San Jose Creek is a southwest-flowing intermittent, tributary stream of the San Gabriel River in Los Angeles County, California.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map , accessed July 23, 2026
History From 1829, San Jose Creek was a stopping place on the Old Spanish Trail first used by Antonio Armijo. In 1837, much of its upper reaches were enclosed within the Rancho San José, which became San Jose Township, a historic township in Los Angeles County, and ultimately the cities of Pomona and Walnut. Because of its strategic location between the San Jose Hills and Puente Hills, the Union Pacific Railroad laid tracks along its route connecting Los Angeles with San Bernardino and Salt Lake City.
Watershed and Course The source of San Jose Creek is at the end of Thompson Wash at the east end of the San Jose Hills near the Los Angeles County Fairplex in northwest Pomona. Thompson Wash originates further north at the southern edge of the San Gabriel Mountains in Claremont. From the end of Thompson Wash, San Jose Creek flows nearly westwards from Pomona into the San Gabriel River through the Pomona Valley and San Gabriel Valley. San Jose Creek is joined by its -long South San Jose Creek tributary about west-southwest of Pomona. The mouth of San Jose Creek is at an elevation of at its confluence with the San Gabriel River, southwest of Bassett, California.
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