, to empty through the present San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland.
San Francisco Bay drains water f ...
.[
]
Prehistory
People first appeared along the California coast – approximately 13,000 years ago, during the latter part of the Pleistocene epoch
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the '' Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed i ...
.
Up until European settlement in Alta California
Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...
, the indigenous people
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
who lived along the Salinas River were the Rumsen in the northern Salinas Valley
The Salinas Valley is one of the major valleys and most productive agricultural regions in California. It is located west of the San Joaquin Valley and south of San Francisco Bay and the Santa Clara Valley.
The Salinas River, which geologically ...
, and the Salinan
The Salinan are a Native American tribe whose ancestral territory is in the southern Salinas Valley and the Santa Lucia Range in the Central Coast of California. Today, the Salinan governments are now working toward federal tribal recognition ...
in the southern Salinas Valley
The Salinas Valley is one of the major valleys and most productive agricultural regions in California. It is located west of the San Joaquin Valley and south of San Francisco Bay and the Santa Clara Valley.
The Salinas River, which geologically ...
.
The Chalon and Esselen peoples also lived in the general area near the Salinas River.
Mission era
The Salinas river was first sighted by European settlers on 27 September 1769. This first European contact with the river was recorded by the Spanish "colonizing expedition" of Gaspar de Portolà
Gaspar is a given and/or surname of French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish origin, cognate to Casper (given name) or Casper (surname).
It is a name of biblical origin, per Saint Gaspar, one of the wise men mentioned in the Bible.
Notable peo ...
. As was the practice of the Spanish government in the New World
The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...
at the time, soldiers and priests were then typically sent out on such colonizing expeditions.
The Portolá expedition included Franciscan priests, who soon thereafter established two missions along the banks of the Salinas river (then referred to as ''el Rio de Monterey''.)
The new missions built along the banks of the Salinas river were the Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad
Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad ( es, Misión Nuestra Señora de la Soledad), commonly known as Mission Soledad, is a Spanish mission located in Soledad, California. The mission was founded by the Franciscan order on October 9, 1791 to co ...
established in 1791, and the Mission San Miguel Arcángel
Mission San Miguel Arcángel is a Spanish mission in San Miguel, California. It was established on July 25, 1797 by the Franciscan order, on a site chosen specifically due to the large number of Salinan Indians that inhabited the area, whom th ...
, established in 1797.
The Mission San Antonio de Padua
Mission San Antonio de Padua is a Spanish mission established by the Franciscan order in present-day Monterey County, California, near the present-day town of Jolon. Founded on July 14, 1771, it was the third mission founded in Alta California ...
was established during this same time period in the Salinas Valley, but not on the river itself. These three missions were a part of the chain of 21 missions, then commissioned by the Spanish government in Alta California
Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...
, now the U.S. State of California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
. All three of the Salinas Valley missions remain intact to this day, the Soledad mission having evolved into the City of Soledad, and the San Miguel mission having evolved into the unincorporated village of San Miguel. The San Antonio mission is now embedded in Fort Hunter Liggett
Fort Hunter Liggett is a United States Army fort in Jolon, California, in southern Monterey County, California. The fort, named in 1941 after General Hunter Liggett, is primarily used as a training facility, where activities such as field maneuve ...
(a U.S. Army garrison).
The mission era ended with the 1848 American seizure of California from Mexico. The City of Monterey, about 10 miles south of the mouth of the Salinas (at that time), was the capital city of Alta California
Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...
, and the site of the 7 July 1846 invasion by American warships, commanded by Admiral J.D. Sloat.
20th century
As a result of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity ...
, the river mouth at Monterey Bay
Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean located on the coast of the U.S. state of California, south of the San Francisco Bay Area and its major city at the south of the bay, San Jose. San Francisco itself is further north along the coast, by ...
was diverted south from an area between Moss Landing and Watsonville
Watsonville is a city in Santa Cruz County, California, located in the Monterey Bay Area of the Central Coast of California. The population was 52,590 according to the 2020 census. Predominantly Latino and Democratic, Watsonville is a self- ...
to a new channel just north of Marina
A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : ''marina'', "coast" or "shore") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats.
A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or ...
.
The historic increase in agriculture and settlement in the area, and the related increased water consumption demands have had a significant impact on the Salinas River. The river now typically remains dry or without flow for the majority of the year, and downstream (north) of King City remained fully dry or with zero flow during the years 2013–2016.
Name
During the Spanish / Mexican / Mission period, the river was named ''El Rio de Monterey''. When first encountered by the Spanish Portola Expedition Portola may refer to:
* ''Portola'' (album), a 1998 album by Rose Melberg
* Portola, California
* Portola, San Francisco, California
People with the surname
* Gaspar de Portolá
Gaspar de Portolá y Rovira (January 1, 1716 – October 10, 1 ...
on 27 September 1769, the members of the expedition at first suspected that they had found the Carmel River, that had been discovered earlier by Vizcaíno. One of the party members, Father Crespi, then proposed that the alinas Aluminium indium arsenide, also indium aluminium arsenide or AlInAs ( Alx In1−x As), is a semiconductor material with very nearly the same lattice constant as GaInAs, but a larger bandgap. The ''x'' in the formula above is a number between 0 and ...
river might be a different river, and that it should therefore be given a new name, however he appears to have been over-ruled by the other members of his party at the time.
