Mustang Creek, originally Arroyo de Mesteño (Mustang Creek), later Mustang Gulch, is a short stream that fails to reach the
San Joaquin River
The San Joaquin River ( ; ) is the longest river of Central California. The long river starts in the high Sierra Nevada and flows through the rich agricultural region of the northern San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suisun Bay, San Francis ...
draining the slopes of part of foothills of the
Diablo Range
The Diablo Range is a mountain range in the California Coast Ranges subdivision of the Pacific Coast Ranges in northern California, United States. It stretches from the eastern San Francisco Bay Area at its northern end to the Salinas Valley a ...
within the
Central Valley of
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
, United States. The Creek has its source in a canyon at the foot of a 1254-foot mountain about 4.5 miles from its mouth just east of where it emerges from the foothills in
Merced County
Merced County ( ) is a county located in the northern San Joaquin Valley section of the Central Valley, in the U.S. state of California.
As of the 2020 census, the population was 281,202. The county seat is Merced. The county is named after ...
, shortly ending just west of the
California Aqueduct
The Governor Edmund G. Brown California Aqueduct is a system of canals, tunnels, and pipelines that conveys water collected from the Sierra Nevada and valleys of Northern and Central California to Southern California. Named after California Gov ...
.
[U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data]
The National Map
accessed November 13, 2011 The closest populated place was the former settlement and railroad station of
Gustine that is 6.69 miles northeast of the mouth of Mustang Creek.
Mustang Creek (Merced)
/ref>
History
Arroyo de Mesteño was a watering place on El Camino Viejo
El Camino Viejo a Los Ángeles (), also known as El Camino Viejo and the Old Los Angeles Trail, was the oldest north-south trail in the interior of Spanish colonial Las Californias (1769–1822) and Mexican Alta California (1822–1848), present d ...
in the San Joaquin Valley
The San Joaquin Valley ( ; Spanish language in California, Spanish: ''Valle de San Joaquín'') is the southern half of California's Central Valley (California), Central Valley. Famed as a major breadbasket, the San Joaquin Valley is an importa ...
between Arroyo de las Garzas and Arroyo Quinto.
References
Rivers of Merced County, California
El Camino Viejo
Rivers of Northern California
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