Historical Magpie Creek, where the name came from

by Erwin Hayer

Magpie Creek drains portions of Western Foothill Farms, Southern North Highlands, Southern McClellan Air Force Base (now McClellan Park), Northern Del Paso Heights and Robla and flowed into Bush (later called American) Lake in the Natomas Basin.

When the Natomas East Main Drainage Canal NEMDC) (now called Steelhead Creek) was completed around 1913, the mouth of Magpie Creek was at the NEMDC.

Around 1955, the Magpie Creek Diversion Channel was constructed and the water flow was diverted just downstream of Raley Boulevard into Robla Creek (now called Rio Linda Creek by some) just east of the Bike Trail.  A levee from the western end of Claire Avenue to the NEMDC and south to the Arcade Creek area was constructed and a pump station installed to pump the Magpie Creek storm water into the NEMDC.  The section of Magpie Creek down stream of the diversion point to Steelhead Creek, now a pump station at the location where Interstate 80 crosses Steelhead Creek, was called Historical Magpie Creek (by the Army Corps of Engineers) and drains some of the Northern portion of Del Paso Heights and the Southern Robla area.