Walnut Creek may refer to:
Walnut Creek is a stream in Fremont, Page, Montgomery, Mills, Pottawattamie and Shelby counties, Iowa, in the United States. It is a tributary of the East Nishnabotna River.
Walnut Creek was named groves of black walnut along the creek.
Walnut Creek is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, located 16 miles (26 km) east of the city of Oakland in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Although it is not as large as neighboring Concord, Walnut Creek serves as a hub for the neighboring cities within central Contra Costa County, due in part to its location at the junction of the highways from Sacramento and San Jose (I-680) and San Francisco/Oakland (SR-24), as well as its accessibility by BART. The city's total estimated population, as of 2014, is 67,673.
There are three bands of Bay Miwok Indians associated with early Walnut Creek: the Saclan, whose territory extended through the hills east of present-day Oakland, Rossmoor, Lafayette, Moraga, and Walnut Creek; the Volvon (also spelled Bolbon, Wolwon, and Zuicun) at Mt. Diablo; and the Tactan at Danville and Walnut Creek, on San Ramon Creek.
Today's Walnut Creek is located amidst the earlier site of four Mexican land grants. One of these land grants – measuring 18,000 acres (73 km2) – belonged to Juana Sanchez de Pacheco, who deeded it to her two grandsons. Ygnacio Sibrian, one of the grandsons, created the first roofed home in the valley in about 1850. The grant was called Rancho Arroyo de Las Nueces y Bolbones, named after the principal waterway, Arroyo de las Nueces (Walnut Creek) as well as for the local group of indigenous Americans (Bolbones). The Arroyo de las Nueces was named for the occurrence in the valley of the native species of walnut tree, the California Walnut.