Silver Creek is a

stream A stream is a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Long large streams ...

in southern

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...

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 Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. It drains a watershed of . The creek rises in Scott County and flows ,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
accessed May 19, 2011 dropping , before flowing into the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of ...

. It forms the boundary between

Clark Clark is an English language surname, ultimately derived from the Latin language, Latin with historical links to England, Scotland, and Ireland ''clericus'' meaning "scribe", "secretary" or a scholar within a religious order, referring to someone ...

and Floyd counties. The stream was called Silver Creek by the time it was part of land granted to

George Rogers Clark George Rogers Clark (November 19, 1752 – February 13, 1818) was an American Surveying, surveyor, soldier, and militia officer from Virginia who became the highest-ranking American patriot military officer on the northwestern frontier duri ...

, who lived in a log cabin near the creek's mouth. It was named Silver Creek due to a rumor that

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

treasure was hidden by creek, and that silver ore could be found. At the mouth of the creek was the first

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel (aggregate) together. Cement mixe ...

operation in Indiana, at Beach's Mill in 1830.Sarles, Jane. ''Journeys Through Clarksville's Past''. (2006) p.38 The creek was the site of Shirt-Tail Bend, a popular dueling location for Kentuckians, as the practice was illegal in their state. The Silver Creek banks were the site at least four duels, including most famously one between Humphrey Marshall and

Henry Clay Henry Clay Sr. (April 12, 1777June 29, 1852) was an American attorney and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the United States Senate, U.S. Senate and United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives. He was the seven ...

on January 19, 1809. Both men suffered slight wounds. Marshall opposed Clay's proposal that all Kentucky legislators should wear domestic homespun rather than English

broadcloth Broadcloth is a dense, plain woven cloth, historically made of wool. The defining characteristic of broadcloth is not its finished width but the fact that it was woven much wider (typically 50 to 75% wider than its finished width) and then he ...

References

{{authority control Rivers of Indiana Tributaries of the Ohio River Rivers of Floyd County, Indiana Rivers of Clark County, Indiana Rivers of Scott County, Indiana

See also

References