The first agreed upon name for the river, as it subsequently appeared on many Spanish and Mexican maps, was ''Rio de Monterey'', presumably being named after the newly founded nearby town of Monterey
Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under bot ...
, the capital of Alta California
Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...
. The earliest recorded use of this name for the river was a reference made by Fr. Pedro Font on 4 March 1776. This name continued in use as late as 1850.
After the American annexation of the area, it was renamed the ''Salinas River''. The river was apparently renamed as the "Salinas" river by an American cartographer in 1858, ten years after the 1848 American seizure of Alta California
Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...
from Mexico
Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...
. In 1858 the newer name "Salinas" first appeared on an American-made map as the ''Rio Salinas'', most probably so renamed after the nearby American-founded town of Salinas, which in turn appears to have first been named in 1854 after the old Rancho Las Salinas Rancho Las Salinas also called El Tucho was a four-square-league () Ranchos of California, Spanish land concession in the Salinas Valley, in present day Monterey County, California.
It was given in 1795 to Antonio Aceves and Antonio Romero. A Me ...
land grant, parts of which included the city.
River course
Headwaters
The river begins in southern San Luis Obispo County
San Luis Obispo County (), officially the County of San Luis Obispo, is a county on the Central Coast of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 282,424. The county seat is San Luis Obispo.
Junípero Serra founded the Mis ...
, approximately east of the summit point of Pine Ridge, at a point just off of Agua Escondido Road, coming down off of the slopes of the Los Machos Hills of the Los Padres National Forest
Los Padres National Forest is a United States national forest in southern and central California. Administered by the United States Forest Service, Los Padres includes most of the mountainous land along the California coast from Ventura to Mo ...
. The only dam situated directly on the Salinas River (the Salinas Dam) forms the small Santa Margarita Reservoir.
Upriver
The Salinas flows down the valley bounded on its southwestern side by the Santa Lucia Mountain Range, and bounded on its northeastern side by the Gabilan Mountain Range. It flows past Atascadero and Paso Robles
Paso Robles ( ), officially El Paso de Robles (Spanish for "The Pass of Oaks"), is a city in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Located on the Salinas River approximately north of San Luis Obispo, the city is known for its ho ...
(to Monterey). It receives the natural outflow of the Estrella River and the controlled outflows of the Nacimiento and San Antonio
("Cradle of Freedom")
, image_map =
, mapsize = 220px
, map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = United States
, subdivision_type1= State
, subdivision_name1 = Texas
, subdivision_ ...
reservoirs through their respective river tributaries in southern Monterey County
Monterey County ( ), officially the County of Monterey, is a county located on the Pacific coast in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, its population was 439,035. The county's largest city and county seat is Salinas.
Montere ...
.
The river passes through the active San Ardo Oil Field, and then into and through the Salinas Valley. It flows past many small towns in the valley, including King City, Greenfield
Greenfield or Greenfields may refer to:
Engineering and Business
* Greenfield agreement, an employment agreement for a new organisation
* Greenfield investment, the investment in a structure in an area where no previous facilities exist
* Greenf ...
, and Soledad, where it combines with the flash-flood prone Arroyo Seco, its fourth major tributary (in wet years).
Outflow
It flows south of the city of Salinas before cutting through Fort Ord
Fort Ord is a former United States Army post on Monterey Bay of the Pacific Ocean coast in California, which closed in 1994 due to Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) action. Most of the fort's land now makes up the Fort Ord National Monument, ...
and flows into central Monterey Bay approximately 3 miles west of Castroville.
The final stretch of the river forms a lagoon protected by the Salinas River National Wildlife Refuge and its outflow to Monterey Bay is blocked by sand dunes except during winter high-water flows.
Pre-1906 course
The land owners altered the course of the river by filling in the river bed during the dry season. This allowed them to farm all of their land and use the water as they saw fit. The old stream bed went from the Old Salinas River, joining Elkhorn Slough on Monterey Bay near Moss Landing, to the present course where the main channel's mouth
In animal anatomy, the mouth, also known as the oral cavity, or in Latin cavum oris, is the opening through which many animals take in food and issue vocal sounds. It is also the cavity lying at the upper end of the alimentary canal, bounded on ...
is directly on the Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...
.
The old Salinas River channel that diverts north behind the sand dunes along the ocean, acts as an overflow channel during the rainy season.
River Road
Commencing from Hill Town
{{Unreferenced, date=May 2010
A hill town is any citadel town built upon hills to make invasion difficult. Often protected by defensive walls, steep embankments, or cliffs, such hilltop settlements provided natural defenses for their inhabitants. ...
running south along the western banks of the Salinas River to Gonzales is River Road. This road also falls along the edge of the Santa Lucia Highlands AVA, giving rise to its designation as River Road Wine Trail.
Ecology
Before the arrival of Hispanic and American settlers in the area, the Salinas River was once home to abundant fish and beaver populations.
