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Schoharie Creek is a river in
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
that flows north from the foot of Indian Head Mountain in the
Catskills The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas c ...
through the Schoharie Valley to the
Mohawk River The Mohawk River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 river in the U.S. state of New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson River. The Mohawk f ...
. It is twice impounded north of Prattsville to create New York City's
Schoharie Reservoir The Schoharie Reservoir is a reservoir in the Catskill Mountains of New York State that was created to be one of 19 reservoirs that supplies New York City with water. It was created by impounding Schoharie Creek. Portions of it lie in the towns of ...
and the Blenheim-Gilboa Power Project. During the
American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
,
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 ...
Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...
attacks against the cluster of farms in the valley of the Cobleskill Creek tributary was the site of the
Cobleskill Massacre The Battle of Cobleskill (also known as the Cobleskill massacre) was an American Revolutionary War raid on the frontier settlement of Cobleskill, New York on May 30, 1778. The battle, having taken place in the modern-day hamlet of Warnerville, ...
(May 1778), virtually depopulating settlements in the southern Mohawk valley. News of this and two other mixed Tory-Indian guerrilla attacks led to an appropriation of funds for the
Sullivan Expedition The 1779 Sullivan Expedition (also known as the Sullivan-Clinton Expedition, the Sullivan Campaign, and the Sullivan-Clinton Genocide) was a United States military campaign during the American Revolutionary War, lasting from June to October 1779 ...
dispatched by General Washington in 1779 to break the threat of Indian raids. The
Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing t ...
crossed over the creek by an aqueduct at
Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site, also known as Erie Canal National Historic Landmark, is a historic district that includes the ruins of the Erie Canal aqueduct over Schoharie Creek, and a long part of the Erie Canal, in the towns of Glen an ...
. Two notable bridge collapses have occurred on Schoharie Creek. In 1987, two spans of the
New York State Thruway {{Infobox road , state = NY , type = NYST , alternate_name = Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway , maint = NYSTA , map = {{maplink, frame=yes, plain=yes, frame-align=center, frame-width=290, type=line, stroke-width=2, type2=line, from2=New Yor ...
collapsed. On August 28, 2011, the covered
Old Blenheim Bridge Old Blenheim Bridge was a wooden covered bridge that spanned Schoharie Creek in North Blenheim, New York, United States. With an open span of , it had the second longest span of any surviving single-span covered bridge in the world. The 1862 B ...
collapsed due to flooding from
Hurricane Irene Hurricane Irene was a large and destructive tropical cyclone which affected much of the Caribbean and East Coast of the United States during late August 2011. The ninth named storm, first hurricane, and first major hurricane of the 2011 At ...
.


Geography


Watershed and tributary streams

Schoharie Creek is part of the drainage system of the
Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
watershed and a direct tributary of the
Mohawk River The Mohawk River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 river in the U.S. state of New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson River. The Mohawk f ...
. Tributaries of Schoharie Creek, listed from upstream to downstream, include:


East side

* Gooseberry Creek * Red Kill *
East Kill East Kill, a tributary of Schoharie Creek, flows across the town of Jewett, New York, United States, from its source on Stoppel Point. Ultimately its waters reach the Hudson River via the Mohawk. Since it drains into the Schoharie upstream of ...
* John Chase Brook * Batavia Kill * Hunterfield Creek *
Platter Kill Platter Kill is a river in Schoharie County, New York, Schoharie County in the state of New York (state), New York. It flows into the Schoharie Creek. The Platter Kill's Drainage basin, watershed accounts for about 1.2 percent of the Schoharie b ...
* Keyser Kill * Little Schoharie Creek * Stony Brook * Fox Creek *
Bowman Creek Bowman Creek (also known as Bowmans Creek or Bowman's Creek) is a tributary of the Susquehanna River in Luzerne County and Wyoming County, in Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Ross Township and Lake T ...


West side

* Roaring Kill * Cook Brook *
West Kill The West Kill, an tributary of Schoharie Creek, flows through the town of Lexington, New York, United States, from its source on Hunter Mountain, the second-highest peak of the Catskill Mountains. Ultimately its waters reach the Hudson River vi ...
*
Little West Kill Little West Kill flows into the Schoharie Creek by Lexington, New York#Communities and locations in Lexington, Lexington, New York. References

{{authority control Rivers of New York (state) Rivers of Greene County, New York Rivers of Delaw ...
* Johnson Hollow Brook * Bear Kill * Mine Kill *
West Kill The West Kill, an tributary of Schoharie Creek, flows through the town of Lexington, New York, United States, from its source on Hunter Mountain, the second-highest peak of the Catskill Mountains. Ultimately its waters reach the Hudson River vi ...
* Cole Brook * Panther Creek * Pleasant Valley Creek * Line Creek * Cobleskill Creek * Cripplebush Creek * Fly Creek * Wilsey Creek * Irish Creek


Watershed

Before European colonization, the watershed was mostly forested with a few small areas cleared by Native Americans for hunting. Early European settlers attempted to farm the land, but soon abandoned it due to the short growing seasons, steep slopes and rocky soil. Between 1800 and the early 1900s, mills, the tanning industry, quarrying for bluestone, logging, railroads, and resorts cleared the Catskills of most of its forest cover. Starting in the early 1900s, these industries began to decline and areas that were previously cleared have grown back into forest. As of 2001, approximately 85% of the Schoharie Creek's watershed has been classified as forested.


