The first European land exploration of Alta California, the Spanish Portolà expedition, passed through the area on its way north, camping for three days at Waddell Creek, October 20–22, 1769, and initially named the creek Cañada de San Luis Beltran. The longer stay was because of heavy rains, and fears that the weather would worsen the condition of those in the party who were sick. Instead, as Franciscan missionary Juan Crespi noted in his diary, "it seemed as though God had sent them health with the drenching, for to the surprise of everybody they began to improve, and in a short time were entirely recovered, thanks to God, to whom we attributed this special blessing. For this reason the valley was renamed Cañada de la La Salud." William Waddell of Kentucky came to California in 1851. The first American settler of the area, he built a sawmill on the creek in 1862 above the Waddell Forks and conducted an extensive timber harvesting operation in the area, a lumber-hauling tramway from the mill to the beach, and a wharf. Waddell was killed by a grizzly bear in 1875.
The Waddell Creek mainstem is long although total distance from headwater source tributaries to the sea is. The Waddell Creek watershed drains and consists of many headwater creeks that feed its two tributaries, East and West Waddell Creeks. West Waddell Creek has its source at along the border of Santa Cruz and San Mateo Counties, while East Waddell Creek's source is at the confluence of Opal Creek and Blooms Creek at just below Big Basin Redwoods State Park headquarters in Santa Cruz County. Some of the uppermost headwaters streams originate above.
Ecology
Historically, Waddell Creek was home to spawning runs by both steelhead trout and coho salmon. In 1995 a review of coho south of San Francisco Bay found coho restricted to only one remnant population in Waddell Creek, one small naturalized population in Scott Creek and a small hatchery-maintained, non-native run in the San Lorenzo River, all in Santa Cruz County. Historically, coho were found in approximately 50 coastal drainages in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties, but by the 1960s spawning runs were limited to 11 stream systems. The 1995 combined average annual spawning population of native and naturalized coho salmon in Waddell and Scott Creeks was estimated at only 50-60 adults, comprising only 1.5% of the estimated abundance of coho salmon south of San Francisco Bay in the early 1960s. Coho vanished from Waddell Creek but there is hope of returns from the Kingfisher Flat Hatchery on the Big Creek tributary to nearby Scott Creek where the salmon returned in 2015 due to stocking efforts. Usable salmonid spawning and rearing habitat is limited by the distance from Waddell Forks to Slippery Falls belt of the Santa Cruz Mountains while the lower stream banks are lined by red alder, big-leaf maple, California buckeye, Pacific madrone, California laurel, and, in the lowermost portion, by willows. Occasionally encountered are tanoak, box elder, white alder, black cottonwood, California nutmeg, and coast Douglas fir.
