The creek was once called Arroyo de Los Gatos, and Zachariah Jones called it Jones Creek when he started his sawmill upstream. Forbes Mill was built on its bank in the 1850s, and the town grew around it. In the 1950s part of it through town was put in a concrete channel for Highway 17.
Above Lexington Reservoir it is closed to the public and home to trout, beaver, bobcats and mountain lions. Chinook salmon and steelhead now swim up from the bay, and ospreys began nesting in the watershed again by 2004.