Octoraro Creek - Misplaced Pages

River in the United States

Octoraro Creek
Kayakers on Octoraro Creek

Location
Country	United States
State	Pennsylvania
Physical characteristics

Source
• location	Lancaster and Chester counties

Mouth
• location	Susquehanna River
• coordinates	39°39′22″N 76°09′31″W / 39.6562°N 76.1587°W / 39.6562; -76.1587

Discharge
• location	Susquehanna River

Octoraro Creek is a 22.1-mile-long (35.6 km) tributary of the Susquehanna River, joining it 9 miles (14 km) above the Susquehanna's mouth at Chesapeake Bay. The Octoraro rises as an East and West Branch in Pennsylvania. The East Branch and Octoraro Creek form the southern half of the border between Lancaster and Chester counties until the creek crosses the Mason-Dixon line. It winds through northwestern Cecil County, Maryland before joining the Susquehanna.

Each of the branches is less than 20 miles (32 km) long. The entire creek drains 208 square miles (540 km) of watershed. Octoraro Creek was designated a Pennsylvania Scenic River by Legislative Act 1983-43, managed by the Octoraro Creek Watershed Association. A brick tunnel leading to Octoraro Creek was built by Charles Spotts and used by slaves travelling the Underground Railway through Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

East Branch Octoraro Creek

The East Branch Octoraro Creek, 18.1 miles (29.1 km) long, starts at Christiana, Pennsylvania, created by the confluence of Williams Run and Pine Creek, which carries the Lancaster - Chester County border for about a mile. The East Branch continues the border with Lancaster County to the west and Chester County on the east bank. The branch enters a steep wooded valley and passes under the Mercer's Mill Covered Bridge at Bailey Crossroads Road. The branch continues through the valley which widens out near Steelville. The branch loops through another steep valley north of Homeville, which widens out before the creek passes under PA Route 896 at Andrews Bridge. Muddy Run joins the East Branch from the east out of its own set of steep valleys. The East Branch widens out into the eastern part of Lake Octoraro about 3 miles (5 km) northwest of Oxford, Pennsylvania.

West Branch Octoraro Creek

The West Branch Octoraro Creek runs 15.3 miles (24.6 km) entirely in Lancaster County. The branch, which starts about a mile south of Green Tree, is created by the confluence of Meetinghouse Creek, Mine Run, and a small unnamed creek which starts near the village of Ninepoints. The branch flows under the Jackson's Sawmill Covered Bridge, northwest of Bartville, then flows for a few miles through a narrow valley, southwest of Collins. The valley widens as the branch passes under Puseyville Road. The branch passes under Noble Road at Kings Bridge and under the White Rock Forge Covered Bridge at White Rock. The branch then widens out into the western part of Lake Octoraro about two miles east of Oak Shade.

Main branch Octoraro Creek

The dam that forms Octoraro Lake is on the main branch, just below the East and West Branch confluence, in Pine Grove. Below the dam is a filtration plant belonging to the Chester Water Authority. The main branch passes under Pine Grove Covered Bridge (Forge Road) before continuing generally southwestward. The creek passes under PA Route 272 at Kirks Bridge, less than three miles west of Nottingham. As the creek nears the Pennsylvania - Maryland border it goes through a series of alternating loops. The final horseshoe-like loop, where the creek first crosses the border, gives the name to the Boy Scouts of America's Horseshoe Scout Reservation and the Chester County Council's Order of the Arrow Lodge. The west-bound portion of that loop passes over Grays Hollow Ford, now replaced by an Army Corps of Engineers bridge. At this point the contrast of the BSA wilderness camp on the left bank with the active gravel mine on the right is apparent. The horseshoe loops back to the east, then briefly north up into Pennsylvania, all within the Reservation, before it swings back south into Maryland for good. The Scout Reservation contains the original Mason-Dixon Line mile-19 stone monument, along with the remains of a former grist mill along the old camp road.

Octoraro Creek in Maryland

In Maryland, Octoraro Creek winds generally southwest through a steep valley. The creek loops under the high tension lines from the Conowingo Hydroelectric Plant on their way toward Philadelphia and passes by the site of a removed dam. The creek crosses under U.S. Route 1 on that road's way from Philadelphia to the Conowingo Dam bridge and Baltimore. The creek then passes the washed-out Porters Bridge at Richardsmere and passes one final time under the high tension lines. At Rowlandsville, the creek passes under Doctor Jack Road and two abandoned railroad bridges on a defunct spur. The Octoraro passes under the active Norfolk Southern Railway bridge and Maryland Route 222 (formerly U.S. Route 222) before it reaches the Susquehanna River, below the Conowingo Dam. When the hydroelectric plant is not generating, along with a low tide (the Susquehanna experiences tides below the dam), the creek turns parallel to the river for a few hundred yards before joining. The six-foot rise in water when the hydroelectric plant is operating inundates this parallel stretch and can cause the Octoraro to reverse flow as far as the 222 bridge.

