Six local political jurisdictions overlap with the Johnson Creek watershed. In 2000, 38 percent of the watershed was in Portland's city limits, 24 percent in unincorporated Clackamas County, 23 percent in Gresham, 11 percent in unincorporated Multnomah County, 4 percent in Milwaukie, and 0.1 percent in Happy Valley. None of the cities lies entirely within the watershed. In 2000, Johnson Creek and its tributaries drained 53 percent of Gresham, 42 percent of Milwaukie, 19 percent of Happy Valley, and 14 percent of Portland. The watershed covered only 1.2 percent of unincorporated Multnomah County and less than 1 percent of unincorporated Clackamas County.[3]

Neighboring watersheds on the east side of the Willamette River include Mount Scott Creek and Kellogg Creek, which flow through Milwaukie and drain directly into the Willamette; the Clackamas River, which drains the southeast suburbs and empties into the Willamette near Oregon City; the Sandy River, which drains the eastern suburbs and empties into the Columbia; and Fairview Creek and the Columbia Slough, which drain north Portland and Gresham, emptying into the Columbia.

Nineteenth-century maps also show numerous springs and small streams flowing into a wetland that covered an area of today's southeast Portland between Powell Boulevard (U.S. Route 26) and Johnson Creek, a distance of 2.25 miles (3.62 km). Though most of the wetland complex has been filled in and built upon, remnants exist at the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden on Crystal Springs Creek. Old maps also show two streams flowing into a slough that drained part of the wetland. One flowed through the Clinton Street neighborhood, about six city blocks north of Powell Boulevard, and the other drained the Colonial Heights neighborhood, slightly further north near Ladd's Addition. These streams and most others in this area were diverted into the city sewer system and no longer appear on the surface.[13] A Johnson Creek diverted partly underground on the west side of the Willamette River in Portland has no relationship to the Johnson Creek on the east side.[14]
[edit] History
Chinook people lived on both sides of the lower Columbia River from a mountain range east of Portland, Oregon, to the river's mouth on the ocean.
Traditional Chinook tribal territory is shown in dark green in the lower Columbia River basin, including Johnson Creek. The Clackamas tribe of the Chinooks fished and hunted along the creek until the mid-19th century.

Before settlers moved into the basin, it consisted mainly of upland and wetland forests in which Native Americans fished, hunted, and foraged. Evidence suggests that people lived in the northern Oregon Cascades as early as 10,000 years ago. By 2,000 to 3,000 years ago, settlements in the Clackamas River basin, adjacent to the Johnson Creek watershed, had moved to the river's lower floodplain. The area was the home of the Clackamas Indians, a subgroup of the Chinookan speakers who lived in the Columbia River Valley from Celilo Falls to the Pacific Ocean. The Clackamas lands included the lower Willamette River from Willamette Falls at what became Oregon City to its confluence with the Columbia River and reached into the foothills of the Cascades. When Lewis and Clark visited the area in 1806, the Clackamas tribe consisted of about 1,800 people living in 11 villages. Epidemics of smallpox, malaria, and measles reduced this population to 88 by 1851, and in 1855 the tribe signed a treaty surrendering its lands, including Johnson Creeknews live
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