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San Gabriel River (California)

The San Gabriel River is a mostly-urban waterway flowing 58 mi southward through Los Angeles and Orange Counties, California, in the United States. It is the central of three major rivers draining the Greater Los Angeles Area, the others being the Los Angeles River and Santa Ana River. The river's watershed stretches from the rugged San Gabriel Mountains to the heavily-developed San Gabriel Valley and a significant part of the Los Angeles coastal plain, emptying into the Pacific Ocean between the cities of Long Beach and Seal Beach.

The San Gabriel once ran across a vast alluvial flood plain, its channels shifting with winter floods and forming extensive wetlands along its perennial course, a relatively scarce source of fresh water in this arid region. The Tongva and their ancestors inhabited the San Gabriel River basin for thousands of years at villages like Puvunga, relying on the abundant fish and game in riparian habitats. The river is named for the nearby Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, established in 1771 during the Spanish colonization of California. Its water was heavily used for irrigation and ranching by Spanish, Mexican, and American settlers before urbanization began in the early 1900s, eventually transforming much of the watershed into industrial and suburban areas of greater Los Angeles.

Severe floods in 1914, 1934, and 1938 spurred Los Angeles County, and later the federal government, to build a system of dams and debris basins and to channelize much of the lower San Gabriel River with riprap or concrete banks. There is also an extensive system of spreading grounds and other works to capture stormwater runoff and conserve it for urban use. Approximately one-third of the water used in southeast Los Angeles County today comes from the river.

The upper San Gabriel has been intermittently mined for gold since the 1860s, and its deep gravel bed has been an important source of construction aggregate since the early 1900s. The river is also a popular recreation area, with parks and trails in the many flood basins along its course. The headwaters of the San Gabriel River have retained their natural character and are a popular attraction of the Angeles National Forest.

Geography and characteristics

The San Gabriel River basin drains a total of 689 mi2 and is located between the watersheds of the Los Angeles River to the west, the Santa Ana River to the east, and the Mojave Desert to the north. The watershed is divided into three distinct sections. The northern third, located within the Angeles National Forest of the San Gabriel Mountains, is steep and mountainous; it receives the most precipitation of any part of the basin – 33 in per year – and as a result is the source of nearly all the natural runoff. Elevations reach up to 10064 ft at Mount San Antonio (Mount Baldy), the highest point of the range. During the winter, many elevations above 6000 ft are covered in snow.

The middle third, the San Gabriel Valley, and the southern third, the coastal plain of the Los Angeles Basin, are separated by the Puente Hills and Montebello Hills. With the exception of some recreation areas and lands set aside for flood control, the valleys are almost entirely urbanized. Approximately 2 million people live in the watershed, divided among 35 incorporated cities. Rainfall is slightly higher in the San Gabriel Valley than the coastal plain due to its proximity to the mountains; however, the climate as a whole is very arid, with only moderate precipitation in winter and nearly none in summer. The lower watershed consists primarily of alluvial plains that once experienced seasonal flooding from the San Gabriel River, creating vast swamps and wetlands. Today, very little of this original environment remains.

The San Gabriel is one of the largest natural streams in Southern California, but its discharge varies widely from year to year. Between 1895 and 1957 the mean unimpaired runoff at Azusa was estimated at 114000 acre feet, with a range from 9600 to 410000 acre feet. Historically, the San Gabriel River reached its highest flows in the winter and spring, with runoff dropping significantly after early June before rising again with November or December storms. Today, the flow of the San Gabriel River has been dried up in places by dams, diversions, and groundwater recharge operations, and increased in other sections by wastewater run-off.

East Fork
The East Fork, 17 mi long, is the largest headwater of the San Gabriel River; the U.S. Geological Survey considers it part of the main stem. However, it is colloquially known as the "East Fork" to distinguish it from the West Fork of the San Gabriel. Its furthest tributary, the Prairie Fork, originates at 9648 ft Pine Mountain in the Sheep Mountain Wilderness to the southwest of Wrightwood. Draining a high, remote, subalpine valley characterized by extensive meadows, it flows west to join with Vincent Gulch, below which the stream is officially known as the East Fork. Here it turns abruptly south, flowing through a steep, rugged canyon. It is joined from the east by the Fish Fork, which originates on the northwest slopes of Mount Baldy.

Below the Fish Fork, the East Fork flows through "the Narrows", one of the deepest gorges in Southern California. From the floor of the canyon at 3000 ft, Iron Mountain rises 8007 ft to the southeast, while Mount Hawkins, 8850 ft, rises to the northwest. The Iron Fork tributary joins from the west roughly in the middle of the Narrows. Near the lower end of the Narrows, the river passes under the Bridge to Nowhere, a 120 ft-high arch bridge that was abandoned after the huge flood of 1938 washed out a highway under construction along the East Fork. The bridge remains today as a popular destination for hikers and bungee jumpers.

After emerging from the Narrows, the river continues flowing south through a somewhat-more-open valley, receiving several tributaries including Devil Gulch and Allison Gulch, before reaching Heaton Flat, a popular trailhead and the end of the East Fork Road, which parallels the lower section of the river. The river receives Cattle Canyon, its biggest tributary, and then turns sharply west, flowing past the Camp Williams Resort and a number of U.S. Forest Service and Los Angeles County firefighting facilities before flowing into San Gabriel Reservoir, where it joins the West Fork.

West Fork
The West Fork, 19 mi long, originates at Red Box Saddle, a visitor center and frequently-used trailhead along the Angeles Crest Highway and about 2 mi northwest of the summit of Mount Wilson. Beginning at an elevation of 4666 ft, the West Fork flows at a much lower elevation than the East Fork and is the smaller of the two rivers in terms of water volume. The West Fork flows east in a fairly straight course for its entire length. From its headwater, the river quickly descends to the Cogswell Reservoir, where Devils Canyon Creek joins from the north. The Gabrielino Trail parallels the river from Red Box Saddle as far as the Devore campground, above Cogswell Reservoir.

Below Cogswell Dam, the river is paralleled by Forest Route 2N25, a one-lane paved road open only to non-motorized traffic (except for maintenance and emergency services). The river flows east through a twisting canyon, forming the southern boundary of the San Gabriel Wilderness. It receives the tributaries of Chileno Canyon, Little Mermaids Canyon, and Big Mermaids Canyon from the north, and then the much larger Bear Creek, which originates at Islip Saddle near the 8250 ft summit of Mount Islip. Less than a mile (1.6 km) below Bear Creek, it is joined by the North Fork before flowing into San Gabriel Reservoir, where it joins with the East Fork.

North Fork
The North Fork is the shortest and steepest of the three major forks. It begins as a series of streams falling off the crest of the range between Mount Islip and Mount Hawkins, more than 7000 ft above sea level. Cedar Creek flows south from Windy Gap, 7588 ft, to join with Soldier Creek, which continues south past Falling Springs to join with Coldbrook Creek, forming the North Fork. The North Fork continues south for 4.5 mi past Valley of the Moon Plantation, forming a braided channel along its relatively wide canyon floor. It flows into the West Fork just below Hoot Owl Flats, a short distance from the larger river's mouth at San Gabriel Reservoir.

The North Fork is the most heavily developed fork of the San Gabriel River, with many campgrounds and facilities along its course. The popular Crystal Lake Recreation Area in the upper North Fork includes the only natural lake in the San Gabriel Mountains. The North Fork valley provides the route for Highway 39, which until 1978 provided automobile access from San Gabriel Canyon Road to the Angeles Crest Highway. Since then, the upper part of the road north of Crystal Lake has been closed due to chronic landslides and erosion. As of 2016, there are no plans to reopen the road.

San Gabriel Canyon
Below the confluence of the East Fork and West Fork, the San Gabriel River flows through the deep San Gabriel Canyon, the only major break in the southern part of the San Gabriel Mountains. Although this stretch of the river was once free-flowing, today is it impounded by major reservoirs for water supply and flood control. San Gabriel Dam, a 325 ft high rockfill dam, forms the 44183 acre feet San Gabriel Reservoir. The concrete gravity Morris Dam, just downstream, creates the 27800 acre feet Morris Reservoir. A small hydroelectric plant in the city of Azusa is supplied with water from a diversion of the San Gabriel River, located directly below San Gabriel Dam.

The reservoir water levels fluctuate widely at the upper San Gabriel Reservoir, which serves mainly for flood control and sediment control. During the dry season the reservoir is often kept at a low level, in order to provide room for stormwater and allow county workers to remove built-up sediment from the basin. The northern part of the reservoir, when dry, is also used as the San Gabriel Canyon OHV area. There is no public boating access to either San Gabriel Reservoir or the downstream Morris Reservoir, which is used mainly for water supply. From World War II until the 1990s, Morris Reservoir was used by the U.S. Navy as a torpedo test site; the concrete launch ramp remains today and is easily seen from Highway 39, which runs through the canyon.

San Gabriel Valley
The river emerges from the San Gabriel Canyon at Azusa, a short distance below Morris Dam, where it reaches the wide and gently sloping alluvial plain of the San Gabriel Valley. At the mouth of the canyon, the entire flow of the river, except during wet seasons, is diverted into the first of several spreading grounds that recharge the local San Gabriel Valley aquifer, an important source of local water supply. The usually-dry riverbed then continues in a southwesterly direction, passing the ruins of the 1907 Puente Largo or "Great Bridge" that once carried Pacific Electric interurban trains, and under Interstate 210 into the flood control basin behind Santa Fe Dam. There are 17 drop structures or grade controls along this roughly 2 mi stretch of river bed, to prevent erosion down the valley's relatively steep slope.

Past the Santa Fe Dam – which when dry is used as the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area – the river flows through Irwindale, where it is the site of several major gravel quarries, which have operated in the San Gabriel Valley since the early 1900s to mine the rich alluvial sediments deposited by the river over millennia. From here Interstate 605, the San Gabriel River Freeway, parallels the river's east bank almost all the way to its mouth in Seal Beach. Throughout the San Gabriel Valley, the river flows mainly in an earth-bottomed channel between artificial concrete or riprap banks. Shortly below Interstate 10 at El Monte, the river is joined from the east by Walnut Creek, which restores a small perennial flow. Below this confluence it curves west and receives San Jose Creek, also from the east, before passing under SR 60.

