 Although rainbow trout ("Oncorhynchus mykiss"), was initially identified in 1792 in Kamchatka, Siberia by Johann Julius Walbaum, William P. Gibbons, founder of the California Academy of Sciences, believed in 1855 that he had discovered a new species of trout in San Leandro Creek, which he named "Salmo iridea" (now the coastal rainbow trout subspecies "Oncorhynchus mykiss irideus").The site was then declared a California Historical Landmark.In 1874 work began on Lake Chabot Dam and it was completed in 1875, forming a lake.