The Carmel River (Rumsen: tirus ua čorx) is a river on the Central Coast of California in Monterey County that originates in the Ventana Wilderness of the Santa Lucia Mountains. The river flows northwest through Carmel Valley with its mouth at the Pacific Ocean south of Carmel-by-the-Sea, at Carmel Bay. The Carmel River is considered the northern boundary of Big Sur, the other boundaries being San Carpóforo Creek and the Pacific coastline. History Before European first contact, the Indigenous peoples of the Carmel River watershed were the Rumsen Ohlone people in the lower watershed, and the Esselen people of the upper watershed. Both peoples were taken into the Carmel Mission. The mouth of Carmel Valley where the Carmel River runs into Carmel Bay was first seen by Spanish explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno shortly before he landed in Monterey Bay in December 1602. He wrote about visiting the river on January 3, 1603, but greatly exaggerated its proportions, confusing later explorers. Vizcaino named it El Rio del Carmelo, likely because his voyage was accompanied by three Carmelite friars. Later that winter the local springs near Monterey froze, and the explorers had to cross the peninsula to find freshwater. Fathers Junípero Serra and Juan Crespí moved Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo from Monterey to its present site by the Carmel River in 1771, they directed Indian laborers to dig ditches from the Carmel River to water their crops. The river has supplied ranchers and residents ever since. After railroad baron Charles Crocker built the Hotel Del Monte, he commissioned construction of a Dam in 1883 on the upper river near present-day Cachagua. It supplied 400 acre-feet of water annually to the hotel. In his 1945 novel Cannery Row John Steinbeck wrote "The Carmel is a lovely little river. It isn't very long but in its course it has everything a river should have." Watershed The Carmel River watershed drains and originates at on the south side of the peak of Miller Mountain in the Ventana Wilderness of the Los Padres National Forest's Santa Lucia Mountains. The Sierra de Salinas range forms the northeastern divide of the watershed and the northern terminus of the Santa Lucia Mountains forms the southwestern divide. Approximately 96% of the Carmel River flows from the many tributaries in the Santa Lucia Mountains, including San Clemente Creek and Cachagua Creek subwatersheds. In contrast, the combined flow from the Tularcitos,