Schwaben 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 ...

Mahanoy Creek Mahanoy 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 Northumberland and Schuylkill counties, Pennsylvania. There are ...

in Northumberland County,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Schwaben Creek is approximately long.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
accessed July 8th, 2020 The creek has two named tributaries, which both join Schwaben Creek fairly close to its mouth. The tributaries are called Middle Creek and Mouse Creek. Schwaben Creek flows through Upper Mahanoy Township, Washington Township, and Jackson Township. Nearly all of the creek's watershed is devoted to agricultural land and forests, although there is some development. Painted furniture also was made in the Schwaben Creek valley in the 18th and 19th centuries. The creek is in the ridge-and-valley geographical province.

Course

Schwaben Creek starts in Mahanoy Township, south of Line Mountain. The creek flows westward through a valley, going past the communities of Leck Kill and Greenbrier before exiting Mahanoy Township. Upon exiting Mahanoy Township, Schwaben Creek flows into Washington Township. Shortly after entering Washington Township, the creek flows northwest to pass by the Himmels Church, where it picks up its tributary Middle Creek. It then flows westward past the community of Rebuck, and the Rebuck Church before turning southwest and then west again. The creek's valley begins getting wider as it passes St. Peters Church and leaves Washington Township. Schwaben Creek then enters Jackson Township, where it bends southwards, picking up Mouse Creek at the community of Red Cross. The creek then turns northwest and flows under

Pennsylvania Route 225 Pennsylvania Route 225 (PA 225) is a state highway located in Dauphin and Northumberland Counties in Pennsylvania. The southern terminus is at an interchange with U.S. Route 22 (US 22)/US 322 in Dauphin. The northern terminus is at PA 61 in S ...

to enter Mahanoy Creek.

Tributaries

Middle Creek is one tributary of Schwaben Creek. Middle Creek flows into Schwaben Creek approximately three quarters of the way from the source to the mouth. Mouse Creek is another tributary of Schwaben Creek. It has a drainage area of 7.1 square miles. The creek joins Schwaben Creek about half a mile from the latter creek's confluence with Mahanoy Creek.

Watershed

Schwaben Creek looking downstream in September 2015

Township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

s in the Schwaben Creek watershed include Washington Township and Upper Mahanoy Township. The total area of the creek's watershed is 22.48 square miles. The watershed has a total of stream distance. Approximately 55% of the land in the Schwaben Creek watershed is devoted to

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

. An additional 41% of the land consists of

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s. 3% of the land in the watershed is termed "low-intensity development" by the

Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

. of the Schwaben Creek watershed consist of

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or swine ...

s and similar land. of the watershed are devoted to

cropland Agricultural land is typically land ''devoted to'' agriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous with bot ...

. are devoted to forest. are devoted to low-intensity development. of the watershed are devoted to unpaved roads. are labeled as "transition" by the Environmental Protection Agency. of the watershed consist 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 ...

s. The Himmel's Church Covered Bridge crosses Schwaben Creek at Rebuck. It was built in 1874.

Hydrology

A total of of

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand an ...

flow through Schwaben Creek per day. This equates to per year. per day comes from cropland and per day come from

stream 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 ...

s. per day come from pastures, per day comes from forests, and per day comes from unpaved roads. Land with low intensity development and land in transition are the smallest contributors of sediment to Schwaben Creek, contributing and per day, respectively. The average annual

rainfall Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water f ...

over a 19-year period in the Schwaben Creek watershed is . The average annual

runoff Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to: * RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program * Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed * Runoff or run-off, a stock market ...

over a 19-year period in the watershed is . Almost all of the streams in the Schwaben Creek watershed are considered "impaired" by the

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is the agency in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania responsible for protecting and preserving the land, air, water, and public health through enforcement of the state's environmental laws. ...

. The exception is the headwaters of Schwaben Creek's tributary, Middle Creek. Schwaben Creek, along with

Little Mahanoy Creek Little Mahanoy Creek is a tributary of Mahanoy Creek in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. It starts in the borough of Frackville and joins Mahanoy Creek in the borough of Gordon, Pennsylvania, Gordon. Its one named tributary is Rattling Run. The c ...