Hydrology


Water quality

New York's Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) rates the
water quality Water quality refers to the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water based on the standards of its usage. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which compliance, generally achieved through tr ...
of Schoharie Creek in different sections. The section from Cobleskill Creek to Pleasant Valley Brook is rated Class C, which is most suitable for fishing, but can also be suitable for primary and secondary contact recreation. Stream flow on the lower Schoharie is significantly influenced by the Schoharie Reservoir. Flow from the reservoir is restricted when the dam is not open, and the lack of flow mostly during the summer increases water temperature, which negatively affects the fishery. Also this section flows through an agricultural valley, which contributes to increased sediment in the creek. This increases streambank erosion and sediment loadings, and during high flows, cause the creek's turbidity to increase. Biological tests were conducted in Fort Hunter in 2001, then in Burtonsville in 2001, and showed non-impacted water quality conditions at both sites.


Discharge

The
United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...
(USGS) maintains many
stream gauge A stream gauge, streamgage or stream gauging station is a location used by hydrologists or environmental scientists to monitor and test terrestrial bodies of water. Hydrometric measurements of water level surface elevation ("stage") and/or volu ...
s along Schoharie Creek. The first station is east of Lexington in operation since 1999, had a maximum discharge of per second on August 28, 2011, as Hurricane Irene passed through the area, and a minimum discharge of per second on August 21–22, 2002. Another station by Prattsville in operation since 1902, upstream from Schoharie Reservoir, had a maximum discharge of per second on August 28, 2011, with no minimum discharge recorded. Below the Schoharie Reservoir is the station by Gilboa in operation since October 1975, downstream from the Schoharie Reservoir dam, had a maximum discharge of per second on August 28, 2011, and a minimum discharge of per second on many days from June to October 1976, and September 11-13, 1980. Another station by North Blenheim in operation continuously since October 1970, upstream from bridge on State Highway 30 in North Blenheim, had a maximum discharge of per second on August 28, 2011, and a minimum discharge of per second on many days from June to October 1976, and September 11-13, 1980. The station by Breakabeen in operation since July 1975, downstream from Keyser Kill, had a maximum discharge of per second on August 28, 2011, and a minimum discharge of per second on October 14, 1988. Further downstream the station by Middleburgh in operation from July 1927 to September 1939 and since December 2017, slightly downstream of the bridge at intersection of State Highways 30 and 145 in Middleburgh, had a maximum discharge of per second on March 18, 1936, and a minimum discharge of per second on September 1, 1939. Outside the period of record, it had an estimated maximum discharge of per second on August 28, 2011. The station in Schoharie is located upstream from bridge on County Highway 1A has been in operation since December 2017, takes gauge height measurements only. It had a maximum gauge height of on August 14, 2018 and a minimum gage height of on many days between September 22 and October 1 in 2019. The station in Esperance is located by the US Route 20 bridge has been in operation since December 2017, takes gauge height measurements only. It had a maximum gauge height of on April 15, 2019 and a minimum gage height of on July 22, 2018. Outside the period of record, the flood of August 2011 reached a stage of from floodmark. The station in Burtonsville in operation since October 1939, upstream from the mouth, had a maximum discharge of per second on August 29, 2011, and a minimum discharge of per second on September 24–25, 1964.


Turbidity

The USGS station along the creek near Burtonsville, collects turbidity data every 15 minutes. The maximum daily suspended sediment concentrations (SSC) mean was 1460 mg/L on June 14, 2013, and the minimum was 2 mg/L on October 1–2, 2014. On June 14, 2013, the maximum daily suspended sediment discharge was 48,400 tons () on June 14, 2013, and .16 tons () on October 1–2, 2014.