The river then enters the Whittier Narrows, the natural water gap between the Puente and Montebello Hills that forms the southern entrance to the San Gabriel Valley. Here it is impounded by the Whittier Narrows Dam, which serves primarily for flood control. The Rio Hondo also flows through the Whittier Narrows, to the west of the San Gabriel. The Rio Hondo drains most of the western half of the San Gabriel Valley, approaching the San Gabriel River at the Whittier Narrows; south of there, it swings to the southwest and joins the Los Angeles River. In the Whittier Narrows, they are connected by a short channel through which water can flow in both directions.

The Rio Hondo is generally considered a separate stream and tributary to the Los Angeles River, but historically the two rivers sometimes joined the other, flowing to various outlets. The Rio Hondo sometimes changed course to join the San Gabriel River; alternatively, the San Gabriel sometimes shifted course into the Rio Hondo, merging into a single watershed with the Los Angeles River. Whittier Narrows Dam controls the outflow from both rivers into their artificially fixed channels. During storms, water is distributed based on the availability of space in the downstream channels.

Lower river
Below the Whittier Narrows Dam, the river flows south-southwest across the coastal plain, roughly defining the border of Los Angeles County and Orange County. It flows through Whittier and Pico Rivera and under the Interstate 5 to Downey, where the river becomes a concrete channel. It turns due south, crossing under Interstate 105 and the Metro C Line, then crossing under SR 91 at Bellflower. The San Gabriel River Bike Trail parallels the river starting at Whittier Narrows for 28 mi to the Pacific Ocean at Seal Beach.

From Cerritos the river flows south-southeast until reaching its confluence with Coyote Creek, the largest tributary of the lower river, which drains much of northwest Orange County. A short distance below Coyote Creek, the river bed reverts from concrete to earth. It passes under Interstate 405 and SR 22, past Leisure World and Joint Forces Training Base - Los Alamitos (Los Alamitos Army Airfield), and under the Pacific Coast Highway. It empties into the Pacific Ocean between Alamitos Bay and Anaheim Bay (to the south), on the boundary of Long Beach in Los Angeles County, and Seal Beach in Orange County.

Geology
The San Gabriel River, its canyons, and its floodplain are relatively young in geological terms, and owe their existence to tectonic forces along the San Andreas Fault (the boundary between the North American Plate and Pacific Plate) and its subsidiary fault and fracture zones. The San Gabriel Mountains are a fault block mountain range, essentially a massive chunk of bedrock dislocated from the North American Plate and lifted up by movement along the San Andreas. The rock is mostly of Mesozoic origin (65–245 million years old), but the deepest layers are up to 4 billion years old. However, the uplift of the present mountain range did not start until about 6 million years ago. The mountains are still rising as much as 2 in per year due to tectonic action along the San Andreas Fault. The Puente and Montebello hills are even younger, no more than 1.8 million years old. As the hills formed, the San Gabriel River maintained its original course, cutting the water gap of the Whittier Narrows.

Composed of ancient, highly fractured and unstable crystalline rock, the San Gabriel mountains are subject to tremendous amounts of erosion. Rapid erosion caused by heavy winter storms has created the dramatic canyons of the San Gabriel River. In the headwaters, streams often follow fault traces; the West Fork and part of the East Fork run along the San Gabriel Canyon Fault, which extends in a nearly straight line from east to west across the center of the San Gabriel Mountains. In the winter, the mountain regions are prone to landslides and destructive debris flows, which has required the construction of many debris basins to protect foothill communities such as Glendora and Monrovia, but these works have not always been effective during the biggest storms.

During floods, the river transports large volumes of sediment from the mountains into the San Gabriel Valley, ranging from fine sands, gravels, clays, and silt to car-sized boulders. Starting in the Pliocene, about 5 million years ago, the Los Angeles Basin experienced considerable tectonic subsidence; at the same time, the San Gabriel River was depositing a huge alluvial fan, essentially an inland delta, radiating from the mouth of San Gabriel Canyon. This has combined with smaller alluvial fans from other drainages along the front range of the San Gabriels to form the flat valley floor. In the San Gabriel Valley, riverine alluvium deposits can be up to 10000 ft deep. On the coastal plain, San Gabriel River sediments are interbedded with those from the nearby Los Angeles River as well as marine sediments left behind from ancient sea level changes.

Prior to the development of the floodplain, the river channels down the alluvial slope were poorly-defined at best and frequently changed course with winter storms, leaping back and forth between several different ocean outlets. In some years it joined with the Rio Hondo, which flows parallel to the San Gabriel and also passes through the Whittier Narrows, and flowed into the Los Angeles River; in others it would swing south toward either Alamitos Bay or Anaheim Bay, or even east towards the Santa Ana River. Once every few decades, a particularly intense storm would cause the rivers to burst their banks simultaneously, inundating the coastal plain in a continuous sheet of floodwater. The historical floodplain encompassed much of the San Gabriel Valley and a huge expanse of the Los Angeles Basin stretching from present-day Whittier to Seal Beach.

The thick sediments of the lowland also trap an extensive local aquifer system. Historically, the aquifer was quite pressurized and close to the surface; natural artesian wells existed in many places. At the southern end of the San Gabriel Valley, groundwater rose to the surface due to the damming effect of bedrock at the Whittier Narrows and formed a perennial stream that ran across the coastal plain to the Pacific. In the 19th century, irrigated agriculture was developed on a large scale in the San Gabriel Valley, resulting in a severe decline of the water table as farmers drilled hundreds of wells. The San Gabriel Valley aquifer is now an important source of domestic and industrial water, and groundwater recharge operations are conducted using both local runoff from the San Gabriel River, and water imported through Los Angeles's aqueduct system.

Ecology and environment
The San Gabriel River once supported a rich lowland ecosystem on its broad floodplain, inundated multiple times each year by rain and snowmelt. The result of this overflow was a 47000 acre network of riparian and wetland habitats, ranging from seasonally-flooded areas in the north to alkali meadows (called "cienegas" by the Spanish), forests of willows, oaks, and cottonwoods, and both fresh- and salt-water marshes in the south. At its mouth, the river emptied into a broad estuary surrounded by thousands of acres of permanent marsh and swamp land, the result of a band of bedrock running parallel to the coast, forcing groundwater to the surface. In mountain areas, the San Gabriel River channel is often too narrow to support significant vegetation, as winter floods tend to scour the channel down to bare rock.

Below the mountains, most of the streams are locked in artificial channels, and the vast majority of the original wetlands have been lost to urban development. Less than 2500 acre of wetlands remain in the San Gabriel River watershed, with the greatest decline in the coastal floodplain zone. Most remaining wetland habitats are either immediately adjacent to the river, or within the Whittier Narrows and other flood control basins, providing habitat to birds and small mammals. In addition, riparian and wetland restoration projects have been completed or are in progress along the river. The San Gabriel River Wetland Restoration Development intends to construct by 2018 an artificial wetland and bioswale system near El Monte which will provide a recreation area and wildlife habitat and buffer against pollution.

Above elevations of 7000 ft, the San Gabriel Mountains support some pine and fir forests, remnants or relicts of a huge evergreen (coniferous) forest that once covered Southern California during the last ice age when the regional climate was much wetter. The montane forests are home to large mammals such as deer and black bears. Due to conservation policies put in place by the 19th century, the upper San Gabriel watershed was never subjected to heavy logging. Also in the San Gabriel River watershed is the 17000 acre San Dimas Experimental Forest, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve where forest hydrology has been continually studied since 1933. Lower down in the foothill zones, chaparral and brush dominate. The Puente Hills, which bisect the lower San Gabriel watershed, contain some sensitive plant communities such as coastal sage scrub and walnut forests.

Wildfires are a natural part of plant communities in the San Gabriel River watershed. After the flood of 1938, an intense program of wildfire suppression began, since burned areas tend to erode quickly during storms, causing landslides and mudflows down tributary canyons. Like many other areas of the western United States, this has caused a large amount of tinder and debris to accumulate, increasing the risk of fire. Drought conditions in the first decade of the 21st century led to huge fires much larger than would have occurred naturally. In 2002, the Curve Fire burned 20000 acre, much of it in the North Fork of the San Gabriel River, closing Crystal Lake Recreation Area for several years. The 2009 Station Fire, the largest wildfire in Los Angeles County's history, was mostly concentrated west of the San Gabriel watershed, but did burn much of the upper West Fork. With urban development expanding toward mountain areas, the threat of property damage continues to increase.

The San Gabriel River historically supported large populations of native fish, including the largest runs of steelhead in Southern California. Steelhead once migrated over 60 mi upriver from the Pacific Ocean to spawn, and it was known as one of the "best steelhead fishing rivers in the state". Irrigation development that dried up the river, and later damming and channelization for flood control, have contributed to the near extinction of steelhead in the San Gabriel basin. Since the 19th century rainbow trout have been planted in the upper forks of the San Gabriel River to provide a recreational fishery. About 60,000 rainbows are stocked each year between October and June. The West Fork also has the largest remaining population of arroyo chub, a fish endemic to coastal Southern California streams.

Native Americans
Although the first recorded inhabitants of the San Gabriel River area arrived about 2,500 years ago, humans may have been present in Southern California as early as 12,000 years ago. Immediately prior to the arrival of Spanish explorers in the region, the native population is estimated at 5,000–10,000. Mount San Antonio provided a visual reference for the boundary of the Tongva (Gabrielino) people in the west and the Yuhaviatam people to the east. Most of the San Gabriel River lay in traditional Tongva territory, although the Chumash (who inhabited areas further west) also used the area. Tongva villages such as Puvunga were located on high ground above the reach of winter floods. A typical village consisted of large, circular thatched huts known as "kich" or "kish", each home to multiple families.

