- Tonawanda Creek
Tonawanda Creek is a small
river in WesternNew York , in theUnited States . Its name is from the Seneca Indian word Ta-na-wan-deh' meaning "Swift Water."THE AMERICAN REVIEW; A WHIG JOURNAL DEVOTED TO POLITICS, LITERATURE, ART AND SCIENCE. VOL. VI NEW-YORK: GEORGE H. COLTON, 118 NASSAU STREET, Published 1847, Wiley and Putnam, p. 488 [http://books.google.com/books?id=JhIAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA488&dq=tonawanda+creek+swift+water] ]Description
The length of Tonawanda Creek is 90 miles (145 km). Its
drainage basin is nearly convert|650|sqmi|km2 in area. [ [http://www.fbnr.org/programs/tributary/tonawanda_river/tonawanda_creek.htm Tonawanda Creek] , Friends of the Buffalo Niagara Rivers] It flows on a meandering course for most of its length, first northerly until Batavia where a sweeping bend takes it westerly.Tonawanda Creek rises in Wyoming County and enters the
Niagara River between Niagara County and Erie County, forming a boundary between them. Tonawanda Creek passes through the Village of Attica, the City of Batavia, and flows past the Town of Amherst, the City of Tonawanda and the City of North Tonawanda before entering the Niagara River, just after being joined byEllicott Creek .The creek has a small 30 foot high
waterfall at Indian Falls [ [http://www.townofpembroke.org/history2.html Town of Pembroke (A Mini-History)] ] where the stream crosses the Onondaga Escarpment. The Log Cabin Restaurant overlooks the falls from the south.During the spring of each year, some sections of Tonawanda Creek flood to varying degrees. These floods are more of an inconvenience than a danger, but can be more serious, especially when ice jams dam up the water. The larger flooding can cause property damage.
Tonawanda Creek is also part of the
Erie Canal , which joins the creek southwest of Lockport and allows canal traffic to proceed into the Niagara River. In its upper reaches, Tonawanda Creek and the Little Tonawanda, which is tributary, aretrout streams.History
Downstream of Indian Falls, Tonawanda Creek flows through the Tonawanda Indian Reservation, and there is an NYS historical marker where
George Washington made a troop fording across the river.THE AMERICAN REVIEW; A WHIG JOURNAL DEVOTED TO POLITICS, LITERATURE, ART AND SCIENCE. VOL. VI NEW-YORK: GEORGE H. COLTON, 118 NASSAU STREET, Published 1847, Wiley and Putnam, p. 628. [http://books.google.com/books?id=T7brSqWusNkC&pg=RA4-PA628&dq=genesee+beautiful+valley] ]When the Erie Canal was first built, the Tonawanda Creek was the source of water for the western section of the Canal
See also
*
List of New York rivers
*Tonawanda, New York References
External links
* [http://newweb.erh.noaa.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=buf&gage=btvn6&view=1,1,1,1,1,1 Flooding on the Tonawanda Creek]
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