Hay Creek is a small
trout
Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salmoni ...
stream in southeastern
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
. It has its headwaters west of
Goodhue and empties into the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...
just to the north of
Red Wing. It runs .
[U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data]
The National Map
, accessed October 4, 2012 Hay Creek was named for the hay meadows near its banks. A railroad once ran along Hay Creek from the claybanks near Goodhue to the pottery and stoneware factories in Red Wing, which also made use of the water from the creek. The railroad was torn up in 1937, but traces such as
trestle
ATLAS-I (Air Force Weapons Lab Transmission-Line Aircraft Simulator), better known as Trestle, was a unique electromagnetic pulse (EMP) generation and testing apparatus built between 1972 and 1980 during the Cold War at Sandia National Laborato ...
pilings remain.
Habitat
Historically, Hay Creek was home to Brook trout and other species, which were depopulated due to farming practices in the late 18th and 19th centuries. In the mid-1970s, the
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, or Minnesota DNR, is the agency of the U.S. state of Minnesota charged with conserving and managing the state's natural resources. The agency maintains areas such as state parks, state forests, recre ...
started focusing on restoring Hay Creek. By 1976, over half of the length of Hay Creek is a Minnesota designated trout stream. Like the
Vermillion River, Hay Creek receives extensive fishing pressure due to its proximity to
Minneapolis–St. Paul. Minnesota
Trout Unlimited
Trout Unlimited (TU) is a US non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of freshwater streams, rivers, and associated upland habitats for trout, salmon, other aquatic species, and people. It is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. Th ...
has joined the restoration efforts along Hay Creek.
See also
*
List of rivers of Minnesota
References
External links
*
{{Minnesota tributaries of the lower Mississippi drainage basin, state=collapsed
Rivers of Minnesota
Tributaries of the Mississippi River
Rivers of Goodhue County, Minnesota
Southern Minnesota trout streams
Driftless Area