During summer, the villagers would travel up the San Gabriel Canyon into the mountains to gather food and other resources needed to pass the winter. The San Gabriel River itself also provided sustenance to Native Americans with its steelhead trout and game animals attracted by this rare permanent water source. The abundant plant life around the river and its marshes, especially tule, were used to build dwellings and canoes. The Tongva often set brush fires to clear out old growth, improving forage for game animals. They also made oceangoing canoes (ti'at) using wooden planks held together with asphaltum or tar from local oil seeps.

At least 26 Tongva villages were located along the San Gabriel River, and another 18 close by. One of the largest Tongva villages, Asuksangna (meaning "place of the grandmothers") was located at the mouth of the San Gabriel Canyon. The West Fork of the San Gabriel River Canyon formed part of a trade route that crossed the San Gabriel Mountains, enabling the Tongva to trade with the Serrano people in the Mojave Desert to the north. Many other villages were located near the San Gabriel River. The San Gabriel Valley, with its fertile soils and higher rainfall than the coastal plain, had the highest population density. Villages in the San Gabriel Valley included Alyeupkigna, Amuscopopiabit, Awingna, Comicranga, Cucamonga, Guichi, Houtgna, Isanthcogna, Juyubit, Perrooksnga, Sibagna, and Toviseanga. The village of Sejat was located at the Whittier Narrows. Puvugna was situated around present-day Long Beach, near the river's mouth.

The first explorers to make contact with the Tongva described them as a peaceful people. Anthropologists believe the Tongva may have been some of the more advanced native inhabitants of California, establishing currency and complex trade systems with neighboring tribes, cultivating trees and plants for food, and having a formal government structure. Indian Agent B.D. Wilson wrote in 1852 the Tongva knew "how to meet the environmental challenge without destroying the environment."

Exploration and settlement
The abundant water available in the San Gabriel River basin, a rarity in arid Southern California, was noted by early Spanish explorers and made it an attractive place for Europeans to settle later on. Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sailed past the mouth of the San Gabriel River in 1542; although he did not land here, he did make contact with the native Tongva, who rowed out in their canoes to greet the expedition. The first Spanish party to actually cross the river was the Portolà expedition, led in 1769 by Captain Gaspar de Portolà. Juan Crespí, a missionary traveling with the expedition, described their first impression of the San Gabriel River:

"We then descended to a broad and spacious plain ... After traveling for an hour through the valley we came to an arroyo of water which flows among many green marshes, their banks covered with willows and grapes, blackberries, and innumerable Castilian rosebushes ... It runs along the foot of the mountains, and can be easily used to irrigate the large area of good land ... The valley ... is surrounded by ranges of hills. The one to the north is very high and dark and has many corrugations, and seems to run farther to the west."

The expedition had to build a bridge across the river because the channel was too swampy and muddy, making it difficult to move their horses and supplies. The area came to be known as "la puente" (the bridge), from which the modern-day city of La Puente takes its name.

Following the Portolà expedition, Spain claimed California as part of its empire, and the San Gabriel River was referred to as "Río San Miguel Arcángel". Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the fourth in a chain of missions along the California coast, was founded in 1771 by Junípero Serra, along the San Gabriel River near present-day Montebello. The name of the mission was soon attached to the river as well as the San Gabriel Mountains, which had been previously called the Sierra Madre by the Spanish. The original site suffered chronic flooding and was moved to its present site in San Gabriel, 5 mi northwest, in 1775. The mission eventually controlled 1500000 acre of land extending from the foot of the mountains as far as present-day San Pedro. Under the policy of reducción, the purpose being to "reduce or consolidate the Indians from the countryside into one central community", the Spanish incentivized Native Americans to joining the mission system first via gifts, but also often by force. Native people worked on farms and ranches of the mission lands, and were converted to Christianity. The Spanish name "Gabrieliño" generally refers to the Tongva people of the area although people from some other groups, such as the Chumash, were also present at the San Gabriel mission. Native Americans fleeing the mission system took refuge in the upper canyons of the San Gabriel River where a significant resistance movement persisted for many years. This culminated in the San Gabriel mission uprising in 1785, led by Tongva medicine woman Toypurina, ultimately crushed by the Spanish.

Disease severely reduced the native populations, and by the beginning of the 19th century, most of the surviving Gabrieliño had entered the mission system. In 1830, nine years after California had become a part of Mexico, the indigenous population had fallen to about a quarter of what it had been before Spanish colonization.

In order to attract settlers to the region, Spain and later Mexico established a system of large land grants which became the many ranchos of the area. The decline of Native American populations made it easy for colonists to seize large areas of land formerly used by the indigenous people. During the Spanish-controlled period, and the Mexican-controlled period between 1821 and 1846, cattle ranching dominated the local economy. In the San Gabriel River watershed, the Rancho Azusa de Dalton and Rancho Azusa de Duarte lay, respectively, to the east and west of the San Gabriel Canyon mouth. Rancho San Francisquito, Rancho Potrero Grande, Rancho Potrero de Felipe Lugo, Rancho La Puente, and Rancho La Merced were located further south in the San Gabriel Valley. Rancho Paso de Bartolo was situated in the Whittier Narrows area, and Rancho Santa Gertrudes, Rancho Los Coyotes, Rancho Los Cerritos and Rancho Los Alamitos occupied various areas of the coastal plain.

California became a U.S. state in 1850, two years after the Mexican–American War. One of the decisive battles of the war was fought on January 8, 1847 on the San Gabriel River, which was the last line of defense for Mexican Californio forces led by Mexican Governor-General José Flores, tasked with defending the pueblo of Los Angeles. American forces, led by General Stephen W. Kearney under Commodore Robert F. Stockton, crossed the river under heavy fire, but were able to force the Californios from their defensive position in under ninety minutes. After taking control of the river, the Americans were able to take Los Angeles on January 10, and the Mexicans surrendered California three days later. This campaign is now remembered as the Battle of Rio San Gabriel.

Gold seekers
Although it was rumored for many years that Native Americans and Spanish explorers had discovered gold in the San Gabriel Canyon long before California became a U.S. state, gold was first confirmed in the upper San Gabriel River around April 1855, by a party of prospectors who had entered the mountains via Cajon Pass. The Los Angeles Star soon reported of their findings:

"There has been some excitement this past week about the new gold diggings on the headwaters of the San Gabriel. We have met several persons who have been prospecting and although they found gold of the best quality, differ very much as regards to the richness of the mine. The Crab Hollow diggings are now considered the best and will pay from two to five cents to the pan."

The river remained quiet for a number of years, as drought conditions reduced streamflow and made placer mining difficult. The winter of 1858-59 was a wet one, and soon hundreds of gold seekers from both Los Angeles County and Kern County further north descended on the river. By May 1859, claims were staked along 40 mi of the San Gabriel Canyon. In the early days, access to the diggings proved difficult, as the rocky San Gabriel River bed was the only way into the rugged mountains. In July 1859, stagecoach service was established to bring in miners and their supplies.

Between 1855 and 1902, an estimated $5,000,000 ($ in dollars) worth of gold was removed from the San Gabriel River. Mining along the San Gabriel River began with simple gold panning, but soon developed to more advanced methods. Flumes were constructed to carry water to sluices, long toms, and hydraulic mining operations that separated gold from river gravel; dams and waterwheels helped maintain the necessary head to drive these extensive waterworks and clear the riverbed so that gold-bearing sands could be excavated. Some hard rock (tunnel) mining also occurred in the San Gabriels in later years, such as at the 1896 Big Horn Mine at Mount Baden-Powell, and the 1913 Allison Mine on Iron Mountain high above the East Fork, where several tunnels of up to 1000 ft in length remain.

Settlements of considerable size were established in very rough country along the upper San Gabriel River. Prospect Bar, located 4 mi up the narrow canyon of the East Fork, grew to include "a boarding house, two or three stores, blacksmith shop, butcher shop, etc." A flood in November 1859 destroyed the settlement, but four months later it was re-established as the town of Eldoradoville, near the junction of the East Fork and Cattle Canyon. The period from 1859 to 1862 was the most prosperous of the San Gabriel gold rush; Wells Fargo stages alone shipped some $15,000 ($ in dollars) worth of gold per month out of Los Angeles County, most of it from the San Gabriel diggings. John Robb, who ran a saloon in Eldoradoville, claimed he "made more money by running the sawdust from the floor of the Union Saloon through his sluice box than he was able to make from real mining, so prodigal and careless of their pokes were the miners and gamblers of those days."

By 1861, Eldoradoville had an estimated population of 1,500. The town prospered until the Great Flood of 1862, the largest in California's recorded history, swept the canyon clean:

"Nature once again played its violent hand. Beginning the final week of December 1861, the weather turned bad. Rain fell daily for three weeks, and nervous miners and Eldoradoville residents watched the river slowly rise along its banks. During the night of January 17–18, 1862, a torrential cloudburst hit the mountains. Early the next morning, a wall of churning gray water swept down the canyon, obliterating everything in its path. As the men of Eldoradoville scrambled up the hillsides to safety, the shanty town was literally washed away lock, stock and barrel, as were all the canyon-bottom works belonging to the miners. Shacks, whiskey barrels, groceries, beds, roulette wheels, sluices, long toms, wing dams and China pumps were swept clean out of the mountains into the floodplain of the San Gabriel Valley."

Mining on the San Gabriel did continue after the flood of 1862, but never on the same scale as before. A second wave of gold seeking began in the early 1930s along the East Fork. A September 1932 Los Angeles Times article described it as a "leisurely gold rush" and reported:

"Today there are slightly more than 500 persons scattered along the stream in the canyon, of which thirty are women and a score children. The live in shacks, tents, lean-tos and even in ramshackle automobiles. They form an amazing heterogeneous collection of humans, their numbers being made up of members of many professions, extremely few of them with previous prospecting experience."

