Indian Creek, also known as Big Indian Creek, is a large stream in western

Putnam County, Tennessee Putnam County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 79,854. Its county seat is Cookeville. Putnam County is part of the Cookeville, TN Micropolitan Statistical Area. History Putnam Coun ...

. It is a tributary of the

Caney Fork River The Caney Fork River is a river that flows through central Tennessee in the United States, draining a substantial portion of the southwestern Cumberland Plateau and southeastern Highland Rim regions. It is a major tributary of the Cumberland Rive ...

Geography

The source of the creek is near

Baxter, Tennessee Baxter is a city in Putnam County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 1,578 at the 2020 census.Tennessee Department of Economic and Community DevelopmentCertified Population of Tennessee Incorporated Municipalities and Counties, State o ...

, where it starts out as a mid-sized ephemeral to intermittent stream and quickly picks up the Boyd Hollow Branch. Upon meeting the Leftwich Hollow Branch and a big spring, the creek becomes perennial. As the creek grows in size, it begins forming a wide floodplain nestled between some steep hills. After flowing between some of these hills, it picks up one of the streams named Little Indian Creek. Next, it runs through the small

unincorporated town An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

of Buffalo Valley, near the creek's lower end. In southwestern Buffalo Valley,

I-40 Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west Interstate Highway running through the south-central portion of the United States. At a length of , it is the third-longest Interstate Highway in the country, after I-90 and I-80. From west to ea ...

has a bridge over it, and the Buffalo Branch meets the creek just before its confluence with the Caney Fork.

Little Indian Creek

Little Indian Creek is the name of two streams in Putnam County. One of these is a tributary of Indian Creek located entirely within Putnam County, the source of which is near Boma. The other begins in Putnam County extremely close to

Gentry Gentry (from Old French ''genterie'', from ''gentil'', "high-born, noble") are "well-born, genteel and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past. Word similar to gentle imple and decentfamilies ''Gentry'', in its widest c ...

, then it descends through some hills and valleys before getting a wide floodplain and perennial flow similar to the big Indian Creek. Eventually, it briefly forms the Putnam County border with Smith County before crossing fully into Smith. As it enters

Cordell Hull Lake Cordell Hull Lake is a lake in the Cumberland River in north-central Tennessee, about forty miles east of Nashville, in the vicinity of Carthage. It covers approximately . Cordell Hull Dam, on the Cumberland River, was built by the United State ...

in Smith County, its lake embayment borders the Indian Creek Campgrounds just before its confluence with Dillard Creek and ultimately the Cumberland River, less than two miles from Granville.

References

{{coord, 36.1386, -85.8020, type:river_region:US-TN, format=dms, display=title Rivers of Tennessee Rivers of Smith County, Tennessee Tributaries of the Cumberland River