, are the only tributaries of Mahanoy Creek that are not affected by the

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

industry.

Geography and geology

The average elevation in the Schwaben Creek watershed 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 creek and its entire watershed is located in the ridge-and-valley physiographic province. The rocks on the surface of the creek's watershed are primarily

interbedded In geology, interbedding occurs when beds (layers of rock) of a particular lithology lie between or alternate with beds of a different lithology. For example, sedimentary rocks may be interbedded if there were sea level variations in their sedimen ...

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles ...

. The main

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former te ...

group is the C group. Erosion channels are present in impaired parts of the streams in the Schwaben Creek watershed. The streambanks of many streams in the watershed are also eroded. A

rock formation A rock formation is an isolated, scenic, or spectacular surface rock outcrop. Rock formations are usually the result of weathering and erosion sculpting the existing rock. The term ''rock formation'' can also refer to specific sediment ...

consisting of coarse white or light gray

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) ...

on top of a layer of

buff Buff or BUFF may refer to: People * Buff (surname), a list of people * Buff (nickname), a list of people * Johnny Buff, ring name of American world champion boxer John Lisky (1888–1955) * Buff Bagwell, a ring name of American professional wr ...

and yellow colored rock passes through the Schwaben Creek watershed.

History

Schwaben Creek used to also be known as Himmels Creek, or Greenbriar Creek. Schwaben Creek takes its name from the German region of

Swabia Swabia ; german: Schwaben , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of ...

(German: ''Schwaben''). The name reflects the homeland of the area's settlers. A similarly named, but otherwise unrelated,

Swabia Creek Swabia Creek is a tributary of Little Lehigh Creek in Berks and Lehigh Counties in the eastern Pennsylvania region of the Lehigh Valley. Sources The primary (west) branch of Swabia Creek begins in the Bear Creek Mountain Resort, near Rittenho ...

exists in Berks and Lehigh Counties, Pennsylvania, about 75 miles east of Schwaben Creek. A large number of

furniture Furniture refers to movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (tables), storing items, eating and/or working with an item, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Fu ...

pieces were made in the Schwaben Creek valley in the very late 18th century and early 1800s. The furniture was made by

Pennsylvania German The Pennsylvania Dutch (Pennsylvania Dutch: ), also known as Pennsylvania Germans, are a cultural group formed by German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. They emigrated primarily from German-spea ...

inhabitants, including

Johannes Mayer Johannes Mayer (6 September 1893 – 7 August 1963) was a German General of the Infantry in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. Promotions *9.3. ...

. The types of furniture included

blanket chest A blanket is a swath of soft textile, cloth large enough either to cover or to enfold most of the user's body and thick enough to keep the body warm by trapping radiant body heat that otherwise would be lost through convection. Etymology ...

s, chests of drawers, and

cupboard A cupboard is a piece of furniture for enclosing dishware or grocery items that are stored in a home. The term gradually evolved from its original meaning: an open-shelved side table for displaying dishware, more specifically plates, cups and sa ...

s. The 2013 book ''Encyclopedia of American Folk Art'' called the furniture from the Schwaben Creek valley "the most exuberant and unique paint-decorated furniture". An eastward-running road between Sunbury and

Paxtang Paxtang is a borough in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 1,640. The borough is a suburb of Harrisburg and is one of the earliest colonial settlements in South Central Pennsylvania. History ...

Road (also known as Tulpehocken Road) was laid out in 1788. The road was long and was built by Andrew Reitz, Frederick Knoebel, George Pfeiffer, John Nicholas Hettrick, John Nicholas Snyder, and Michael Roth. Schwaben Creek has been recognized as an impaired watershed since 2002.

Plants and animals

Schwaben Creek is stocked with

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 ...

each year between February 15 and July 31.

Livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals ...

have access to parts of the creek. There are a total of twenty known species of fish in the creek near the community of

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

. There are few or no

riparian buffer A riparian buffer or stream buffer is a vegetated area (a "buffer strip") near a stream, usually forested, which helps shade and partially protect the stream from the impact of adjacent land uses. It plays a key role in increasing water quality i ...

s in the parts of Schwaben Creek that are in agricultural land.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania Tributaries of Mahanoy Creek Rivers of Pennsylvania