Several gold mining camps sprang up along the East Fork, the largest including the Upper and Lower Klondike. Mining during the 1930s focused on finding the finer particles and dust left behind from the previous gold boom. For many, it was a source of income during the Great Depression, and for some others was a recreational activity. These mining camps were again obliterated, along with much else along the San Gabriel River, during the great flood of 1938.

Recreational gold mining has continued along the San Gabriel River since then, although it is not legal in many places. Current U.S. Forest Service policy states that "National Forest System lands within the East Fork of the San Gabriel River are not open to prospecting or any other mining operations." However, the ban is rarely enforced and has been subject to much controversy, especially since it does not distinguish between recreational and commercial mining.

Farming and irrigation

Although the Southern California climate is well-suited to most types of agriculture, the seasonality of rainfall made it almost impossible to grow crops without irrigation. After the founding of Mission San Gabriel, the Spanish built and gradually expanded a system of zanjas (canals) and reservoirs to irrigate crops, power mills, and water livestock. The earliest historic record of a water diversion for the mission appears around 1773. Irrigation systems were also built on some of the Mexican ranchos, such as in 1842 when Don Luis Arenas, owner of the Rancho Azusa de Dalton, constructed a zanja from the mouth of San Gabriel River to his homestead, a distance of about one mile (1.6 km). This would later be expanded in to the Azusa Ditch, one of the more important canals of the region.

After California became part of the United States in 1846, the ranching economy gradually shifted towards agriculture (a transition quickened by the Great Flood of 1862 and subsequent drought of 1863-64 which killed almost three-quarters of the livestock in Los Angeles County), and the San Gabriel River became a crucial water source for farms. The California Gold Rush brought a huge influx of people to the state, and the high demand for food transformed the San Gabriel River Basin into one of the nation's most productive agricultural regions. The Southern Pacific Railroad arrived in 1876 and the Union Pacific Railroad in the early 1900s, the latter line passing through the Whittier Narrows; this enabled the San Gabriel River region to become a major exporter of agricultural products.

Some areas had easy access to permanent water, such as the fertile "island meadow" region between the Rio Hondo and San Gabriel Rivers roughly where El Monte is today. This was one of the most popular destinations for early American settlers; for a time it was called "Lexington" (after Lexington, Kentucky, due to the fact that so many people had arrived from that region). However, most areas required irrigation with either surface or well water to make agriculture a possibility. In 1888 the state of California reported that about 14000 acre in the valley were "wet ... and not generally requiring irrigation", while 92500 acre were "highly cultivable and productive lands, but requiring irrigation, at least for some crops."

Flowing through bedrock canyons and fed by winter rain and snow, the East and West Forks of the San Gabriel River carry water all year long. Even in the driest summers, the San Gabriel flowed all the way to the mouth of San Gabriel Canyon near present-day Azusa, where it percolated into the San Gabriel Valley aquifer. Thus, most of the surface water diversions were taken either directly at the mouth of San Gabriel Canyon, or further down near the Whittier Narrows where groundwater rose to the surface once more. In order to supply water during the dry season when surface flows fell to a trickle, a tunnel nearly 800 ft long was extended under the river bed to tap the shallow aquifer and supply the Azusa, Duarte, and Beardslee ditches. In 1890, some of the irrigation companies operating on the upper San Gabriel River included the Duarte Mutual Irrigation and Canal Company, the Vineland Irrigation District, and the East Whittier Land and Water Company.

Irrigation soon consumed the entire surface flow of the river below San Gabriel Canyon. As early as 1854, the entire upper San Gabriel River was appropriated, with the Azusa farmers (east of the San Gabriel River) claiming up to two-thirds of the flow and the remaining one-third going to the Duarte farmers, west of the San Gabriel River. Farmers also appropriated essentially all the water emerging from the springs at Whittier Narrows, drying up the river below that point. In 1907, it was reported that the San Gabriel River irrigated some of "the most highly productive citrus regions of Southern California." The Teague Grove in San Dimas, not far from the San Gabriel River, was once one of the largest citrus groves in the world with some 250,000 trees.

Conflict over San Gabriel River water reached a head in the 1880s, when such intense litigation occurred it was called the "Battle of San Gabriel River." This led to the creation of the San Gabriel River Water Committee (Committee of Nine) in 1889 in order to "secure a safe and reliable water supply from the San Gabriel River and to protect the rights to and interests in the river on behalf of committee members." Under the Compromise Agreement of 1889 – which is still in effect today – the Committee of Nine was given the right to administer the distribution of San Gabriel River waters, up to 98000 acre feet per year. All water flows above this amount are administered by the San Gabriel Valley Protective Association.

20th century
In the early 1900s, the growing city of Los Angeles began to look to the San Gabriel River for its water supply. However, initial plans were rejected because all the water was already used by farmers, except for floods in the winter. At the time it was believed that the silt-laden, flood-prone San Gabriel River could not be dammed in a safe or efficient manner to conserve this stormwater. In 1913, Los Angeles county engineer Frank Olmstead declared that the cost of a dam on the San Gabriel River would be greater than the economic benefits. When the Los Angeles Aqueduct opened that year, bringing water from the distant Owens Valley, it made possible the urbanization that would eventually replace the vast majority of farmland along the San Gabriel River. During this time, new industries moved into the San Gabriel River area, attracting more urban dwellers to the region. A significant development was the discovery of oil in the Whittier Narrows, reportedly by nine-year-old Tommy Temple in 1912; however, it was not until 1915 that the Standard Oil Company of California sank a well there, and by 1920 almost 100 wells were pumping along the San Gabriel River. The Montebello Oil Field remains a productive oil-producing region today.

The creation of the Pacific Electric interurban railway system in 1911, by a merger of eight local streetcar companies, was a major factor in the growth of new communities along the San Gabriel River, by linking them with downtown Los Angeles. The system was used not only by commuters, but to export agricultural products out of the San Gabriel Valley. A major engineering feat was the Puente Largo ("Great Bridge") built in 1907 to carry the PE Monrovia–Glendora Line over the San Gabriel River. At the time of its construction, it was the largest bridge ever built in southern California.

The San Gabriel River flooded massively in 1914, causing heavy damage to the towns and farms along its course. That year, the Los Angeles County Flood Control Act was passed and the county began a program to build fourteen dams along the San Gabriel River and its tributaries. Bonds totaling about $40 million were issued in 1917 and 1924 to fund the projects, which would be built by the Los Angeles County Flood Control District. A drought in the 1920s furthered the case for the dams, which could also provide water storage for dry years. In 1924, engineer James Reagan proposed the first ambitious dam project for the San Gabriel River:

"On 1 April 1924, Reagan offered plans for a twenty-five-million-dollar dam in San Gabriel Canyon ... the flow of the capricious San Gabriel would thus be carefully managed to lessen the flood peaks, even out the seasons, and eliminate the effects of the wet and dry cycles. Not a drop of water would flow to the ocean. 'By this method,' Reagon told the [Los Angeles County] Board of Supervisors, 'it is hoped that water conservation will entirely take the place of flood control.' Against nature's unpredictability, Reagan offered the orderliness of engineering."

The proposed San Gabriel River dam, known as "Forks Dam" or "Twin Forks" due to its location at the river's East and West Forks, was to be 425 ft high and 1700 ft wide, with a capacity of 240000 acre feet of water. It would be the tallest dam in the world, exceeding the 350 ft height of Arrowrock Dam. In 1927 a railroad was built 12 mi up the San Gabriel Canyon to provide access to the area. Construction of the dam began in December 1928 and quickly progressed in the summer of 1929 with over 600 people working at the site. However on September 16, 1929, a huge landslide crashed down the canyon wall, partially burying the dam site under 100,000 tons of debris. Although there were no deaths, the state of California later determined that a dam could not be constructed safely at this site, and that adequate geological studies had not been conducted. A subsequent investigation found the supervisors guilty of gross negligence and that "bribery and corruption at the highest level of county government had occurred."

Despite the Forks Dam fiasco, the push to dam the San Gabriel River continued. In April 1934 the county flood control district completed the first dam on the San Gabriel River, the relatively small Cogswell Dam. One month later, the city of Pasadena completed Morris Dam and a pipeline along the San Gabriel foothills, at a cost of $10 million, to deliver San Gabriel River water to its residents. Morris Dam was sold to the flood control district the following year. (The Los Angeles County Flood Control District would eventually be consolidated with the county engineering department and road division to form the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, which continues to maintain these dams today.)

The largest dam, San Gabriel – two miles (3.2 km) downstream from the original Forks Dam site – was almost complete at the eve of the Los Angeles Flood of 1938, the single most damaging flood in Southern California's history. Storms in late February and early March 1938 dropped a year's worth of rainfall in one week on the San Gabriel Mountains, causing rivers across the Los Angeles Basin to burst their banks, killing over 100 people, and destroying more than $1.3 billion (2016 dollars) worth of property. At the time, the San Gabriel River was the only major river in Southern California with major flood control dams already in place. The new dams reduced a monstrous flood crest of more than 90000 cuft/s to about 65700 cuft/s, sparing a large part of the San Gabriel Valley from damage. However, heavy damage still occurred in places, especially on the lower San Gabriel River due to flooding from tributaries.

The rate of urbanization increased in the 1930s, in no small part due to Midwestern families fleeing the Dust Bowl and settling in greater Los Angeles. As the population grew and automobiles superseded trains as the main form of transport, the need for additional routes in and out of Los Angeles was recognized. The state of California made several attempts to build a road over the San Gabriel Mountains, via the San Gabriel River from Azusa to Wrightwood. Construction began in 1929 on the East Fork Road which would have traveled through the precipitous gorge of the East Fork of the San Gabriel River. However, the 1938 flood destroyed the road and most of its bridges, except for the Bridge to Nowhere, which remains today as a popular tourist draw.

