Bitterwater, California

Bitterwater is an unincorporated community in the Bitterwater Valley of San Benito County, California, United States.[1] Bitterwater is located at 36°22′49″N 121°00′10″W.

Bitterwater Valley, located at the base of the Diablo Range mountains on a crucial earthquake, San Andreas Fault, was once the primary habitat of the giant California condors. Around 1946, DDT poison was introduced throughout that area to kill coyotes, prairie dogs, mountain lions, and other animals that ate crops or posed a threat to ranch or farm animals. As the condors ate the animals killed by DDT, they too vanished.

But as humans decimated the California Condor, they realized this and changed tactics. Now the Bitterwater Valley in California is home to many condors. No prairie dogs exist in Bitterwater but the digger squirrel is very pervasive in the area, as well as coyote, California badger, redtail hawks, and wild turkey.

Bitterwater valley was discovered by Edward Calhoun Tully during a sheep drive from Chihuahua Mexico to San Francisco California in the mid to late 1800s.