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Valley Creek, sometimes called Bolles Creek, is a small stream in
Valley Creek, sometimes called Bolles Creek, is a small stream in Washington County, Minnesota
Washington County is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 267,568, making it the fifth-most populous county in Minnesota. Its county seat is Stillwater. The largest city in the county is Woodbury, ...
, United States. It is one of the few remaining 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 ...
streams in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area
A metropolitan area or metro is a region that consists of a densely populated urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing. A metro area usually com ...
. Approximately long, the stream begins in Woodbury, Minnesota
Woodbury is a city in Washington County, Minnesota, United States, eight miles (13 km) east of Saint Paul along Interstate 94. It is part of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area. The population was 75,102 at the 2020 census, making it ...
, and flows into the St. Croix River at Afton, Minnesota
Afton is a city in Washington County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 2,886 at the 2010 United States Census. It lies on a small bay where Valley Creek empties into the St. Croix River, several miles north of its confluence with ...
.
Valley Creek is notable as the location of the first private gristmill
A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...
in Minnesota. It was built in 1846 by Lemuel Bolles several hundred feet upstream from the confluence
In geography, a confluence (also: ''conflux'') occurs where two or more flowing bodies of water join to form a single channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main stem); o ...
with the St. Croix. Bolles' nephew, Erastus Bolles, built an additional mill and a blacksmith shop farther upstream.
See also
*List of Minnesota rivers
Minnesota has 6,564 natural rivers and streams that cumulatively flow for . The Mississippi River begins its journey from its headwaters at Lake Itasca and crosses the Iowa border downstream. It is joined by the Minnesota River at Fort Snelling, ...
References
Rivers of Minnesota Rivers of Washington County, Minnesota Driftless Area Tributaries of the St. Croix River (Wisconsin–Minnesota) {{Minnesota-river-stub