After World War II, the proposed road took on greater importance for defense, and was envisioned as a potential evacuation route from Los Angeles in the event of a nuclear attack. During the 1950s and 1960s, Shoemaker Canyon Road was partially completed along an alignment higher above the East Fork, but its construction was plagued by mudslides and erosion from winter storms. The second attempt was also abandoned and is now known as the "Road to Nowhere". Finally, the state gave up on the East Fork route and instead chose a route up the North Fork, connecting SR 39 (San Gabriel Canyon Road) to the Angeles Crest Highway at Islip Saddle. However, a massive rock and mudslide in 1978 damaged the roadway, and it has never been reopened, except to emergency vehicles.

Camps and resorts
As Los Angeles grew in population during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, recreational outings in the San Gabriel Mountains were an increasingly popular pastime (a time known as the "Great Hiking Era" of the San Gabriels). As early as the 1890s local residents recognized the need to preserve mountain areas both as intact watersheds and for recreation. In 1891 the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce appealed to Congress to have "all public domain included in the watersheds of Los Angeles, San Gabriel and other rivers in the Sierra Range [San Gabriel Mountains] withdrawal [sic] from sale such that the mountains may in future time serve the general public as a great park." In 1892 the San Gabriel Timberland Reserve, precursor to the Angeles National Forest, was established by the federal government.

The canyons, which had become quiet after the departure of gold miners, were busy again in summer with the many resorts established along the forks of the San Gabriel River. Between 1890 and 1938, hiking was "tremendously popular among area residents". One of the major resorts was Camp Bonito, located on the original site of Eldoradoville, "noted for its splendid trout streams, deer range and beautiful surroundings." Camp Bonito was served by stagecoach from the Pacific Electric railroad at Azusa, along the same route taken by the Eldoradoville stage. Other mountain resorts included Cold Brook Camp (in the Crystal Lake area, along the North Fork), and Opids Camp and Camp Rincon along the West Fork. Weber's Camp, located in Coldwater Canyon (a tributary of the East Fork), was a popular stop along the route to the summit of Mount San Antonio, the highest point in the range.

At first, access to the upper San Gabriel River was only possible via hiking or on horseback. The precipitous Mount Lowe Railway opened in 1893, bringing vacationers near the summit of Mount Wilson, high above the West Fork of the San Gabriel River. There a hotel was established, next to the Mount Wilson Observatory; from here pack trails connected to Red Box Saddle, where visitors could descend the West Fork. As automobiles grew in popularity during the early 1900s, roads penetrated deeper into the mountains. The paved road from Azusa up San Gabriel Canyon reached the confluence of the East and West Forks by 1915, making it easier to reach the many camps along the upper San Gabriel.

Although hiking popularity temporarily declined during World War II, recreation increased once more during the postwar population boom, and the upper San Gabriel continues to see heavy use today for hiking, camping, fishing, swimming, and backpacking.

Flood control
Prior to the early 1900s, the San Gabriel River watershed was mostly used for agriculture and ranching; during the river's periodic floods, loss of life and property was limited. The river's changing course below the Whittier Narrows made it difficult to establish permanent settlements there. During most of the 1860s, the San Gabriel River flowed southwest and joined the Los Angeles River to empty into San Pedro Bay. However, a flood in 1868 caused the river to swing into a more southerly course, towards its present mouth at Alamitos Bay, flooding and destroying the town of Gallatin. The old western channel is today's Rio Hondo ("deep river"). The new channel, roughly its present course, was for a time referred to as "New River".

After the flood of 1938, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the two large flood control basins on the lower San Gabriel River – Santa Fe Dam and Whittier Narrows Dam, completed in 1949 and 1957, respectively. Although both dams had already been proposed prior to the 1938 flood, emergency federal funding made available in the Flood Control Act of 1941 were used to expedite their construction. There is no permanent storage at either dam; their combined capacity of 112000 acre feet is used solely for flood control. A second purpose of Santa Fe Dam is to hold back destructive debris flows from the San Gabriel Canyon, as had occurred in 1938. Whittier Narrows Dam can divert excess floodwaters between the San Gabriel River and Rio Hondo as necessary. These supplement the protection provided by the upstream San Gabriel and Cogswell Dams, where the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works maintains a minimum of 50000 acre feet of storage space at the beginning of each winter to protect against flooding.

Another legacy of the 1938 flood was the channelization of Southern California streams, including the San Gabriel River. As a result, nearly the entire lower river has been turned into an artificial channel. However, unlike the nearby Los Angeles River which was almost entirely concreted in the wake of the 1938 flood, only about 10 mi of the San Gabriel River channel (between Whittier Narrows Dam and Coyote Creek) are fully concrete. The channel has mostly been constructed to withstand a 100-year flood, and reaches its maximum capacity just above Whittier Narrows at 98000 cuft/s. Below the Whittier Narrows Dam, the channel capacity is just 13000 cuft/s; most floodwaters are diverted to the Rio Hondo where the channel is much larger and deeper. The capacity of the San Gabriel River near the mouth is approximately 51000 cuft/s.

Water supply
The San Gabriel River is an important source of water for the 35 incorporated cities and other communities in its watershed; despite the arid climate that requires water be imported from Northern California and the Colorado River, the San Gabriel still provides about a third of the water used locally. The Cogswell, San Gabriel, and Morris dams are operated by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works (LADPW) and can capture and store up to 85000 acre feet of rain and snow runoff. The Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District estimates that, in an average year, between 95–99 percent of stormwater runoff from the San Gabriel River system is captured for storage, direct use, or groundwater recharge. The California Department of Water Resources considered the San Gabriel River a "fully appropriated" stream, meaning that no new water rights may be taken.

Two major groundwater basins or aquifers underlie the San Gabriel River watershed, separated by zones of impermeable bedrock and fault lines. Groundwater acts as the main long-term water storage of the San Gabriel River system, since the aquifers can hold many times more water than surface reservoirs. The San Gabriel Valley Basin covers a total of 255 mi2 and has a storage capacity of 10.8 million acre-feet (13.3 km3) of groundwater. The Central Basin is somewhat larger, with an area of 277 mi2 and a storage capacity of 13.8 million acre-feet (17.0 km3). Soil permeability, and thus natural groundwater recharge rates, is much higher in the San Gabriel Valley than in the Central Basin. Although both groundwater basins experience some overdraft, the deficit is more severe in the Central Basin.

The LADPW operates an extensive series of spreading grounds which receive water from the San Gabriel River and allow it to percolate back into the regional aquifers. Due to the limited speed at which the ground can absorb water, the spreading grounds must be operated in tandem with surface reservoirs, which can capture big stormwater surges in winter and release water gradually through the dry season. The combined San Gabriel / Rio Hondo system is served by seven spreading grounds – San Gabriel Canyon, Santa Fe, Peck Road, San Gabriel Valley, Rio Hondo Coastal, San Gabriel Coastal, and Montebello Forebay – totaling 1862 acre. The first three contribute to the San Gabriel Valley aquifer and recharge about 220000 acre feet each year. The others are used to recharge the Central Basin (coastal) aquifer and conserve an average of 150000 acre feet per year. In addition, rubber dams can be inflated along certain stretches of the San Gabriel River to slow the flow rate and allow water to percolate directly through the river bed.

Water distribution in the San Gabriel Valley is adjudicated by the Main San Gabriel Basin Watermaster, a board which determines the amount of water to be delivered to each user (mostly municipal water agencies), recharged into the aquifer, and pumped from the aquifer. The "operating safe yield" is the amount of groundwater that can be reliably extracted from the aquifer and is determined by the Watermaster based on annual rainfall and runoff. Between 1973 and 2002, this averaged approximately 200000 acre feet. The Central Basin Watermaster serves the same purpose for the Central Basin aquifer and allows pumping of roughly 217000 acre feet per year. The Puente Subbasin is located between the Puente and San Jose Hills (roughly between City of Industry and Diamond Bar) and, although hydrologically part of the San Gabriel Valley aquifer, is managed as a separate entity.

Hydroelectricity
There is one hydroelectric plant on the river, located just to the north of Azusa. The original Azusa Hydroelectric Plant was built in 1898 by the San Gabriel Electric Company (which in 1917 was incorporated into Southern California Edison). Power generation began on June 30, with an initial capacity of 2,000 kilowatts (KW). During the early 1900s, it was mainly used to power the Pacific Electric (Red Car) and Los Angeles Railway (Yellow Car) systems in the greater Los Angeles area. The plant was purchased by the City of Pasadena in 1930, due to structural modifications needed to accommodate the city's proposed Morris Dam. A new 3,000 KW plant was built adjacent to the old plant in the 1940s.

The power station is supplied with water via the 5.5 mi-long Azusa Conduit, which draws water from the river below San Gabriel Dam, and runs along the east wall of the San Gabriel Canyon to a point just north of Azusa adjacent to the San Gabriel Canyon spreading grounds, where a 38 in-diameter penstock falls 390 ft down the mountainside to the powerhouse. Between 1996 and 2014, the plant generated an annual average of 4 million kilowatt hours. The usage of river water for electricity production has been controversial, as diverting water can dry up the channel, reducing fish habitat.

Sand and gravel mining
Although not directly related to water supply, the San Gabriel River bed – filled with coarse and fine sediments to depths of hundreds and sometimes thousands of feet – is an important source of aggregate materials (gravel and sand) for use in construction. The San Gabriel Valley around Irwindale is one of the largest aggregate mining areas in the United States – more than a billion tons have been taken from the old river bed, supplying construction projects all over Los Angeles County. Most of the freeway system in greater Los Angeles was built using aggregate from the San Gabriel river bed.

In Irwindale, there are seventeen gravel pits of various sizes, although not all are being mined. The largest aggregate company operating in the San Gabriel river is Vulcan Materials Company. There are proposals to refill some of the inactive pits to allow commercial, retail, and industrial development, or repurpose them as parks or water storage reservoirs. The maximum allowed depth is 200 ft, and since many pits have already reached this depth, mining companies are pushing to extend the limit by another 150 ft. This has been controversial due to the risk of slope instability.