Regarding historical fish populations, the Arroyo Seco is the only major Salinas River tributary which has remained un-dammed and as of 2015, still supported a small remnant population of the threatened Central Coast Steelhead trout
Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the common name of the anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or redband trout (O. m. gairdneri). Steelhead are native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific basin in Northeast Asia and ...
(''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') that once spawned throughout in the Salinas River watershed. At one time it was also an important middle link for salmon migrating from the Salinas River to Tassajara Creek and other tributaries.
Estrella River also remains un-dammed. A 2015 assessment of the survivability of the river's steelhead trout indicated that such a survival may be unlikely, due to the river's recent tendency to run dry for most of the year.[
Other tributaries of the Salinas River that supported steelhead trout once included Paso Robles Creek, Jack Creek, Atascadero Creek, Santa Margarita Creek and Trout Creek in the upper reaches of the River. It once took over ten days for the steelhead from the upper part of the watershed to migrate to the Pacific Ocean near the City of Marina on Monterey Bay. From there, the steelhead would migrate to the area west of the Aleutian Islands before returning to the spawning grounds in the tributaries of the Salinas River.][ As noted, the trout life-cycle which requires an annual migration to the sea and then back, was broken during the dry-river conditions of the years 2013–2016, and the current fate of the river's steelhead trout remains uncertain at best.
Father Pedro Font described salmon in the Salinas River (''Rio de Monterey'') on the de Anza Expedition in March 1776:
]... there are obtained also many good salmon which enter the river to spawn. Since they are fond of fresh water they ascend the streams so far that I am assured that even at the mission of San Antonio some of the fish which ascend the Rio de Monterey have been caught. Of this fish we ate almost every day while we were here.
If Father Font was describing salmon (and not steelhead), then his records suggest that salmon once traversed the Salinas River main stem and up its San Antonio River
The San Antonio River is a major waterway that originates in central Texas in a cluster of springs in midtown San Antonio, about 4 miles north of downtown, and follows a roughly southeastern path through the state. It eventually feeds into the ...
tributary to Mission San Antonio near what is now Jolon. This may support other historical observer records primarily in the form of oral histories taken and compiled by H.A. Franklin[ that placed ]Chinook salmon
The Chinook salmon (''Oncorhynchus tshawytscha'') is the largest and most valuable species of Pacific salmon in North America, as well as the largest in the genus '' Oncorhynchus''. Its common name is derived from the Chinookan peoples. Other ...
in the mainstem as far south as Atascadero where Highway 41 crosses, as well as southern tributaries of the Salinas River, including the Las Tablas Creek tributary of the Nacimiento River, and Jack Creek, a tributary of Paso Robles Creek west of Templeton.
In regards to the area's historical beaver population, after a period of depletion by 19th-century fur trappers, California golden beaver (''Castor canadensis subauratus'') populations rebounded and expanded their range from the Salinas River mouth to the San Antonio River
The San Antonio River is a major waterway that originates in central Texas in a cluster of springs in midtown San Antonio, about 4 miles north of downtown, and follows a roughly southeastern path through the state. It eventually feeds into the ...
tributary below its reservoir and beyond to the upper Salinas River watershed. More recent accounts suggested that beaver are no longer found along the northern reaches of the river, a recent comprehensive survey found beaver throughout the entire Salinas River mainstem and virtually all of its major tributaries, including the Estrella River.
Agricultural use
The use of the river for irrigation
Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been devel ...
in the Salinas Valley makes it one of the most productive agricultural
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peopl ...
regions in California. It is especially known as one of the principal regions for lettuce
Lettuce (''Lactuca sativa'') is an annual plant of the family Asteraceae. It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable, but sometimes for its stem and seeds. Lettuce is most often used for salads, although it is also seen in other kinds of food, ...
and artichoke
The globe artichoke (''Cynara cardunculus'' var. ''scolymus'' ),Rottenberg, A., and D. Zohary, 1996: "The wild ancestry of the cultivated artichoke." Genet. Res. Crop Evol. 43, 53–58. also known by the names French artichoke and green articho ...
s in the United States.
The river is shallow above ground, periodically dry, with much of its flow underground. The underground flow results from numerous aquifers, which are recharged by water from the Salinas, especially from the Nacimiento and San Antonio lakes during the dry months. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, the river valley provided the route of El Camino Real, the principal overland route from southern to northern Alta California
Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...
, used by Spanish explorers and missionaries and early Mexican settlers.
See also
*Anne B. Fisher
Anne Benson Fisher (February 1, 1898 – March 5, 1967) was an American writer of fiction and non-fiction whose primary emphasis was California. Her two most significant works were her novel ''Cathedral in the Sun'' (1940) and her contribution t ...
— "The Salinas, Upside Down River"
* List of rivers of California
References
External links
Upper Salinas-Las Tablas Resource Conservation District
County Of Monterey – county homepage
{{Monterey Bay Area
Rivers of San Luis Obispo County, California
Rivers of Kings County, California
Rivers of Monterey County, California
Drainage basins of Monterey Bay
Los Padres National Forest
Salinas Valley
Rivers of Southern California
Rivers of Northern California