Pond Creek (also known as Long Pond Creek) 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 drainage ...

Little Wapwallopen Creek Little Wapwallopen Creek is a tributary of the Susquehanna River in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Rice Township, Dorrance Township, Conyngham Township, and Hollenback Township. ...

Luzerne County, Pennsylvania 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 ...

, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Slocum Township and Conyngham Township. The watershed of the creek has an area of and is part of the Lower North Branch Susquehanna drainage basin. A bridge was built over the creek in 1956. In the early 1900s, the Glen Brook Water Company planned to construct a dam on the creek. The surficial geology in the vicinity of Pond Creek includes Wisconsinan Till, alluvium, boulder alluvium, alluvial fan, and bedrock consisting of sandstone and shale, as well as some patches of wetland.

Course

Pond Creek looking downstream below Lily Lake

Pond Creek begins on the southern side of

Penobscot Mountain Penobscot Knob, also Penobscot Mountain, is a summit located in the western fringe of the Poconos nearest to Mountain Top, Pennsylvania which in the Solomon Gap pass below it lies an important multi-modal transportation corridor. At one time befo ...

, a few hundred feet from the border between Slocum Township and Newport Township. It flows west-southwest for several tenths of a mile before passing through

Cranberry Pond This is a list of lakes in Nova Scotia. Cape Breton Island All Four Counties * Bras d'Or Lake Cape Breton Regional Municipality * Anse aux Cannes Pond * The Barachois * Bear Cove Pond * Bear Gulch Ponds * Beaverdam Pond * Belle Lake * ...

and turning northwest. The creek then turns west-southwest and passes through Lily Lake, where it exits Slocum Township and enters Conyngham Township. At the southern edge of the lake, it turns south for a short distance before turning southwest for several tenths of a mile and entering a valley. The creek then turns south for several tenths of a mile and receives an unnamed tributary from the

left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right * L ...

before meandering southwest. After several tenths of a mile, it turns west and receives an unnamed tributary from the

right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of Liberty, freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convent ...

before turning due south for several tenths of a mile as its valley becomes much deeper. The creek then receives another unnamed tributary from the left and abruptly turns west-southwest. After a few tenths of a mile, it turns sharply to the east for a few tenths of a mile and leaves its valley. The creek then turns west-southwest and reaches its confluence with Little Wapwallopen Creek. Pond Creek joins Little Wapwallopen Creek upstream of its mouth.

Tributaries

Pond Creek has no officially named tributaries. However, it does have several unnamed tributaries. The first tributary is approximately long, the second is approximately long, and the third is approximately long. One tributary of the creek was referred to as Black Creek in a 1908 report by the

Pennsylvania Department of Health Pennsylvania Department of Health is a cabinet-level agency in Pennsylvania. Secretaries See also * Health department * List of Pennsylvania state agencies State related agencies of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Agencies *Pennsylvania A ...

Geography and geology

The elevation near the

mouth In animal anatomy, the mouth, also known as the oral cavity, or in Latin cavum oris, is the opening through which many animals take in food and issue vocal sounds. It is also the cavity lying at the upper end of the alimentary canal, bounded on ...

of Pond Creek is above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

. The elevation of the creek's

source Source may refer to: Research * Historical document * Historical source * Source (intelligence) or sub source, typically a confidential provider of non open-source intelligence * Source (journalism), a person, publication, publishing institute o ...

is between above sea level. Pond Creek is in the vicinity of the

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mountains, flowing along their south side. The creek flows through a

gorge A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...

in its lower reaches. In the gorge, the creek flows through a ledge of tough rocks with few cracks or fissures. Most of the upper reaches of the watershed of Pond Creek are on a glacial or resedimented

till image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...

known as Wisconsinan Till. However, outcroppings of

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid Rock (geology), rock that lies under loose material (regolith) within the crust (geology), crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface mater ...

consisting of

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

and

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...

occur on Penobscot Mountain. Small patches of

alluvium Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...

and

boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In c ...

alluvium occur along the creek downstream of Lily Lake. In its lower reaches, the valley of the creek mostly contains alluvium and Wisconsinan Ice-Contact Stratified Drift. Wisconsinan Ice-Contact Stratified Drift consists of stratified

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of s ...

and

gravel Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classifi ...

, as well as some boulders. Bedrock consisting of sandstone and shale surrounds the valley and an

alluvial fan An alluvial fan is an accumulation of sediments that fans outwards from a concentrated source of sediments, such as a narrow canyon emerging from an escarpment. They are characteristic of mountainous terrain in arid to semiarid climates, but a ...

occurs at its mouth.

Watershed

The

watershed Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...

of Pond Creek has an area of . The mouth of the creek is in the

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quadrangle of Sybertsville. However, its source is in the quadrangle of Nanticoke. The watershed of the creek is part of the Lower North Branch Susquehanna drainage basin. Pond Creek flows generally in a westward direction. A

pond A pond is an area filled with water, either natural or artificial, that is smaller than a lake. Defining them to be less than in area, less than deep, and with less than 30% emergent vegetation helps in distinguishing their ecology from th ...

known as Mud Pond is located in the watershed of Pond Creek. It is on a tributary of Pond Creek, not on the

main stem In hydrology, a mainstem (or trunk) is "the primary downstream segment of a river, as contrasted to its tributaries". Water enters the mainstem from the river's drainage basin, the land area through which the mainstem and its tributaries flow.. A ...

itself. There are patches of

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

at the headwaters of the creek. Wild

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 ...

naturally reproduce in Pond Creek.

History

Pond Creek was entered into the

Geographic Names Information System The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database of name and locative information about more than two million physical and cultural features throughout the United States and its territories, Antarctica, and the associated states of ...

on August 2, 1979. It identifier in the Geographic Names Information System is 1184234. A prestressed box beam bridge was built over Pond Creek in 1956. The bridge is located east of State Route 3006 and carries T-466/Cemetery Road. Two bridges were built over tributaries of the creek in 1956 and 1966. In the early 1900s, the Glen Brook Water Company had plans to construct a masonry

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, a ...

on Pond Creek. The dam was planned to be high and the resulting reservoir (known as the Pond Creek Reservoir) was intended to have an area of 16 acres and a volume of 125,000,000 gallons. The dam was to be situated upstream of the creek's mouth, in a gorge.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania Tributaries of the Susquehanna River Rivers of Pennsylvania