Another major area of sediment removal is from the reservoirs along the San Gabriel River. The San Gabriel River drains one of the most erosive mountain ranges in the world, and mountain reservoirs must be continually dredged to maintain enough space for flood control. Between 1935 and 2013, about 42000000 yd3 of sediment have been removed from Cogswell and San Gabriel Reservoirs, equal to about 40 percent of the total original design volume of the reservoirs. Most of this material is unsuitable for use as aggregate and must be disposed of in designated sediment placement sites. It has been proposed to truck reservoir mud to Irwindale to fill some of the abandoned gravel quarries there.

Water quality issues
Since more than half the watershed is developed, the San Gabriel River receives large amounts of industrial and urban runoff that contribute to pollution in the lower river. In addition, several major wastewater treatment plants discharge effluent to the river, the largest being the Los Coyotes plant, which has an output of 30 million gallons (110,000 m3) per day. A total of 598 businesses, manufacturers, and other parties are licensed to discharge storm water into the San Gabriel River, and more than 100 storm drains empty directly into the river. The upper reaches of the river, although undeveloped, are subjected to heavy recreational use and are impacted by trash, debris, fecal coliforms, and heavy metals. The U.S. Forest Service removes about four hundred 32-gallon bags of trash from the East Fork each weekend.

A 2007 study found that Coyote Creek, the main tributary of the lower San Gabriel River, exhibited "acute and chronic toxicity" from pesticides and industrial chemicals, while toxicity levels in the main stem San Gabriel River, Walnut Creek, and San Jose Creek were "significantly reduced" from 1995 levels due to improved water treatment systems. The Alamitos and Haynes generating stations are located on the lower San Gabriel River and discharge their cooling water into the river. This has had adverse impacts on habitat surrounding the river's estuary. A considerable portion of the groundwater in the San Gabriel River watershed is also polluted, mostly from industrial chemicals. The San Gabriel Valley has four Superfund sites where water is being extracted for treatment before being pumped back into the ground.

Crossings
From mouth to source (year built in parentheses):

 * Marina Drive (1963)
 * - Pacific Coast Highway (1931)
 * Second Street - twin bridges (1964)
 * - East 7th Street - twin bridges (1941, 1959)
 * College Park Drive (1964)
 * Southbound Interstate 605 ramp to northbound Interstate 405 (1966)
 * - San Diego Freeway (1964)
 * Southbound Interstate 405 ramp to northbound Interstate 605 (1966)
 * East Willow Street (1962)
 * East Spring Street (1952)
 * East Wardlow Road (1963)
 * San Gabriel River Bicycle Path [bike bridge]
 * Carson Street - twin bridges (1971)
 * Del Amo Boulevard (1966)
 * South Street (1952)
 * 183rd Street (1972)
 * Artesia Boulevard (1941)
 * Railroad (West Santa Ana Branch, disused)
 * - Artesia Freeway (1968)
 * [Pedestrian Bridge]
 * Alondra Boulevard (1952)
 * Rosecrans Avenue (1951)
 * Foster Road [Pedestrian Bridge]
 * Eastbound Interstate 105 ramps to Interstate 605 (1987)
 * - Glenn Anderson Freeway and Metro C Line (1987)
 * Interstate 605 ramps to westbound Interstate 105 (1987)
 * Imperial Highway (1952)
 * Railroad (Union Pacific)
 * Firestone Boulevard (1934)
 * Florence Avenue (1951)
 * - Santa Ana Freeway (1953)
 * Telegraph Road (1937)
 * Railroad (Union Pacific)
 * Slauson Avenue (1958)
 * Railroad (BNSF/Amtrak Pacific Surfliner and Southwest Chief/Metrolink Orange County Line and 91/Perris Valley Line)
 * Washington Boulevard (1953)
 * - Whittier Boulevard (1968)
 * Railroad (Union Pacific and Metrolink Riverside Line)
 * East Beverly Boulevard (1952)
 * San Gabriel River Parkway (1954)
 * Whittier Narrows Dam
 * Peck Road - twin bridges (1952)
 * - Pomona Freeway (1967)
 * Valley Boulevard (1916)
 * Railroad (Union Pacific/Amtrak Sunset Limited/Metrolink San Bernardino Line)
 * - San Bernardino Freeway (westbound 1933, eastbound 1956)
 * Ramona Boulevard (1961)
 * Lower Azusa Road (1960)
 * - San Gabriel River Freeway - twin bridges (1970)
 * Live Oak Avenue (1961)
 * Arrow Highway (1949)
 * Santa Fe Dam
 * Railroad (Metro A Line)
 * - Foothill Freeway (1968)
 * Foothill Boulevard/Huntington Drive (1922)
 * [Pedestrian Bridge]
 * Mountain Laurel Way
 * Rock Springs Way
 * - San Gabriel Canyon Road (1933)
 * Morris Reservoir
 * San Gabriel Reservoir

East Fork

 * Forest Route 2N16/Upper Monroe Rd to Fire Camp 19
 * East Fork Road (1936)
 * Bridge to Nowhere (1936)

North Fork

 * (1967)
 * (1967)
 * (1932)

West Fork

 * East Fork Road (1949)
 * State Route 39 (1962)

title: San Gabriel River (California)


text:
All Aussie Adventures

All Aussie Adventures, also known as Russell Coight's All Aussie Adventures, is an Australian mockumentary television series that parodies the travel-adventure genre. Comedian Glenn Robbins plays Russell Coight, a survival and wildlife expert who charts his disastrous travels through Australia, spreading misinformation and causing accidents.

The series originally ran for two seasons on Network Ten from 5 August 2001 to 29 September 2002. A telemovie, Russell Coight's Celebrity Challenge, which featured fictional celebrities joining Coight in the outback, aired on 14 November 2004. A third season premiered on 5 August 2018.

An official website for the show titled “bigcoight.com” (which can be seen towards the end credits of almost every episode) had been left untouched since 2004, until mid 2019 when Working Dog Productions had bought the domain.

Premise
The series parodies the adventure genre, which included the travels of the Leyland brothers, The Bush Tucker Man, Malcolm Douglas, Steve Irwin, Ben Cropp, Harry Butler and Alby Mangels. In these programs the host travels the wilderness meeting local people and providing insight into the flora and fauna of the country, in the process causing environmental damage by using large quantities of diesel fuel and erosion from driving through pristine creeks and dirt tracks. The narration (typically provided by the host) often verges on hyperbole.

Episodes of All Aussie Adventures generally follow a similar format: Coight greets the audience and explains his latest reason for outback travel – often to help out a "mate". He ends each introduction with the tagline "So what are we waiting for, let's get cracking on another All Aussie Adventure".

Russell Coight
The series is presented as if Russell Coight were a real person, eschewing screen credit for his portrayer Glenn Robbins. The only mention of Robbins is at the end of the credits, when he is thanked "for his directorial assistance".

Perhaps the kindest description of Russell Coight is "accident-prone" – if something can go wrong for him, it will, like Murphy's law. Coight is a naturally outgoing man and comfortable in front of the camera, so is never shy in revealing private aspects of his personality (he even showers in front of the camera). Over the series the audience discovers various hints to his character, such as a glimpse of his card for the local adult video store.

Russell Coight identifies himself as an 'outback man', who strongly endorses the ways of the outback, as opposed to the ways of urban life. When Russell finds numerous tourists stuck on the outback road, he hastily refers to them as "city slickers" before he tries to help them, albeit unsuccessfully. He also perceives these "city slickers" as being overly affluent, and who waste their money on "high-tech gadgets" and five-star hotels, along with comparing such things to his own outback lifestyle, which includes making his own chair and bathing in a freshwater billabong.

His sister Meredith – who is never seen – is credited for everything from being a crocodile tamer to a stunt coordinator. In one episode, "Daintree", she is heard singing dreamily a somewhat dubious song, "Daintree", from her album Daintree, on the Daintree label.

Following the success of the first series, comedian and talk show host Rove McManus interviewed Russell Coight, who provided information on his fictional background.

"Wallaby Jack", a similar character from The Late Show, is a precursor to Coight. Tom Gleisner, a writer for both series, points this out in The Late Show DVD audio commentary.

Common gags
Much of the humor of All Aussie Adventures is contained in the sight gags. Tents collapse, camp fires rage out of control, cars roll away and Coight trips and falls painfully. Coight regularly suffers from flatulence, especially when he is sitting in a quiet idyllic pool, whereupon bubbles inevitably rise to the surface. When bending over, he will occasionally pass wind.

Coight is fond of saving indigenous wildlife and preserving historical Australian sites. However, due to Coight's clumsiness and/or inattentiveness he often unintentionally destroys the animal or location.

Coight often attempts to make jokes with his friends during the programs. Unfortunately, most of these fall flat. He presents himself as a man with "mates" all around Australia, whom he likes to bring into his shows. These "mates" usually avoid him, or barely know him, but he seems oblivious to any embarrassment this should cause him on air.

In one episode an Indigenous Australian is educating Coight on finding bush tucker. Coight attempts to tell the joke about being on a "seafood diet...I see food and I eat it", achieving absolutely no reaction. The guest is as clueless as Coight, rejecting all Coight's ideas on bush tucker, and telling Coight that the outback is full of wild bananas, out of season at the time.

Coight also claims to be one of the greatest bird-callers in the business with over 100 different bird calls in his repertoire (most of which sound identical). According to Coight "once you get your finger in the right position and your tongue doing the same..... the rest is easy". He then demonstrates a bird call but his flatulence interrupts it. He tries to downplay this by suggesting the flatus was "the reply call of an injured bird".

Stock footage
Another source of humor is the frequent use of stock footage in incongruous situations. The most well-known example of this is the "handshaking shot".

When Coight meets a new character the program will cut to a closeup shot of their handshake. As a gag, this is clearly a shot taken at a different time with different people. When Coight shakes hands with an indigenous Australian, the closeup will show two white hands. When he shakes hands with a white Australian, the closeup will show a black and a white hand. This serves to highlight the artificial and constructed nature of this sort of television series banter.

