Flint Creek is a creek in the

Finger Lakes The Finger Lakes are a group of eleven long, narrow, roughly north–south lakes located south of Lake Ontario in an area called the ''Finger Lakes region'' in New York, in the United States. This region straddles the northern and transitional ...

region of

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

, located between

Canandaigua Lake Canandaigua Lake is the fourth largest of the Finger Lakes in the U.S. state of New York. The City of Canandaigua is located at the northern end of the lake and the village of Naples is several miles south of the southern end. It is the we ...

and Seneca Lake. Flint Creek is part of the Canandaigua Lake watershed which is part of the Oswego River drainage basin, which ultimately drains to

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border sp ...

. It has two head springs in the town of Italy which come together on the floor of Italy Valley. It then flows through the hamlets of Potter, Gorham, and

Seneca Castle Kanadaseaga (aka Kanadesaga or Kanatasaka or Kanadasaga or Canasadego or Ganûndase?'ge? or Seneca Castle or Canadasaga), was a major village, perhaps a capital, of the Seneca nation of the Iroquois Confederacy in west-central New York State, Unite ...

, and ends in the village of

Phelps Phelps may refer to: Places in the United States * Phelps, Kentucky * Phelps, Michigan, an unincorporated community * Phelps, New York ** Phelps (village), New York * Phelps, Wisconsin, a town ** Phelps (community), Wisconsin, an unincorporated co ...

where it joins the

Canandaigua Outlet The Canandaigua Outlet is a main tributary which feeds the Erie Canal and Clyde River in Wayne County, New York, United States. It begins at Canandaigua Lake in nearby Ontario County and flows approximately north before emptying into the Erie C ...

History

The creek was known by 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 ...

as ''Ax-o-quent-a'' or ''Ah-ta-gweh-da-ga'', the latter name being translated as "flint stone", with its origins in the

Cayuga Cayuga often refers to: * Cayuga people, a native tribe to North America, part of the Iroquois Confederacy * Cayuga language, the language of the Cayuga Cayuga may also refer to: Places Canada * Cayuga, Ontario United States * Cayuga, Illinois ...

Seneca Seneca may refer to: People and language * Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname * Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America ** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people Places Extrat ...

dialect. The hamlet of Gorham was built in the early 1800s around Flint Creek, with several mills using the creek for power. A very large area of muckland used for vegetable crop farming was created by clearing and draining a swamp along Flint Creek located in the town of Potter. Flint Creek flows through the middle of the area and is used for irrigation. The largest portion of this muckland is run by

Torrey Farms Torrey Farms is a large family farm located in Elba, New York, with a satellite property located in Potter, New York. It is one of the largest vegetable-crop farm operations in New York. Together its two lots total some 10,000 acres, composed pri ...

Elba Elba ( it, isola d'Elba, ; la, Ilva) is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino on the Italian mainland, and the largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago. It is also part of the Arcipelago Toscano National ...

Recreation

A part of Flint Creek known as Phelps Run is used for whitewater rafting and kayaking and has class II, III, and IV rapids. The run is long and has an average gradient of .

References

{{authority control Rivers of New York (state) Rivers of Ontario County, New York Rivers of Yates County, New York