California Department of Water Resources, Sacramento Place names may provide useful information about watershed flora, fauna and hydrology at the time of exploration and settlement. George R. Stewart in his "Names on the Land" (Houghton Mifflin, 1945) pointed out that non-anthropocentric place names were bestowed because of unusual bounty, rarity or appearance. Transition zones are the exception. The antelope creeks, hills and valleys along the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada and Transverse Ranges are where eastbound explorers encountered the antelope range. Redwood creeks and valleys are to be found on the periphery of the redwood region, and where there are outstanding examples. The names of notable objects also say something about the surroundings. Palo Alto did not have many tall trees for one to be notable.

Care must be exercised to distinguish between names that are anthropocentric and those that are not. Bear Creek may have been settled by a family named Bear, where Uncle Dudley was chased up a tree, or where there were an extraordinary number of bears scarfing berries. E. G. Gudde's "California Place Names" (University of California Press, 1949), may help sort this out.

Alder, cottonwood, palm and willow creeks, canyons, flats, etc. are areas where there was enough perennial water to support thirsty phreatophyts. Fish creeks, generally or by species, were also perennial at the time of naming. Water canyons, and whatever springs, wells or pozos were water holes. Anomalously wet named features may be the result of high elevations, wind gaps or then recent catastrophic fires. In arid regions wet names may indicate watersheds with unusually high precipitation and runoff.

Dry or seco creeks, gulches or arroyos are intermittent streams, where flowing streams were to expected. These, and presently dry fish creeks, may be the result of shrub and tree overstocking, rain shadows, or unwarranted expectations. Similarly, dry mountains, flats or valleys are anomalies that may be the result of rain shadows, or being out of the storm tracks. Potrero Seco (dry pasture) at elevation 4860 feet, 22 miles northeasterly of Santa Barbara has an average precipitation of 15 inches. The area encompassing Potrero Seco and the seven miles southerly Monte Arido (dry mountain) of elevation 6003, ten miles from the ocean, is a topographic high without corresponding precipitation high.

Have fun with your map reading.