Scenery footage is often re-used in the different episodes. Footage obviously shot in Victoria will be shown when Coight is supposedly far into the Northern Territory.

Footage of the Toyota Land Cruiser used in the show is often reused, meaning the number plate often changes throughout the episode. Beginning in Season 3, the original vehicle is replaced by a Land Rover Defender.

Season 3 (2018)
On 4 November 2016, All Aussie Adventures was renewed for a third season and was scheduled to return in 2017. In August 2017, the series was rescheduled to air in 2018. The series premiered on 5 August 2018. The final two episodes aired on 9 September 2018, being broadcast consecutively.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: All Aussie Adventures


text:
User:Brosen~enwiki

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title: User:Brosen~enwiki


text:
Lima-class submarine

Project 1840 is the name of a Soviet diesel-electric research submarine design of which only one vessel was built. The design is known in the west by its NATO reporting name Lima. The submarine, which was assigned hull number БС-555 (БС, большая специальная or bolshaya spetsialnaya, meaning large special), was completed in 1979, and used by the Black Sea Fleet. It was decommissioned and laid up in 1994. The unarmed vessel was equipped with two diving chambers for deep-sea operations and hydro-acoustic experiments.

title: Lima-class submarine


text:
Elvis Crespo

Elvis Crespo Díaz (born July 30, 1971) is an American singer of the Merengue genre. He has won multiple awards, including a Grammy and a Latin Grammy Award in merengue music.

Early years
Crespo was born in New York City and was named "Elvis" after Elvis Presley. He was raised in the city of Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, where he spent his childhood and adolescent years.

Musical career
He first gained fame in the mid-90s when he joined Grupo Mania, in Puerto Rico. Eventually he decided to try to go solo in 1998. His debut album, Suavemente, was a hit both in Latin America and in the US. The single "Suavemente" was a huge hit and eventually helped him earn the Best Male Tropical/Salsa Album of the Year from Billboard magazine. His album went platinum in the Venezuelan and Central American markets and gold in Chile. Released in 1998, Crespo's debut also earned a gold album for sales of over 500,000 copies in the first year after its release in the United States. "Suavemente" set a record for holding the top position on Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks chart for six weeks. Part of the song's success was its unexpected crossover appeal to English-speaking listeners, particularly in Miami and New York." His album was mostly merengue influenced, but his follow-up albums would venture from these roots eventually. Wow Flash! is Elvis Crespo's third solo recording for Sony Music. Elvis Crespo's latest album, Regresó el Jefe, went on sale on 5 June 2007, with its first single being "La Foto Se Me Borró." He dedicated this album to his niece, Wilmarie Agosto Crespo, who died in a car accident on March 28, 2007. In 2016 Elvis was featured on Deorro's number one hit song "Bailar" which was featured on a Target Corporation Commercial.

Personal life
On March 16, 2009, Crespo married his manager, Maribel Vega, in Puerto Rico.

Crespo was investigated by the Miami-Dade Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after he allegedly performed a sex act and exposed himself in view of other passengers aboard an airplane flight from Houston, Texas to Miami, Florida on March 26, 2009. He was interviewed upon his arrival but was not arrested and no charges were filed. When asked by police at the airport about the accusation, Crespo reportedly said "I don’t recall doing that". On July 10, 2013, an intoxicated Crespo was allegedly expelled from a casino in Isla Verde, Puerto Rico for harassing a female employee, before he later became involved in a physical confrontation with local restaurant owner Alexander de Jesús after he attempted to steal a bottle of alcohol from his restaurant. De Jesús subsequently filed a complaint against Crespo, opening a police investigation. In a December 2013 interview with Al Rojo Vivo, Crespo addressed both incidents, saying that he was ashamed, and that his behavior stemmed from his struggles with alcohol and drug addiction.

Discography
Studio albums
 * 1998: Suavemente
 * 1999: Píntame
 * 1999: The Remixes
 * 2000: Wow! Flash
 * 2002: Urbano
 * 2004: Saboréalo
 * 2007: Regresó el Jefe
 * 2010: Indestructible
 * 2012: Los Monsters
 * 2013: One Flag
 * 2015: Tatuaje
 * 2018: Diomedizao
 * 2021: Regresó el Jefe 2.0
 * 2021: Multitudes

Awards
This is a list of awards and nominations of Puerto Rican merengue artist Elvis Crespo. Here are some of the awards he has won during his musical career.

Premio Lo Nuestro
1999

2000 2001 2003 2005 2012
 * Tropical: Album of the Year (Suavemente)
 * Tropical: Male Artist of the Year
 * Tropical: Best New Artist
 * Tropical: Song of the Year (Suavemente)
 * Tropical: Album of the Year (Pintame)
 * Tropical: Male Artist of the Year
 * Tropical: Song of the Year (Pintame)
 * Merengue: Artist of the Year
 * People Choice Awards: Tropical Artist of the Year
 * Merengue: Artist of the Year
 * Merengue: Artist of the Year
 * Merengue: Artist of the Year

Grammy Awards
1999
 * Best Merengue Performance (Pintame)

Latin Grammys
2005
 * Best Merengue Album (Saborealo)

title: Elvis Crespo


text:
Pekka Sauri

Pekka Markus Sauri (born 31 May 1954 in Helsinki) is a Finnish psychologist and a Green League politician. He is formerly the deputy mayor of Finland's capital city, Helsinki and chair of the Procura+ Campaign for sustainable procurement. Sauri became well known in Finland during the late 1990s for hosting a popular radio show Yölinja ("Nightline") in which he tried to help callers with their various personal problems.

Sauri attended the Helsinki University, receiving his bachelor's degree in 1975, master's in 1977 and licentiate degree in 1980. In 1990 he got his Ph.D. from the Brunel University in London.

In a feature interview, he described his nation, “Finland is one of the most successful societies on the planet. Of course, we have our share of negatives, but on the whole, it’s more or less a paradise on Earth: a pretty good Golden Cut between reliability and creativity.” He claims to have no higher political ambitions.

Pekka Sauri has been active in the municipal politics of Helsinki since mid-1980s. From 1993 to 2003 he was an elected member of the city council. In 2001 he became the chairman of the city council, and in 2003 he was appointed the deputy mayor of Helsinki, being the first Green politician to achieve such posts in any Finnish municipality. He was the party secretary of the Green League 1990—1991 and the chairman 1991—1993. Sauri has not been elected to the Finnish Parliament despite being a candidate several times. Sauri has written several books and his caricature cartoons have been published in many Finnish papers.

title: Pekka Sauri


text:
Talk:Yamamoto Gonnohyōe

Untitled
I have seen the sources which states Gonnohyoe is his name; all Japese sources I've ever known said his name is Gonbe (or Gombei). Would you like to let me know why you decided to name this article Gonnohyoe? If you can't, I think to move it to Yamamoto Gombei later. --Aphaea 09:16, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Although I am a Japanese, the name of Yamamoto Gombei, Yamamoto Gonnohyoue, and Yamamoto Gonbyoue is used for him. Being used generally in Japan is Yamamoto Gonbei.(UTC)

 * It's Gonbee (ごんべえ), not Gonbei (ごんべい). --Insomniacpuppy 07:46, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Gonbee vs. Gonnohyōe
Hi Neier, if you read Hiragana, please check 山本権兵衛.

It's not the matter of kanji pronunciation. It's just his real name vs. nickname. Prince Harry’s real name is Prince Henry and that won't change no matter how one may want to pronounce it. It's the same thing.

Historically 権兵衛 was always pronounced “Gonbee,” but hardly ever “Gonnohyōe.” Yamamoto was in fact just about the only high-profile figure who used that “profoundly-sounding” alternative, which many people back then actually thought was funny.

I know a lot of English references list him as Gonnohyōe Yamamoto, but it’s actually a common mistake.

--Insomniacpuppy 07:46, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

 * Thanks for the link. I didn't think to check the ja: wiki.  I didn't realize that ごんべえ was a real pronunciation of the kanji and I also misread the reference (I thought Gonbee was the nickname given; not the other way around).  Sorry for the extra reversion. Neier 09:34, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

title: Talk:Yamamoto Gonnohyōe


text:
Talk:Irish House of Commons

Removed (from famous members:)
He did not enter politics until after the parliament was dissolved. Wellesley was a member of the British House of Commons in Westminster. He could despite being a Lord as the peerage was created prior to the act of Union. I believe (by following the logic of the Westminster Houses at the time) that being an Irish Lord would in fact prevented him from bening a member the Irish House of Commons. Dainamo
 * Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington who defeated Emperor Napoleon I of France at the Battle of Waterloo and later became British Prime Minister. It was he as prime minister who conceded Catholic Emancipation in 1829.

 * Are you sure? He was returned in the April 1790 general election, and is recorded as speaking in the Parliamentary Register. His maiden speech was on January 10, 1793 seconding the address to the throne - see vol. 13, p. 5. He also did take his seat in the UK House. Wellington did not become a Peer until 1809. Dbiv 00:40, 11 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Better image
That photo of a copy of a picture of the Irish House of Commons in session in the 1790s (with light glare) is really not up to much. It seems to be a copy of Francis Wheatley's painting which is in the Gascoigne collection at Lotherton Hall, near Leeds (see website). Can we get a better version? Dbiv 00:40, 11 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Boroughs
This link links to a list of boroughs disenfranchised by the 1801 Act of Union. There are 83 in total. Morwen - Talk 22:56, 22 November 2005 (UTC)

Was the Old Leighlin borough really in Armagh?
The Old Leighlin of which I'm aware is in Co. Carlow, near Leighlinbridge. It has a C of I cathedral (now used as a parish church under the diocese of Ossory). I was also under the impression that it elected an MP.

