[1][3] In ancient times, Brea Creek was utilized by the Tongva nation, which means people of the earth and later referred to by the Spanish as the ‘Gabrieliño’, that inhabited the La Habra valley for the past 10,000 years.

In colonial times, on Saturday, July 29, 1769, the Spanish explorer Don Gaspar de Portolá i Rovira, along with Father Junipero Serra and others such as José Antonio Yorba (from whom the City of Yorba Linda in Orange County was eventually named), camped at Brea Canyon north of Fullerton within the La Habra Valley region near a stream [Brea Creek] and near a canyon [Brea Canyon] called in the Spanish tongue ‘La Cañada de la Brea’, having crossed the Santa Ana River along El Camino Real, through modern-day Anaheim, Fullerton, Brea, and La Habra on their famed march from San Diego to Monterey.

Moreover, most of the waterways in the Orange County area received their name from Spanish Conquistadores in the 18th century.

The creek bends northwest then sharply southwest, receives a few more tributaries on either bank, and flows into the northernmost arm of the Brea Reservoir.

The highest flow recorded at the mouth (Fullerton) was 3,700 cubic feet per second (100 m3/s) on 14 March 1941.