Hazle Creek is a tributary source stream of the Lehigh and

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock (village), New York, Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of N ...

s, via Black Creek, Carbon County, which originates in southern

Luzerne County Luzerne County is a county in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and is water. It is Northeastern Pennsylvania's second-largest county by total area. As of ...

on the east side of the

saddle The saddle is a supportive structure for a rider of an animal, fastened to an animal's back by a girth. The most common type is equestrian. However, specialized saddles have been created for oxen, camels and other animals. It is not kno ...

of an important

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since many of the world's mountain ranges have presented formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human a ...

hosting a

transportation infrastructure Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land ( rail and road), water, cable, pipelin ...

corridor. The creek's source area is located within the east-side neighborhoods of

Hazleton, Pennsylvania Hazleton is a city in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 29,963 at the 2020 census. Hazleton is the second largest city in Luzerne County. It was incorporated as a borough on January 5, 1857, and as a city on Decembe ...

. The entire city is low lying relative to the surrounding mountainous

Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians The Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, also called the Ridge and Valley Province or the Valley and Ridge Appalachians, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian division and are also a belt within the Appalachian Mountains extending ...

and historically was known as the "Great Swamp" and other names with either wilderness or swamp being appended—the whole area extending over to the

Lehigh Gap The Lehigh Gap or Lehigh Water Gap is a water gap located in the townships of Lehigh, Washington, Lower Towamensing and East Penn in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. It was formed by the Lehigh River where it cuts through the ...

was heavily forested with low-lying areas generally being swampy pinewood forests. Hazle Creek's source springs originate in the terrain along the upper edge of the

Lehigh River The Lehigh River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the Delaware River in eastern Pennsylvania. The river flows in a generally southward pat ...

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...

, TBDL ft above its mouth, and TBDL above mean sea level. Hazle Creek flows from its headwaters near Hazleton to its mouth near Weatherly. Due to underground mining, most of the surface drainage in the Hazleton Basin has been destroyed. Surface water infiltrates into the underlying minepool through abandoned strip mines. Initially part of the terrain traversed by the Amerindian trail known to white settlers as the "Warriors' Path", the creek's water gap hosted an early crude wagon road, the Lausanne-Nescopeck Road, which connected the Moravians in

Bethlehem Bethlehem (; ar, بيت لحم ; he, בֵּית לֶחֶם '' '') is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000,Amara, 1999p. 18.Brynen, 2000p. 202. and it is the capital o ...

and the lower Luzerne County settlements of "Saint Anthony's Wilderness", the earliest being those along the

Nescopeck Creek Nescopeck Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 8, 2011 tributary of the Susquehanna River in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. The creek is in the Coal Region of ...

in a village known as St. Johns in the late 1700s. The city of Hazleton sits astride the pass connecting the watershed of the Lehigh to the Susquehanna-drained tributaries along the west side of the

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...

. The stream runs generally south-southeast for about , where it joins Beaver Creek to form Black Creek, the major regional tributary stream on the north side of the Broad Mountain

barrier ridge The terms barrier ridge, a term of art in the earth sciences, especially geology and sometimes barrier range (more common as a geography term) describing the existence of gross landforms describing long ridgelines which are particularly difficult ...

. The banks of all three water courses host both automotive and rail roadbeds.

Footnotes

References

Rivers of Carbon County, Pennsylvania Rivers of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania {{Pennsylvania-river-stub