Merge proposal

 * Totally oppose: Constituency pages exist for other parliaments, so why not for this one. --Damac 11:39, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

 * What merge proposal? Can you provide a link? --BrownHairedGirl 12:02, 2 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Hi, BrownHairedGirl. You'll see what I'm talking about if you hit the "What links here" button for this page. The proposer, User:Dsreyn, didn't follow correct proceedure and didn't set up a place to discuss his proposal here.
 * As I said, I oppose it. On top of that, what would you think of the proposal that the constituencies be renamed from XX (Irish Parliament constituency) to XX (Parliament of Ireland constituency). --Damac 12:31, 2 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Rename sounds like a good idea (less ambiguous), but might it not be better to dispsnse with the merge propsal first? --BrownHairedGirl 12:42, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

 * Strong oppose to merge proposals. Parliamentary constituencies are an important part of the political process, and merit an article in each case, even iff it ends up being a short one. --BrownHairedGirl 12:42, 2 August 2006 (UTC)
 * I think this one can be wound up. The proposer didn't even bother to justify the proposal, and it has found no support whatsoever from other uses. I suggest that we now discuss how to name the constituency articles at Talk:List of Irish constituencies.--Damac 08:17, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
 * The merge tag was added in June, but the proposer didn't offer any explanation of why it was advocated. So I'm now putting on my admin hat and removing the merge tags, and I'm also taking the plunge and putting these articles in a category I have just created, Category:Constituencies of the Parliament of Ireland (to 1800). --BrownHairedGirl 12:36, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Now done. Merge rag removed, all categorised and marked as stubs.  But they need work soon to at least make them credible stubs (see WP:STUB), or someone will come along and AFD them all. --BrownHairedGirl 13:04, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

Irish constituency names
Before I start creating articles on the constituencies of the pre-1801 Irish House of Commons, I'd like to sound out views on how to name them. Here are my proposals:

1. I propose that for every county constituency, there should be page like Galway (constituency), which will list out all the constituencies from that county over time.

2. The names of each constituency should follow the pattern XX (Parliament of Ireland constituency). In cases where a constituency had a borough and a county variant, only the borough should be specified, i.e. simply Galway (Parliament of Ireland constituency) (for the county) but Galway Borough (Parliament of Ireland constituency) for the borough.

3. Although I suggested to User:Gary J months ago that pre- and post-1801 constituencies were essentially the same thing and should not be split but form one article, I think that his creation Antrim (constituency) shows that this is perhaps not such a good idea in practice. Not only is the article above the recommended size (47 KB), but the article does not allow for an effective distinction between pre and post political entities. Therefore, I would propose breaking up these articles (sorry Gary J) into pre- and post-union articles and replacing Antrim (constituency) with something like what I've done for Galway (constituency).

On a slightly different note, I'd ask for help in:

1. populating Category:Historic parliamentary constituencies in Ireland (perhaps this should be renamed Category:Historic UK parliamentary constituencies in Ireland so that it remains solely for UK House of Commons constituencies in Ireland.)

2. removing the inconsistencies in naming. On the one hand we have Birmingham East (UK Parliament constituency), and the other North Galway (UK Parliament constituency) (both established 1885). Perhaps for simplicities sake, the county name should always come first. --Damac 13:45, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

 * Re your proposals
 * Constituency dab pages like page like Galway (constituency): agree! (I think I started that process, so no surprise I'm in favour).
 * Constit names: Agree -- county name first, compass points (or other qualifiers) after.
 * Separate the Irish Parl constits from UK Parl constits: Agree. A constituency exists to elect members to a specific parliament; its name should reflct that --BrownHairedGirl 14:20, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Re the names of the UK parl constits, currently in Category:Historic UK parliamentary constituencies in Ireland, I suggest following the logic of Category:Members of the United Kingdom Parliament from Irish constituencies (1801-1922), and calling it: Category:Irish constituencies of the United Kingdom Parliament (1801-1922). That avoids any confusion with the post-1922 Northern Irish constits. --BrownHairedGirl 14:20, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

Parliaments 1692-1800
I have made a number of amendments whichn I hope are correct and have moved the section to a new article. I think otherwise the main article is too long. Does anyone have a difficulty with this? Durrus 18:42, 21 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Yes, and I've reverted your changes but have included new information. Before carrying out major moves like this, please allow for some consultation with other users.--Damac 20:20, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

British?
RE: 'The British appointed Irish executive, under the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, was not answerable to the House of Commons but to the British government.' As far as I was aware, the term 'the British' cannot be applied accurately in this context until after the 1707 union of the Scottish and English Parliaments. Therefore, 'the British' government did not technically exist for most of the time the Irish parliament did. In this sentence the term 'the British' should be replaced with the term 'The English executive' or 'the English government' as it is historically correct. Meanwhile, the use of the term is correct later on in the paragraph: 'the Irish parliament merged with its British counterpart in 1801 under the Act of Union'. Now that I think about it, the whole sentence is somewhat misleading or even biased. Certainly the Irish executive were answerable to the monarch and the English executive, but legislation could not be passed without the cooperation of the Irish House of Commons. I would suggest merely stating the facts: 'The English government appointed members of the Irish executive, under the Lord Lieutenant, to represent the royal prerogative in Ireland'.Sebrofs (talk) 00:10, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Parliamentary Sessions.
I think it would be more helpful to list each parliamentary session where possible, rather than just the start and end dates of the parliament. See below for an example for the Parliament of James I:

I have the dates from 1613 to Union, so I'll go ahead with this eventually if no-one objects. Sebrofs (talk) 13:33, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Peers in the Commons?
Obviously members of the Peerage of Ireland would have been disqualified from election to the Irish House of Commons as they already had seats in the Irish House of Lords, but did the same thing apply to members of the British House of Lords who were not Irish peers? Opera hat (talk) 11:53, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

Lists of MPs
I think the whole Sessions section should be calved out of this parent article. It takes up too much space, and is currently rather ragged. As regards a general list of sessions, there is already List of Parliaments of Ireland, which (except in the early years before the Lords-Commons distinction was settled) would correspond with sessions of the Commons. We then need two orthogonal families of list articles: one with all MPs over time for a given constituency, the other with all MPs for a given session across all constituencies. The former lists already exist in the constituency articles, though incomplete and underreferenced; the latter is what is currently bloating out the Sessions section of this article. A starting-point is the by-session subcategories of Category:Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801), though obviously there is no structure to those lists, and MPs with no Wikipedia article cannot be shown. A noncopyright source with fairly complete lists of Irish MPs from 1559 is pp.603–691 of Return of the name of every member of the lower house of parliament of England, Scotland, and Ireland, with name of constituency represented, and date of return, from 1213 to 1874: Part II (Command paper C.180-I). If you or your IP proxy are in the US you can download it from Google books here; elsewhere Google's copyright paranoia is too great. jnestorius(talk) 21:30, 9 August 2013 (UTC)

 * I've added Category:Lists of members of the Parliament of Ireland and Lists of Irish MPs now. jnestorius(talk) 10:26, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

Yes I would have no objection to carving out Sessions Chrisdoyleorwell (talk) 17:49, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

External links modified
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Clogher (Parliament of Ireland constituency)

 * 1) The article gives the date of creation of the above constituency as "Between 1614 and 1692".
 * 2) Clogher (Parliament of Ireland constituency) has a section Clogher_(Parliament_of_Ireland_constituency).
 * 3) Template:County_Tyrone_constituencies also gives a date of formation as 1264.
 * 4) That article gives the first MPs as elected in 1613.
 * 5) The source for that seems to be the 1876 Parliamentary report.
 * 6) The Irish Parliament under Elizabeth and James I: A General Survey by T. W. Moody Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology, Culture, History, Literature, Vol. 45 (1939/1940), page 75 (subscription needed) does not include Clogher City either as having had MPs in 1560 or 1585-6, or as having been incorporated between 1604-1613.

Can anyone shed any light on the discrepancy? Alekksandr (talk) 21:28, 24 June 2022 (UTC)

 * Bishop%27s_borough says that "The village of Clogher, County Tyrone was originally a corporation borough. It was enfranchised by letters patent in the fifth year of Charles I". Which does not explain why Sir Thomas Ridgway and Sir Francis Roe are recorded as representing Clogher in 1613. Alekksandr (talk) 18:42, 28 June 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Irish House of Commons


text:
Max Bradford

Maxwell Robert Bradford (born 19 January 1942) is a former New Zealand politician and cabinet minister. He was an MP for the National Party from 1990 to 2002. He is best known for introducing the "Bright Future" economic initiative in 1999, and for changes to the retail sector of the electricity industry in 1998.

Early life
Bradford was born in Christchurch and educated at Christchurch Boys' High School and the University of Canterbury. He is married to Rosemary Bradford and has two stepdaughters.

Before entering politics, he worked at the New Zealand Treasury, the International Monetary Fund, and the New Zealand Employers Federation. He was chief executive of the NZ Bankers Association and the New Zealand National Party before entering the New Zealand Parliament as an MP in 1990.

Member of Parliament
Bradford was first elected to Parliament as MP for Tarawera in the 1990 election, replacing National Party colleague Ian McLean. In the 1996 election, there was an electoral redistribution following the introduction of the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) electoral system in New Zealand. He contested and won the Rotorua electorate. In the 1999 election, he was defeated in Rotorua by Labour's Steve Chadwick, but remained in Parliament as a list MP. In his political career, he served in a number of Cabinet positions, including Minister of Defence, Minister of Energy, Minister of Labour, Minister of Revenue, Minister of Enterprise and Commerce, Minister of Tertiary Education and Minister of Immigration.

After politics
After retiring from Parliament in 2002, Bradford became a director in Castalia Strategic Advisors Ltd, an international consultancy practice specialising in governance, energy and water reform. In 2007, he established his own consultancy Bradford & Associates Ltd specializing in governance advisory and implementation projects He has consulted for organisations such as the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank and foreign governments, and has worked in Guyana, Liberia, Sudan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Fiji, and Cambodia amongst other countries.

From 2013 to 2014 he led a World Bank project on behalf of Oxford Policy Management to help improve the effectiveness of the Public Accounts Committee and other financial oversight committees of the Bangladesh Parliament.

In 2013, he was voted New Zealand's best energy minister in recent years.

He retired in 2015.

title: Max Bradford