References

^ "National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data". The National Map. U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved 2011-08-08.
"THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD IN SOUTHERN LANCASTER COUNTY". Retrieved 2012-07-05.

External links

Susquehanna River system

Lower Susquehanna River

Juniata River

West Branch Susquehanna River

Middle Susquehanna River

Chemung River

	Susquehanna R. (mouth) Baldwin Cr. Bentley Cr. Seeley Cr. South Cr. Newtown Cr. Cohocton R. Meads Cr. Mud Cr. Campbell Cr. Fivemile Cr. Tioga R. Canisteo R. (Tuscarora Cr.) (Bennetts Cr.) (Canacadea Cr.) Cowanesque R. (Troups Cr.) Crooked Cr. Mill Cr.

Upper Susquehanna River

Streams shown as: Tributaries
subtributaries
(subsubtributaries)

Protected areas of Pennsylvania

Federal

NPS National Historical Parks & National Historic Sites	Allegheny Portage Railroad NHS Edgar Allan Poe NHS Eisenhower NHS First State NHP Friendship Hill NHS Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church NHS Hopewell Furnace NHS Independence NHP Steamtown NHS Valley Forge NHP
National Memorials	Benjamin Franklin Flight 93 Johnstown Flood Thaddeus Kosciuszko
National Battlefields and National Military Parks	Fort Necessity NB Gettysburg NMP
National Trails	Appalachian Trail
National Forests	Allegheny
USFS National Historic Sites	Grey Towers
National Wildlife Refuges	Cherry Valley Erie John Heinz Ohio River Islands
Wilderness areas	Allegheny Islands Hickory Creek
Other protected areas	Allegheny National Recreation Area Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area Lackawanna Heritage Valley National and State Heritage Area Lower Delaware National Wild and Scenic River Middle Delaware National Scenic River Susquehanna National Heritage Area Tionesta Scenic Area Tionesta Wild Area Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River

State

Natural Areas	Alan Seeger Algerine Swamp Anders Run Bark Cabin Bear Meadows Bear Run Beartown Woods Big Flat Laurel Black Ash Swamp Bruce Lake Buckhorn Carbaugh Run Charles F. Lewis Cranberry Swamp David R. Johnson Detweiler Run Devil’s Elbow East Branch Swamp Forrest H. Dutlinger Frank E. Masland Halfway Run Hemlocks The Hook Hoverter and Sholl Box Huckleberry Jakey Hollow Johnson Run Joyce Kilmer Kettle Creek Gorge Lebo Red Pine Little Juniata Little Mud Pond Swamp Little Tinicum Island Lower Jerry Run Marion Brooks M.K. Goddard/Wykoff Run Meeting of the Pines Miller Run Mt. Cydonia Ponds Mt. Davis Mt. Logan Pennel Run Pine Creek Gorge Pine Lake Pine Ridge Pine Tree Trail Reynolds Spring Roaring Run Rocky Ridge Rosencrans Bog Ruth Zimmerman Sheets Island Archipelago Snyder-Middleswarth Spruce Swamp Stillwater Sweet Root Tall Timbers Tamarack Run Tamarack Swamp Torbert Island
State Parks	Allegheny Islands Archbald Pothole Bald Eagle Beltzville Bendigo Benjamin Rush Big Elk Creek Big Pocono Big Spring Black Moshannon Blue Knob Boyd Big Tree Buchanan's Birthplace Bucktail Caledonia Canoe Creek Chapman Cherry Springs Clear Creek Codorus Colonel Denning Colton Point Cook Forest Cowans Gap Delaware Canal Denton Hill Elk Erie Bluffs Evansburg Fort Washington Fowlers Hollow Frances Slocum French Creek Gifford Pinchot Gouldsboro Greenwood Furnace Hickory Run Hillman Hills Creek Hyner Run Hyner View Jacobsburg Jennings Joseph E. Ibberson Kettle Creek Keystone Kings Gap Kinzua Bridge Kooser Lackawanna Laurel Hill Laurel Mountain Laurel Ridge Laurel Summit Lehigh Gorge Leonard Harrison Linn Run Little Buffalo Little Pine Locust Lake Lyman Run Marsh Creek Maurice K. Goddard McCalls Dam McConnells Mill Memorial Lake Milton Mont Alto Moraine Mt. Pisgah Nescopeck Neshaminy Nockamixon Nolde Forest Norristown Farm Ohiopyle Oil Creek Ole Bull Parker Dam Patterson Penn-Roosevelt Pine Grove Furnace Poe Paddy Poe Valley Point Presque Isle Prince Gallitzin Promised Land Prompton Prouty Place Pymatuning R. B. Winter Raccoon Creek Ralph Stover Ravensburg Reeds Gap Ricketts Glen Ridley Creek Ryerson Station Salt Springs Samuel S. Lewis Sand Bridge Shawnee Shikellamy Simon B. Elliott Sinnemahoning Sizerville Susquehanna Susquehanna Riverlands Susquehannock Swatara Tobyhanna Trough Creek Tuscarora Tyler Upper Pine Bottom Varden Vosburg Neck Warriors Path Washington Crossing Whipple Dam White Clay Creek Worlds End Yellow Creek
State Forests	Bald Eagle Buchanan Clear Creek Cornplanter Delaware Elk Forbes Gallitzin Loyalsock Michaux Moshannon Pinchot Rothrock Sproul Susquehannock Tiadaghton Tioga Tuscarora Weiser William Penn
Scenic Rivers	Bear Run French Creek Lehigh River LeTort Spring Run Lick Run Lower Brandywine Octoraro Creek Pine Creek Schuylkill River Stony Creek Tucquan Creek Tulpehocken Creek Yellow Breeches Creek
State Game Lands	12 13 14 24 25 26 28 29 30 31 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 179 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 335
Wild areas	Algerine Asaph Burns Run Clear Shade Hammersley James C. Nelson Kettle Creek Russell P. Letterman Martin Hill McIntyre Penns Creek Quebec Run Quehanna Russell P. Letterman Square Timber Stairway Thickhead Mountain Trough Creek Wolf Run
Other	Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail Mohn Mill Ponds Wild Plant Sanctuary Stone Valley Recreation Area

