Cedar Creek (Indiana)

Called "Mes-kwah-wa-se-pe" or "old redwood creek" by Native Americans, Cedar Creek is the largest tributary of the St. Joseph River, draining 174,780 acres (707 km²) in northeastern Indiana. It rises in northwestern DeKalb County and joins the St. Joseph just below the Cedarville Dam in Allen County.

Origins and History

Upper Cedar Creek originated as an "ice-marginal channel" at the western edge of the Erie Lobe of the Wisconsin Glacier and formed a single stream with the southwest-flowing Eel River which connected to the Wabash River. Lower Cedar Creek was a tributary of the ancestral Eel, carrying glacial meltwater under the ice through a "tunnel valley" known today as Cedar Creek Canyon. [ [http://www.in.gov/dnr/water/files/pg24-57.pdf "Water Resource Availability in the Maumee River Basin, Indiana", Water Resource Assessment 96-5, Indianapolis:Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Water, 1996, pp. 46-47.] ] Blockage of the Eel's channel by outwash from the canyon and a decline in the volume of meltwater caused lower Cedar Creek to reverse its flow. In so doing, it captured the flow of the upper Eel, a classic example of "stream piracy" that shifted Cedar Creek's drainage (about 175,000 acres) from the Eel-Wabash system to that of the St. Joseph-Maumee. [ [http://friendsofmetea.blogspot.com/2007/09/three-faces-of-cedar-creek.html Sunderman, Jack A., "The Three Faces of Cedar Creek," "ACRES Quarterly", v. 39, no. 4 (Fall 2000), pp. 6-7.] ]

Once a meandering stream, upper Cedar Creek was channelized (straightened and deepened) in the early 20th Century for agricultural and urban drainage, which has increased the watershed's vulnerability to erosion and contaminated runoff. Once home to 27 species of freshwater mussel, Cedar Creek has experienced a drastic decline in mussel population since the 1980s. [United States Geological Survey, [http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/ebooks/records/eel1264.html "What Makes a Healthy Environment for Native Freshwater Mussels?" Fact Sheet 124-00 (October 2000).] ]

Course

Cedar Creek originates at Indian Lake (41º27'51" N 85º10'11" W), northwest of Corunna, Indiana, and comes into formal existence downstream at Cedar Lake. [ [http://www.angelfire.com/in3/cedarcreek/Cedar_Creek.html Cedar Creek Wildlife Project] ] Its DeKalb County section flows east-southeast from Indian Lake, loops around Waterloo passes through Auburn, then angles southwest until it enters Allen County, where it is crossed by Indiana State Road 327 south of Garrett before turning back to the southeast toward Leo-Cedarville.

Lower Cedar Creek, from river mile 13.7 to its confluence with the St. Joseph is officially designated as an "Outstanding State Resource Water" [ [http://www.in.gov/legislative/iac/T03270/A00020.PDF? 327 Indiana Administrative Code 2-1.5-19] ] and is one of four streams in Indiana's Natural, Scenic and Recreational Rivers system. [ [http://www.in.gov/legislative/iac/T03120/A00070.PDF? 312 Indiana Administrative Code 7-2-3] ]

References

External links

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* [http://www.topoquest.com/map.asp?lon=-85.1689&lat=41.4642 Topographic map from TopoQuest: Cedar Creek headwaters at Indian Lake]
* [http://www.topoquest.com/map.asp?lon=-85.0744&lat=41.4628 Topographic map from TopoQuest: Cedar Creek headwaters at Cedar Lake]
* [http://www.topoquest.com/map.asp?lat=41.1931&lon=-85.0322&symshow=n&datum=nad83 Topographic map from TopoQuest: Cedar Creek confluence with St. Joseph River]
* [http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=iwx&gage=abbi3 National Weather Service: Current Hydrologic Data for Cedar Creek at Auburn]
* [http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=iwx&gage=cdri3&type=0&view=1,1,1,1,1,1 National Weather Service: Current Hydrologic Data for Cedar Creek near Leo-Cedarville]
* [http://www.angelfire.com/in3/cedarcreek Cedar Creek Wildlife Project]
* [http://www.sjrwi.org St. Joseph River Watershed Initiative]
* [http://www.mrbc.org Maumee River Basin Commission]
* [http://jeq.scijournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/36/2/521 Abstract: M. Larose "et al.", "Hydrologic and Atrazine Simulation of the Cedar Creek Watershed Using the SWAT Model," "Journal of Environmental Quality", 36:521-531 (2007).]