Ellicott Creek is a stream in

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

New York,

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. It 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 drai ...

Tonawanda Creek Tonawanda Creek is a small tributary of the Niagara River in Western New York, United States. After rising in Wyoming County, the stream flows through Genesee County before forming part of the boundary between Erie County and Niagara County. ...

, which in turn flows into the Niagara River.

Course

Ellicott Creek originates in southwest corner of Genesee County, just northeast of

Darien Lakes State Park Darien Lakes State Park is a state park in western Genesee County, New York, near Darien Center. The park entrance is on Harlow Road, north of U.S. Route 20. Park description The park has 154 campsites, the majority with electrical hookups, and ...

, in the Town of Darien. It flows generally west, crossing into Erie County and the Town of Alden. It crosses the northern edge of the Town of Lancaster, flowing through the community of Bowmansville in the northwest part of Lancaster. Continuing west, Ellicott Creek enters the Town of Cheektowaga. There it passes by the toxic Pfohl Brothers Landfill and the

Buffalo Niagara International Airport Buffalo Niagara International Airport is in Cheektowaga, New York. The airport serves Buffalo, New York and Niagara Falls, New York United States, and the southern Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, Canada. It is the third-busiest airport i ...

. The creek turns to the northwest at the airport. It flows under one of the runways via a tunnel. It then turns more directly north and enters the Village of Williamsville and the Town of Amherst. At Williamsville's Island Park Ellicott Creek splits briefly into two channels, one of which contains floodgates. The other channel was historically used to divert water into flumes for powering mills just downstream. Below the floodgates the creek flows rapidly north, passing under State Route 5 and falling over the

Onondaga Escarpment The Onondaga Limestone is a group of hard limestones and dolomites of Devonian age that form an important geographic feature in some areas in which it outcrops; in others, especially its Southern Ontario portion, the formation can be less promi ...

at Glen Falls in

Amherst State Park Amherst State Park is an park in Erie County, New York, United States. The park is located northeast of Buffalo, partially in the Village of Williamsville with the balance located in the Town of Amherst. The park is managed by the Town of A ...

After Glen Falls, Ellicott Creek continues flowing generally north and northwest through Amherst. It passes by several golf courses and then through the northern edge of the campus of the

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 18 ...

, after which the creek turns to the west and crosses under

Interstate 990 Interstate 990 (I-990) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway located entirely within the town of Amherst in Erie County, New York, in the United States. It runs in a roughly north–south direction for through the southwestern and central pa ...

(Lockport Expressway). Just west of I-990 the creek splits into two channels for about . The northern channel is deeper, has been more thoroughly channelized and is bordered by commercial land use, while the southern channel is fairly sinuous and contains more trees in the riparian zone.Mapping of aquatic and ripiarian habitats of Ellicott and Tonawanda Creeks
New York Power Authority After these channels rejoin, Ellicott Creek it enters the

Town of Tonawanda Tonawanda (formally the Town of Tonawanda) is a town in Erie County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town had a population of 72,636. The town is at the north border of the county and is the northern inner ring suburb of B ...

and passes through Ellicott Creek Park. Ellicott Creek continues west for approximately before emptying into

in the

City of Tonawanda Tonawanda (formally ''City of Tonawanda'') is a city in Erie County, New York, United States. The population was 15,130 at the 2010 census. It is at the northern edge of Erie County, south across the Erie Canal ( Tonawanda Creek) from North To ...

. This portion of Tonawanda Creek is also part of the

Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing t ...

. Tonawanda Creek then empties into the Niagara River. The distance from the mouth of Ellicott Creek to the Niagara River is about .

History

Ellicott Creek is named after

Joseph Ellicott Joseph Ellicott (November 1, 1760 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania – August 19, 1826 in New York City) was an American surveyor, city planner, land office agent, lawyer and politician of the Quaker faith. Life Ellicott was born in Bucks Co ...

, an important agent of the

Holland Land Company The Holland Land Company was an unincorporated syndicate of thirteen Dutch investors from Amsterdam who in 1792 and 1793 purchased the western two-thirds of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase, an area that afterward was known as the Holland Purchas ...

. Ellicott played a significant role in opening Western New York up for settlement after the

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

ceded their claims in the 1780s, more significantly in the Big Tree Treaty with the Seneca nation. Elicott surveyed most of

Holland Purchase The Phelps and Gorham Purchase was the purchase in 1788 of of land in what is now western New York State from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for $1,000,000 ( £300,000), to be paid in three annual installments, and the pre-emptive right to th ...

into townships and saleable land parcels.

Natural history

Niagara River surface fluctuations influence creek water level up to upstream of the mouth of Ellicott Creek.Upper Niagara River Tributary Backwater Study
New York Power Authority

Recreation

Ellicott Creek Bike Path

A bike path, known as the

Ellicott Creek Bike Path The Ellicott Creek Bike Path follows Ellicott Creek in the Amherst, New York, Town of Amherst in New York (state), New York State near the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, University at Buffalo, and flows under Interstate 99 ...

, follows the creek in the Town of Amherst, near the

and flows under

before leaving Amherst by crossing

U.S. Route 62 U.S. Route 62 or U.S. Highway 62 (US 62) runs from the Mexican border at El Paso, Texas, to Niagara Falls, New York, near the Canadian border. It is the only east-west United States Numbered Highway that connects Mexico and Can ...

(Niagara Falls Boulevard) to enter the Town of Tonawanda at Ellicott Creek Park. In 1990, the Ellicott Creek Bike Path was the last known location where

(UB) Sophomore Linda Yalem was alive. Yalem studied communications at UB and was training to run in the

New York City Marathon The New York City Marathon (currently branded TCS New York City Marathon after its headline sponsor (commercial), sponsor) is an annual Marathon (sport), marathon () that courses through the five boroughs of New York City. It is the largest mar ...

when she was raped and killed by Altemio Sanchez while on a run on the Ellicott Creek Bike Path near UB.

References