Wakatomika 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 ...

of the

Muskingum River The Muskingum River (Shawnee: ') is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately long, in southeastern Ohio in the United States. An important commercial route in the 19th century, it flows generally southward through the eastern hill country o ...

, 42.6 mi (68.6 km) long, in central

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

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 ...

. Via the Muskingum and

Rivers, it is part of the watershed of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

, draining an area of 234 mi² (606 km²)

Course

Wakatomika Creek rises in western Coshocton County and flows westwardly into Knox County; then southwardly into northeastern

Licking Licking is the action of passing the tongue over a surface, typically either to deposit saliva onto the surface, or to collect liquid, food or minerals onto the tongue for ingestion, or to communicate with other animals. Many animals both gro ...

and southwestern Coshocton Counties; and eastwardly through northwestern Muskingum County, past the southern edge of the village of Frazeysburg. It joins the Muskingum River from the west at the village of

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

. At its mouth, the creek's estimated mean annual flow rate is . A

USGS 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, a ...

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 ...

on the creek near Frazeysburg recorded a mean annual discharge of during

water year A water year (also called ''hydrological year'', ''discharge year'' or ''flow year'') is a term commonly used in hydrology to describe a time period of 12 months for which precipitation totals are measured. Its beginning differs from the calendar ...

s 1937-2019. The highest daily mean discharge during that period was on June 28, 1998. The lowest daily mean discharge was on October 3, 1963.

Location

*Mouth:

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 Muskingum River at Dresden *Origin: Coshocton County east of

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

Tributaries

Winding Fork drains much of southern Perry Township and northwestern Pike Township in Coshocton County, and empties into Wakatomika Creek near the State Route 79 bridge over Wakatomika Creek. Brushy Fork drains much of Licking County's Perry Township, and empties into Wakatomika Creek in the very northwestern corner of Muskingum County. Black Run empties into Wakatomika Creek just southwest of Frazeysburg. Little Wakatomika Creek empties into Wakatomika Creek near the intersection of state routes 60 and 16.

History

Wakatomika Creek takes its name from the

Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...

village of Wakatomika, which was located at the mouth of Wakatomika Creek along the

, at about the present-day site of

Dresden, Ohio Dresden is a village in Jefferson and Cass townships in Muskingum County, Ohio, United States, along the Muskingum River at the mouth of Wakatomika Creek. It was incorporated on March 9, 1835. The population was 1,529 at the 2010 census. Histo ...

. The village was destroyed during

Lord Dunmore's War Lord Dunmore's War—or Dunmore's War—was a 1774 conflict between the Colony of Virginia and the Shawnee and Mingo American Indian nations. The Governor of Virginia during the conflict was John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore—Lord Dunmore. H ...

in 1774. After the American Revolution, the valley along Wakatomika Creek was one of the first areas in present-day Muskingum County to be settled by white Americans. Today, the Longaberger Basket Company maintains a large facility in the Wakatomika Valley between Frazeysburg and

Variant names and spellings

According to 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 ...

, Wakatomika Creek has also been known historically as:

References