Salado Creek AVA

Spanish explorer Gabriel Moraga named Salado Creek. Moraga, a Spanish army officer, explored the San Joaquin Valley during his 1806–1808 expeditions to the region and named many of its geographic features. The names Salado and Salado Creek continue to be used in modern times and are attached to a variety of features and places, both natural and man-made. As shown on the two official United States Geological Survey (USGS) maps that cover the viticultural area, the Patterson and Crows Landing quadrangles, Salado Creek is an intermittent stream that flows east from the higher elevations of the Diablo Mountains. After passing under Interstate 5, Salado Creek turns and flows north through the viticultural area and continues west and north of the town of Patterson. The USGS Patterson map shows Little Salado Creek running east from the Diablo Mountains to the viticultural area's southern tip, where Interstate 5 and the California Aqueduct interrupt its natural channel. On the USGS Crows Landing map, the creek is shown to resume southeast of the area where it runs northeast from the Delta-Mendota Canal. The Salado Sub-Station, south of Salado Creek and beside the California Aqueduct, is within the viticultural area. The Salado Creek Ranch, known for its walnuts, is within the established boundaries. Salado Avenue in Patterson is a major street that passes the town's post office, its branch library, a new school, and the city council's chambers. The local irrigation district was previously known as the Salado Irrigation District. Salado Creek is best known to local residents for its floods. Salado Creek History, an article published in The Gateway: A Patterson Township History Society Bulletin in December 1996, discusses the creek's significant floods. As noted in the article, the March 4, 1938, edition of the local Patterson Irrigator newspaper states that Salado Creek spilled over its banks and onto State Highway 33 on Patterson's east side. The article adds that a flood in November 1938 spilled into a local nursery.^[1]

Salado Creek, and nearby Little Salado Creek, are among a few small, intermittent streams in western Stanislaus County that originate in the section of Coast Range that separates the San Joaquin Valley from the Livermore and Santa Clara valleys (the Diablo Range). During most winters little water flows through the creeks, but on rare occasions Salado Creek has swelled and flooded the city of Patterson, which lies on the flood plain downstream to the north of the proposed American Viticultural Area.^[4]

Waters from the creeks deposited sediments to form the alluvial fan that comprises the proposed American Viticultural Area. These sediments were the parent material for the deep, fertile Ensalado series (formerly Salado series) soils, which are unique to western Stanislaus County. Little is known about the prehistory of the Salado and Little Salado Creek areas. Sediments deposited by the creeks may have covered archeological evidence of habitation. Northern Valley Yokut and Costanoan peoples likely inhabited major tributaries to the San Joaquin River, including Salado Creek and Little Salado Creek, during different periods of time as their boundaries of habitation and activity fluctuated with the seasons and under external pressures from the Spanish.^[7] Agriculture is fairly recent in the Salado Creek area. The earliest attempt occurred after Mariano Hernandez received the 13,340-acre (5,400 ha) Rancho Del Puerto Land Grant in 1844.^{[8][9][10][11]} After Indian raids destroyed his herds of cattle he returned to San Jose and, in 1847, he sold the property.^[9] After this false start, agriculture began in earnest in 1864 after John D. Patterson purchased the former land grant and began raising cattle and Spanish Merino sheep.^[10] Livestock thrived on the abundant native and naturalized non-native grasses.^[8]

A rail line, developed in 1864 by the San Pueblo & Tulare Railroad, a subsidiary of the Central Pacific Railroad, facilitated export of agricultural products and precipitated the development of the city of Patterson.^[8] A boom in dry land grain production followed the railroad. The original Rancho Del Puerto Land Grant remained nearly intact until 1909 when John D. Patterson's heirs subdivided their land. In 1910 they began an irrigation company, one of the first to successfully lift water from a body of water, the San Joaquin River, for irrigation purposes.^{[12][8][10][7][13]} Following these events the character of agriculture in the area changed. Agriculture became more diversified and intensive as production shifted away from dry land grain and livestock towards high value crops such as apricots, peaches, walnuts, almonds, prunes, and grapes. Recent technological advances in food processing and transportation (drying, canning, refrigerated rail cars) contributed to changes and growth in agriculture. Accompanying these changes in agriculture was the movement of people from communities centered on transportation links to farmland.^{[12][8][10][7]} In past years, almonds, walnuts, sod, tomatoes and other row crops have been prominent in the Salado Creek-Little Salado Creek area. Wine grapes returned with a forty-four-acre (18 ha) planting in 2000 that, as a testament to the suitability of the area, produced their first crop in 2001. Current varieties include Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Sauvignon Blanc, and Viognier. The 2001 Sauvignon Blanc was submitted to the California State Fair in 2002 and won a bronze medal. Ground breaking for a winery within the Salado Creek American Viticultural Area occurred within the next couple of months.^[4]