Where does the name “Baxter” come from?
Ohlone Indians of the Huchiun clan who lived on the banks of Baxter Creek probably gave the creek its first name. Because no records of this name exist, Friends of Baxter Creek identified the creek by studying a map, created by creek historian Alan LaPointe, in the possession of the Urban Creeks Council, Berkeley. No one knows the origin of the name “Baxter,” but its believed to belong to a family that owned land in the area that’s now El Cerrito and Richmond. Through the years, Baxter Creek has also been referred to as “Bishop Creek” and “Stege Creek,” after 19th-century Rancho San Pablo landowners Thomas Bishop and Richard Stege. Bishops use of the land around Baxter Creek for grazing dairy cattle undoubtedly had a destructive effect on the creek, with the cattle trampling the creeks banks and denuding them of vegetation. Why do you call Baxter Creek a “creek”? It looks like a ditch to me! In the midst of every environmental battle, an argument over the value of a natural resource is
