Collins Creek, also known as Collins Fork, is a
tributary
A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...
of
Goose Creek in
Clay County Clay County is the name of 18 counties in the United States. Most are named for Henry Clay, U.S. Senator and statesman:
* Clay County, Alabama
* Clay County, Arkansas (named for John Clayton, and originally named Clayton County)
* Clay County, Fl ...
in the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...
of
Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
.
It is long; is named for its first settler James Collins, a salt maker and hunter; joins Goose just south of
Garrard; and is paralleled by (
Kentucky Route 11
Kentucky Route 11 (KY 11) is an American highway maintained by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet that runs from Maysville to Barbourville. The route from Maysville to Mount Sterling is being upgraded on a new alignment as part of a "mac ...
) road and (
Cumberland and Manchester Railroad) railway for most of its course.
Tributaries and post offices
The tributaries are:
* Buzzard Creek, long
**Saplings Fork, previously known as Furnace Branch, whose mouth is along Buzzard
* Engine Branch
* Whites Branch
On Buzzard Creek
Willowdale postoffice was established on 1901-09-07 by postmaster Ella White.
She named it for the preponderance of
willow tree
Willows are a genus of trees.
Willow Tree may refer to:
Places
* Willow Tree, New South Wales, a village in Australia
* Willow Tree railway station, in Australia
* Willow Tree (LIRR station), a railway station in New York
Entertainment
* "Willow ...
s in the area, which was likely at the mouth of Furnace Branch/Saplings Fork.
Lincoln postoffice was established on 1923-05-26 by postmaster Hughey L. Tanksley.
His original choice of name was Harding, which clashed with an already existing ''Hardin'' postoffice in
Marshall County, his choices of names presumed to be politically inspired by Republican Presidents
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
and
Warren G. Harding
Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular sitting U.S. presidents. A ...
.
It was originally located upstream from Buzzard Creek mouth, moved 1 mile downstream in 1945, and closed in 1974.
On Collins Creek itself
Safe postoffice was established on 1904-06-18 by postmaster Emmet Lee Walker.
Located in a store just upstream of Engine Branch, it lasted until 1907-04-15.
Cottongim postoffice was established on 1918-07-03 by postmaster Sallie Cottongim Hacker.
She named it for the family of her parents, John Lucas Cottongim and Susan Smith Cottongim, and grandparent Pierce Cottongim (born 1792) who had come to Clay County from South Carolina.
Her first choice of name had been Jonsee, named after the Jonsee railway station that it served and was only a few hundred yards away from.
The railway station in turn was named after John C. White, "John C." to "Jonsee", landowner from whom the railway company had bought land rights in 1916.
The postoffice became a rural branch in 1963, and closed in 1969.
Bluehole
Bluehole post office was established on 1916-08-04, originally to be named Gladys, the choice of name preferred by its first postmaster Charles S. Townsley.
However, that name clashed with a postoffice in
Lawrence County and his next preference was Bluehole (after the common Kentucky geographic feature of a
blue hole
A blue hole is a large marine cavern or sinkhole, which is open to the surface and has developed in a bank or island composed of a carbonate bedrock ( limestone or coral reef). Their existence was discovered in the late 20th century by fishe ...
).
It was originally located up Buzzard Creek, at approximately the site of the Lower Buzzard School, but only lasted at that location until its first closure in August 1917.
Its next postmaster, Ella Perkins, re-located it nearer to the new railway station of Rodonnel, placing it up Collins Creek on 1918-05-01, and from then until its closure in 1985 it was located at several places along Collins Creek and
Kentucky Route 11
Kentucky Route 11 (KY 11) is an American highway maintained by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet that runs from Maysville to Barbourville. The route from Maysville to Mount Sterling is being upgraded on a new alignment as part of a "mac ...
.
The name is still used informally for the area where the various postoffices were, rather than the name of the railway station.
See also
*
List of rivers of Kentucky
List of rivers in Kentucky (U.S. state).
By drainage basin
This list is arranged by drainage basin, with respective tributaries indented under each larger stream's name. All rivers in Kentucky flow to the Mississippi River, nearly all by virtue o ...
References
Sources
*
Further reading
*
*
Rivers of Kentucky
Rivers of Clay County, Kentucky
{{Kentucky-river-stub