It is surmised that the Peraltas or perhaps one of their ranch hands (vaqueros) had seen local indigenous (Ohlone) structures along the creek similar to those in other parts of New Spain which were called temescalli or "temazcalli".

The middle fork flows through Temescal Canyon mostly in underground culverts, beneath the Grove Shafter Freeway starting near the Caldecott Tunnel and underneath the interchange with State Route 13.

[3] Before the Caldecott tunnel project (1934–37), this fork entered the lake via a prominent inlet that was traversed by a trestle bridge of the Sacramento Northern Railroad.

The south fork begins in the northern section of Oakland's Montclair district, flowing southwest out of a canyon in the hills alongside Thornhill Road, then turning abruptly northwestward in the linear valley formed by the Hayward Fault.

It continues westerly around the end of the shutter ridge in the Rockridge district of Oakland, where it joins the north fork (Claremont Creek) at approximately the intersection of Forrest Street and Miles Avenue.

In 2000, a segment of the creek below the tracks of the Union Pacific Railroad in Emeryville became accessible to the public after the demolition of one of the buildings of the historic Sherwin-Williams paint factory in early 2000.

Historically both banks of Temescal Creek in the lower area of Emeryville were part of the San Francisco Bay tidal floodplain and were extensively filled from about 1900 through the 1970s.

Foundations remained of a shear, tin baler, scale, and conveyor as late as 1990 when the lower banks were renamed the "Chiron" site and re-developed.