Cabin Run is a tributary of West Branch Briar Creek in

Columbia County, Pennsylvania Columbia County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in Northeastern Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 64,727. Its county seat is Bloomsburg. The county was created on March 22, 1813, from part ...

, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through North Centre Township. The watershed of the stream has an area of . The waters of the stream are slightly

acid In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a sequ ...

ic. Its watershed lies over

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...

and

siltstone Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility.Blatt ''et al.'' 1980, p ...

. Several early attempts at settlement on Cabin Run occurred in 1777 and 1778.

Course

Cabin Run begins in a valley on Summer Hill in North Centre Township. It flows southeast for a short distance before turning south and flowing parallel to Cabin Run Road for several tenths of a mile. Upon leaving the valley, the stream crosses Fowlersville Road and turns southeast for a short distance before turning south again. After another few tenths of a mile, it reaches its confluence with West Branch Briar Creek. Cabin Run reaches its confluence with West Branch Briar Creek upstream of its mouth.

Hydrology

The

discharge Discharge may refer to Expel or let go * Discharge, the act of firing a gun * Discharge, or termination of employment, the end of an employee's duration with an employer * Military discharge, the release of a member of the armed forces from serv ...

of Cabin Run ranges from 0.17 to 15.7 cubic feet per second. The median discharge is 0.53 cubic feet per second. The water temperature of the stream ranges from to . The pH of Cabin Run ranges from 7.28 to 7.9, with a median of 7.73. The concentration of total dissolved solids in the stream ranges from 42 to 106 parts per million. The median concentration of total dissolved solids is 59 parts per million. The stream sometimes has high concentrations of

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

and

nitrate Nitrate is a polyatomic ion A polyatomic ion, also known as a molecular ion, is a covalent bonded set of two or more atoms, or of a metal complex, that can be considered to behave as a single unit and that has a net charge that is not zer ...

s. In a visual assessment by the Briar Creek Association for Watershed Solutions, Cabin Run was given a score of 5.6 on a scale of 1 to 10. The stream scored best on nutrient enhancement and fish barriers and it scored worst on

streambank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography, as follows. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrai ...

stability and riparian buffering. Of ten sites in the Briar Creek watershed, this location has a priority rank of 5.

Geography and geology

The elevation near the mouth of Cabin Run is above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

. The elevation of the stream at its source is between and . A

hill A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct Summit (topography), summit. Terminology The distinction between a hill and a mountain is unclear and largely subjective, but a hill is universally con ...

known as Summer Hill is in the watershed of Cabin Run. The mouth of Cabin Run lies over calcareous shale. The rest of the lower part of the watershed is on shale. The upper reaches of the watershed lie over

. The soil in an area in the lower reaches of the stream is of the Zipp Series. This is a poorly drained

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...

loam Loam (in geology and soil science) is soil composed mostly of sand (particle size > ), silt (particle size > ), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < ). By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand–sil ...

. The lower reaches of the watershed of Cabin Run are over rock of the

Mahantango Formation The Devonian Mahantango Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland. It is named for the North branch of the Mahantango Creek in Perry and Juniata counties in Pennsylvania. It is a member of the Hamilton Group, ...

, although there is also a narrow band of the Harrell Formation. The watershed's upper reaches lie over rock of the Trimmers Rock Formation. These rock formations come from the Upper Devonian and the Middle Devonian.

Watershed

The watershed of Cabin Run has an area of . The watershed of the stream is by far the smallest named sub-watershed of Briar Creek. Major roads in the watershed of Cabin Run include Fowlersville Road, Eckrote Road, and Hosler Road. The community of Fowlersville is near the stream.

History and etymology

Alexander Aikman came from

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

in the summer of 1777 and built a

cabin Cabin may refer to: Buildings * Beach cabin, a small wooden hut on a beach * Log cabin, a house built from logs * Cottage, a small house * Chalet, a wooden mountain house with a sloping roof * Cabin, small free-standing structures that serve as in ...

on Cabin Run. However, he returned to New Jersey in the autumn of the same year.

Moses Van Campen Major Moses Van Campen (1757–1849) was a soldier during the American Revolutionary War. He was a prominent figure in Pennsylvania and parts of New York. His primary involvement in the Revolutionary War was in fighting against hostile Native Am ...

attempted to inhabit the cabin shortly afterwards, but it was burned down by Native Americans. Joseph Salmon also attempted to settle on the stream in 1777, but his cabin was burned down in the spring of 1778. A migration to the Fishing Creek valley in 1792 may have passed by Cabin Run. Historically, a mill was operated on Cabin Run. Its purpose was to grind

plaster Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for Molding (decorative), moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of ...

and livestock feed. According to legend, Cabin Run is named after a cabin built on it by Joseph and Isaiah Solomon.

References