41 Facts About Stanislaus River

Stanislaus River is a tributary of the San Joaquin River in north-central California in the United States.

The Stanislaus River is known for its swift rapids and scenic canyons in the upper reaches, and is heavily used for irrigation, hydroelectricity and domestic water supply.

Originally inhabited by the Miwok group of Native Americans, the Stanislaus River was explored in the early 1800s by the Spanish, who conscripted indigenous people to work in the colonial mission and presidio systems.

Water rights along the Stanislaus River are a controversial topic, with the senior rights of farmers coming into conflict with federal and state laws protecting endangered salmon and steelhead trout.

Stanislaus River headwaters consist of three forks in the high Sierra Nevada, in parts of Alpine County, Calaveras County and Tuolumne County.

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The total length of the Stanislaus River, measured from its mouth to the head of Kennedy Creek in the Emigrant Wilderness, is about 150 miles.

Water diversions for irrigation and regulation by reservoirs have significantly lowered the mean flow of the lower Stanislaus River, smoothed out seasonal variations, and increased the dry season baseflow.

Stanislaus River watershed drains 1,075 square miles and is divided into two distinct sections – the mountainous upper watershed, where the vast majority of its flow originates, and the narrow, heavily developed lower watershed where it flows across the San Joaquin Valley.

Lower Stanislaus River watershed comprises only about one-tenth of the total area and is used mainly for agriculture and urban development, with minimal open space.

Stanislaus River is believed to have originally formed sometime during the Miocene period, about 23 million years ago, flowing down from an ancient mountain range in the current location of the Sierra Nevada that has since eroded away.

One group associated with the Stanislaus River was the "Walla" or "Wal-li" who lived in the hills between the Stanislaus and Tuolumne Rivers.

The first Spaniards to encounter the Stanislaus River were Gabriel Moraga's 1806 expedition, who named the river Rio de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, "River of Our Lady of Guadalupe".

American explorers visited the Laquisimes Stanislaus River country starting in the 1820s, in search of beaver and otter pelts.

The first major American settlement along the Stanislaus River was founded in January 1847 by about 30 Mormon colonists under the direction of Samuel Brannan.

Stanislaus River was as productive a gold-bearing stream as any in California; in the early days of the Gold Rush it was known as the "Southern Mines" because it was at the time the southernmost extent of the primary gold diggings.

In 1849 William Knight, a hunter and trapper, established a ferry and trading post on the Stanislaus River, to serve the thousands of miners headed to the diggings at Sonora and other mining camps.

The Columbia and Stanislaus River Company was formed in 1854 on the main stem of the Stanislaus River, in competition to the high rates charged by Tuolumne.

In 1857, a dam on the South Fork of the Stanislaus River collapsed, flooding the mining camps of Pine Log and Italian Bar, killing sixteen people.

Historic records show that the majority of ranches and homesteads in the Stanislaus River area were established between the 1850s and 1890s by former gold seekers.

The former wagon trail up the Stanislaus River canyon had operated since 1864 as a toll road and was heavily traveled during the 1870s during the gold strike in Bodie.

Stanislaus River is one of the most heavily dammed and diverted rivers in California, relative to its size.

Stanislaus River is extremely over-allocated, meaning that claims to its water far exceed supply.

Water rights on the Stanislaus River have traditionally been, and are still de jure subject to the prior appropriation method, where the oldest rights-holders get first priority.

One of the first irrigation cooperatives formed on the Stanislaus River was formed by the Tulloch family in 1858, who built a diversion dam to supply farms in the area around Knight's Ferry.

Harrold in 1895, improved on this system, building 47 miles of canals along the north side of the Stanislaus River and supplying water to some 3,000 acres in Manteca and Oakdale.

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The lower Stanislaus River was often completely dry in the summertime due to water diversions.

In 1948 the districts joined to increase water storage on the Stanislaus River by constructing the Tri-Dam Project, consisting of Donnells and Beardsley dams on the Middle Fork, Tulloch Dam between the existing Goodwin and Melones dams, and Columbia Dam below the junction of the Middle and North Forks.

The Stanislaus River was for a time the most popular run in the western United States, and was valued for the spectacular scenery along its rugged limestone canyons.

In May 1979 environmental activist Mark Dubois chained himself to a boulder in the Stanislaus River Canyon, forcing federal authorities to either stop filling the lake or drown him.

The battle over the Stanislaus River greatly increased the political influence of the river conservation movement, and public awareness of the environmental impact of large dam projects.

However, other projects were built purely to take advantage of the river's great hydroelectric potential: in a span of about 60 miles, the Stanislaus descends almost 10,000 feet from the headwaters of the Middle Fork to the valley floor at Knight's Ferry.

Hydro plants on the Stanislaus River have a total capacity of more than 780 megawatts and generate 1.

The increased flows will benefit recreation along the Sierra portions of the Stanislaus River, including whitewater boating, and fishing for rainbow and brown trout.

Upper Stanislaus River watershed is mostly forested, with mixed coniferous communities along the hills and ridges.

The Stanislaus River is habitat for aquatic furbearers including beaver, river otter, and mink, which were extensively trapped for their fur during the 19th century.

Stanislaus River provides habitat for native anadromous fish, particularly Chinook salmon, and steelhead, which spend their adult lives in the ocean but must return to fresh water to spawn.

In fall 2015 higher flows on the Stanislaus River led to more than 11,000 chinook returning to the river, as compared to less than 1,000 fish in the Tuolumne and Merced.

Spring-run chinook have since gone extinct in the Stanislaus River watershed, while the spring and fall steelhead runs are considered threatened.

Stanislaus River was California's first popular whitewater river; in the 1970s many commercial outfitters operated on the river between Camp Nine and Parrott's Ferry Bridge.

About 520 square miles of the upper Stanislaus River basin is within the Stanislaus River National Forest, which provides a wide range of outdoor recreation including fishing, camping, backpacking, horseback riding, mountain biking and snowmobiling.

Caswell Memorial State Park covers 258 acres along the lower Stanislaus River and is home to one of the last native riparian oak woodlands in the Central Valley.