The creek is known for having been the site of the first rainbow trout hatchery in the world, drawing on the locally native variety of the species. The fish raised in this hatchery were sent as far away as New York. Although rainbow trout ("Oncorhynchus mykiss"), was initially identified in 1792 in Kamchatka, Siberia by Johann Julius Walbaum, William P. Gibbons, founder of the California Academy of Sciences, believed in 1855 that he had discovered a new species of trout in San Leandro Creek, which he named "Salmo iridea" (now the coastal rainbow trout subspecies "Oncorhynchus mykiss irideus"). The site was then declared a California Historical Landmark.