Freshwater Creek

Freshwater Creek is a 23 km long creek in Humboldt County, California that is a tributary of the Eureka Slough that in turn feeds Humboldt Bay. It flows (via Eureka Slough) into the south-east corner of the Arcata Bay sub-bay of Humboldt Bay. Its downstream reach is also known as Freshwater Slough and its upstream reach as Freshwater Gulch.

The lower Slough reach is tidal and brackish, as Eureka Slough itself has salt water; but the upper reaches are non-tidal and have fresh water, this being the straightforward reason for the name "freshwater". Along with Jacoby Creek (also in Arcata Bay), Elk River (in Entrance Bay), and Salmon Creek (in South Bay) Freshwater Creek is one of the primary sources of fresh water entering Humboldt Bay.

Basin, hydrology, and biota
The creek basin is roughly 9227 ha, with 32.4 sqmi of that above Freshwater Corners and 28.5 sqmi above Freshwater town. The creek is at approximately sea level at its mouth and 823 m above at its headwaters. The highest that the creek basin as a whole rises above sea level is 2800 ft in the south east.

At the mouth the rough annual rainfall is 100 cm and at the headwaters it is 150 cm. Most of the rainfall, between 35% and 40%, occurs in December and January. Snowfall is rare. The mean temperature of the creek water ranges from 15 C in summer to 8 C in winter. Prevailing winds are from the Pacific Ocean.

In the tidal lower 6 km reach, the Slough, the creek is surrounded mainly by ranchland and residential properties. The creek gradient is low (34 ft/mile), with levees along most of the channel; the riparian forest thin; and the water brackish.

In the upper non-tidal reaches the riparian forest thickens with vegetation, conifers, and hardwood trees. The gradient is much steeper at 315 ft/mile.

Most of the main river course is sparsely populated, with most of the watershed of the upper reaches being timberland that is owned and managed by the Pacific Lumber Company. Most of the residential properties, including those of Freshwater, are along the banks of the main creek.

Logging activity has caused heavy erosion of the watershed, and Eureka Slough, via the Freshwater Slough, receives silt from the basin.

Tributaries and other locations
The general course of the creek is west-south-west for 5 mile and then north-west for the rest of its roughly 23 km total length.


 * Its major tributaries are:
 * McReady Gulch, mouth at 40.76362°N, -124.06521°W headwaters at 40.79524°N, -124.04448°W
 * Cloney Gulch, mouth at 40.75756°N, -124.04953°W headwaters at 40.77602°N, -124.00749°W
 * Graham Gulch, mouth at 40.75369°N, -124.04865°W headwaters at 40.75335°N, -124.00269°W
 * South Fork Freshwater Creek, mouth at 40.73147°N, -124.04784°W
 * Little Freshwater Creek, mouth at 40.75683°N, -124.06386°W

The eponymous town of Freshwater is located along the main creek.

The land, railroad, and logging mill on the Creek were owned by the Excelsior Redwood Company until being bought at the turn of the 20th century by H. C. Smith of Minnesota, whose company after corporate reorganization was to become the Pacitic Lumber Company. The railway had originally been the Humboldt Logging Railway built by the South Bay RR & Land Company in the 1880s when it had logged out Salmon Creek.

The Creek is bridged by Myrtle Avenue, Howard Heights road, Steele Lane, the Freshwater Park Bridge, and on a private road.