Local and private

v t e Waters of Maryland
Bays/estuaries	Assawoman Chesapeake Chincoteague Curtis Bay Eastern Fishing Herring Isle of Wight Mallows Newport Pocomoke Sinepuxent Tangier
Rivers	Anacostia Annemessex (Big) Annemessex (Little) Back Bird Blackwater Blackwater (Little) Bohemia Bush Casselman Chester Chicamacomico Choptank Choptank (Little) Christina Corsica Elk Front Gunpowder Hawlings Jones Falls Magothy Magothy (Little) Manokin Middle Miles Monocacy Monocacy (Little) Nanticoke North North East Patapsco Patuxent Pocomoke Port Tobacco Potomac Rhode St. Martin St. Marys Sassafras Savage Severn South Susquehanna Transquaking Tred Avon Warwick West Wicomico (Potomac) Wicomico Wye Wye East Youghiogheny
Creeks, runs, streams	Antietam Alloway Arundel Cove Ballenger Bear (Patapsco) Bear (Sideling Hill) Bear (Youghiogheny) Beaverdam Bennett Big Hunting Big Pipe Bodkin Bonnie Branch Bread and Cheese Broad (Choptank) Broad (Potomac) Broad (Susquehanna) Broad Run Budds Bush Cabin John Carroll Catoctin Catoctin (Little) Chicamuxen Collington Branch Conococheague Conococheague (Little) Conowingo Cuckold Curtis Deep Run Deer Dividing Dorsey Run Double Pipe Dry Seneca Dueling Dundee Edge Creek Evitts Fifteenmile Fishing Flintstone Frog Mortar Furnace Georges Great Seneca Green Branch Greys Gwynns Falls Harris Henson Herbert Run Herring Run Honga Hunting (Little) Indian (Anacostia) Indian (Patuxent) Israel Laurel Run Licking Linganore Little Falls Little Falls Branch Little Pipe Little Seneca Lyons Main Marley Marsh Marshyhope Mattawoman Meekins Middle Mill Branch Minnehaha Branch Moores Run Muddy Branch Nanjemoy Nassawango Northeast Branch Anacostia River Northwest Branch Anacostia River Octoraro Owens Otter Point Oxon Paint Branch Parsons Piney Piscataway Plumtree Branch Pomonkey Principio Rock (Potomac) Rock Run Rockburn Branch Roland Run Romney St. Leonard Saltpeter Sams Sellman Seneca (Middle) Seneca (Potomac) Sideling Hill Slaughter Sligo Soapstone Branch Stony Stony Run Swanson Tenmile Creek Thoms Cove Toms Tonoloway Town (Patuxent) Town (Potomac) Town (Tred Avon) Towson Run Trappe Tuckahoe Turville Tuscarora (Monocacy) Tuscarora (Potomac) Tuscarora (Little) Watts Branch Western Run Wills Winters Run
Lakes	Allen Pond Artemesia Buckel's Bog Centennial Deep Creek Elkhorn Bernard Frank Jennings Randolph Kittamaqundi Little Seneca Needwood Quarry Lake Roland Parker Pond Schumaker Pond Woodward Pond Youghiogheny
Reservoirs	Dalecarlia Habeeb Liberty Loch Raven Piney Run Prettyboy Rocky Gorge Triadelphia

39°39′22″N 76°09′31″W / 39.6562°N 76.1587°W / 39.6562; -76.1587

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