History

In the 18th century, areas of the south (or
right bank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography, as follows. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrai ...
) side of Mohawk Valley were sparsely settled in the face of the periodically warlike and always militant Iroquois peoples, who, while diminished by European diseases during colonial times still retained ample war powers after the
French and Indian War The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...
ended in 1763. Reorganized by then as the Six Nations the tribes had conducted internecine war with other powerful eastern tribes until the 1770s, weakening or eliminating the power of the Delaware, the Susquehanna, and Shawnee tribes— affecting Amerindian populations and power both East and West of the
Alleghenies The Allegheny Mountain Range (; also spelled Alleghany or Allegany), informally the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the Eastern United States and Canada and posed a significant barrier to land travel in less devel ...
as far south as northern Kentucky in the west, and southern Maryland in the east. By the end of the French and Indian War, they were the one remaining group of eastern native peoples that retained sufficient military power to give even the British authorities pause. Consequently, those authorities cultivated ''political arrangements'' with the Iroquois and as a prelude to the revolution, the British Crown acted to block trans-Appalachian settlements before the opening of the American Revolution, one of the lesser known grievances of many held by the settlers. During the Revolution, farms in the valley acted as a breadbasket providing important food supplies to the Colonial forces. The lower Mohawk valley was a scene of uneasy native
Amerindian The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples. Many Indigenous peoples of the Am ...
Colonial Settler contention throughout most of the 18th century until after the
American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
's
Sullivan Expedition The 1779 Sullivan Expedition (also known as the Sullivan-Clinton Expedition, the Sullivan Campaign, and the Sullivan-Clinton Genocide) was a United States military campaign during the American Revolutionary War, lasting from June to October 1779 ...
pacified the region by permanently weakening the Six Nations of 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 ...
. That campaign was a direct result of two atrocities in the region: The May 1778 Battle of Cobleskill (or Cobleskill Creek Massacre) signaled a new
guerrilla war Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tactic ...
offensive by mixed troops of Loyalists and members of the four Iroquois tribes allied to the British in 1778. The incursions resulted in three major raids with major loss of life ranging from Southern New York to
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania Wilkes-Barre ( or ) is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, Luzerne County. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it had a population of 44,328 in th ...
.


New York State Thruway bridge collapse

On the morning of April 5, 1987, after 30 years of service, two spans of the
New York State Thruway {{Infobox road , state = NY , type = NYST , alternate_name = Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway , maint = NYSTA , map = {{maplink, frame=yes, plain=yes, frame-align=center, frame-width=290, type=line, stroke-width=2, type2=line, from2=New Yor ...
bridge over Schoharie Creek near
Fort Hunter Fort Hunter is a hamlet in the Town of Florida in Montgomery County, New York, United States, west of the capital at Albany, on the south bank of the Mohawk River and on the northeast bank of Schoharie Creek. The hamlet developed around a fort of ...
collapsed. Five vehicles fell into the
flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...
ed river, resulting in ten deaths. A subsequent investigation of the collapse determined the cause to be
scour Scour may refer to: Hydrodynamic processes * Hydrodynamic scour, the removal of sediment such as sand and silt from around an object * Bridge scour, erosion of soil around at the base of a bridge pier or abutments via the flow of air, ice, or ...
. At the time, the creek was higher and flowing faster than normal due to excessive rains in the area. Twelve hours before the Schoharie Creek Bridge collapsed due to heavy rainfall, the rush of water through the Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project upstream hit a historic high. To cope with the overload, the dam released water into the Schoharie Creek according to the rate at which it was entering the reservoir from upstream, adding to the load in the creek. The segment of NY 5S near
Fort Hunter Fort Hunter is a hamlet in the Town of Florida in Montgomery County, New York, United States, west of the capital at Albany, on the south bank of the Mohawk River and on the northeast bank of Schoharie Creek. The hamlet developed around a fort of ...
was reconfigured to carry westbound Thruway traffic while the bridge was rebuilt. The eastbound replacement bridge was completed and fully open to traffic on December 7, 1987, and the westbound replacement bridge was opened on May 21, 1988.


Old Blenheim Bridge

The
Old Blenheim Bridge Old Blenheim Bridge was a wooden covered bridge that spanned Schoharie Creek in North Blenheim, New York, United States. With an open span of , it had the second longest span of any surviving single-span covered bridge in the world. The 1862 B ...
, one of the longest and oldest single-span covered bridges in the world, formerly spanned the creek. The bridge was destroyed on August 28, 2011 by flooding resulting from
Hurricane Irene Hurricane Irene was a large and destructive tropical cyclone which affected much of the Caribbean and East Coast of the United States during late August 2011. The ninth named storm, first hurricane, and first major hurricane of the 2011 At ...
.


See also

*
List of rivers in New York This is a list of rivers in the U.S. state of New York. By drainage basin This list is arranged by drainage basin, with respective tributaries indented by order of confluence with their main stem, from mouth to source. Long Island Sound (north ...


References


External links


The Collapse of the Schoharie Creek Bridge
{{authority control Rivers of New York (state) Schoharie, New York Tributaries of the Hudson River Rivers of Greene County, New York Rivers of Schoharie County, New York Rivers of Albany County, New York Rivers of Schenectady County, New York Rivers of Montgomery County, New York