Lake El Estero (Spanish: the estuary) is a U-shaped body of water that is the anchor of the El Estero city park in Monterey, California. It is close to Del Monte Beach and Monterey Bay (and the Pacific Ocean). Two bridges connect downtown Monterey with the Oak Grove residential neighborhood and the Naval Postgraduate School. The El Estero park complex has dedicated spaces for recreation with a baseball field, skatepark, and the Dennis the Menace Playground. It is also popular with migrating birds and bird watchers. History When El Estero was first discovered it was a lagoon filled with brackish water. Three major streams flowed into the lagoon. One stream went south to where San Carlos Cathedral currently is. The second went to the location of the County's courthouse. The final stream followed (today's) Del Monte Boulevard and flowed into the bay. In 1770 the first map of Lake El Estero was made by Miguel Costanso, a Spanish officer and engineer in the first expedition to California. The lagoon flooded constantly and in 1846 Walter Colton, a chaplain for the U.S. Navy, found a solution to the flooding problems. In his diary he wrote that “…it would be a good scheme to cut a channel between the two (the lagoon and the Bay)”. In April 1874 the Monterey and Salinas Valley Railroad was built which permanently cut off the stream connecting El Estero to the Bay. This halted flooding and turned the lagoon into the freshwater lake that we know today. From 1930 to 1931 efforts were made in turning the lake into an aquatic park. This was called the El Estero Development Project that was led by the City of Monterey. Eighty thousand cubic yards of mud were moved in its development. El Estero has been a popular resting spot for migrating birds and in 1933 the bird refuge was named after Harry Ashland Greene, who had a great impact in its development. Between 1938 and 1951 vast improvements were done to the park including “drudging and shoreline plantings and “two bridges connecting Pearl with third street." These new bridges connected downtown with the Oak Grove District. In 1984 the lake was drained in order to remove 6,000 truckloads of silt, which was clogging drains. People were also worried that there may be bacteria and bird droppings in the mud. Storm drains were rerouted so silt and mud would