Big Creek is a tributary of the Grand River and flows through

Lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

and

Geauga Geauga County ( ) is a county located in the northeast portion of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 95,397. The county seat and largest city is Chardon. The county is named for an Onondaga or Seneca language ...

counties in

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

. It rises in glacial till near

Chardon, Ohio Chardon is a city in Geauga County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. The population was 5,242 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census.Defiance Moraine on its way north and exposes rock formations from the

Paleozoic Era The Paleozoic ( , , ; or Palaeozoic) Era is the first of three geological eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. Beginning 538.8 million years ago (Ma), it succeeds the Neoproterozoic (the last era of the Proterozoic Eon) and ends 251.9 Ma at the start of ...

, including the fossiliferous

Chagrin Shale The Chagrin Shale is a shale geologic formation in the eastern United States that is approximately 365 million years old. The Chagrin Shale is a gray shale that begins thin and deep underground in north-central Ohio. As it proceeds east, the form ...

. It joins the Grand River in Painesville Township in Helen Hazen Wyman Park. With a

watershed Watershed may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, an area of land where surface water converges (North American usage) Music * Watershed Music Festival, an annual country ...

of its tributaries include Cutts, Jenks, Aylworth, East, Gordon and Kellogg Creeks. It has previously been known as Bigg Creek, and West Creek. Big Creek flows through a number of parks, and is known for its fishing of

smallmouth bass The smallmouth bass (''Micropterus dolomieu'') is a species of freshwater fish in the Centrarchidae, sunfish family (biology), family (Centrarchidae) of the order (biology), order Centrarchiformes. It is the type species of its genus ''Micropterus ...

, and

steelhead trout Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or Columbia River redband trout (''O. m. gairdneri'', also called redband steelhead). Steelhead are native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacif ...

that spawn in the creek.

History

Although now an area for recreation including hiking, fishing and camping the Big Creek valley was once a place of industrial activity with saw mills, iron furnaces and a leather tannery. One of the mills was owned by Eber Howe a local newspaper editor and

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was Kingdom of France, France in 1315, but it was later used ...

, who used the mill as a "station" on the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was an organized network of secret routes and safe houses used by freedom seekers to escape to the abolitionist Northern United States and Eastern Canada. Enslaved Africans and African Americans escaped from slavery ...

for slaves who were escaping to Canada by crossing

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( ) is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest avera ...

at Painesville. As the route allowed the slaves to reach liberty, the mill became known as Liberty Hollow. Pease Hollow (now at the corner of Cascade Road and Girdled Road) was the site of a mill that was built by David Pease and used to power lathes and tools for turning wood to make furniture & small wares. Griswold Hollow (now Clark Road from Robinson Road to the Concord Township Line) was the site of a small sandstone quarry (along Jenks Creek) that was noted in a Geological Survey of the area in 1912.

Flora and Fauna

Big Creek traverses three nearly contiguous forested parks. The terrain is undulating and dissected by many small tributary streams with steep banks. In some places, the creek cuts through 40 to 50 feet of till and provides scenic overlooks. The wetter lowland areas near the creek are home to sycamore and cottonwood trees while the better drained hilltops are generally home to a Beech-Maple forest interspersed with patches of predominantly red oak, hemlock, and hickory trees. Wildflowers including trilliums and bluebells are abundant in the spring. The forests are home to abundant white tailed deer and turkeys. Red, gray, black, flying, and fox squirrels, racoons, possum, foxes and coyotes are also frequently seen. Black bears have been reported in nearby areas. Kingfishers and wood ducks can be spotted along the creek, and swallows make nests in the banks that overlook open areas. Numerous types of woodpeckers can be spotted or heard in the forest, including pileated, red bellied, hairy, and downy.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Geauga County, Ohio Rivers of Lake County, Ohio Rivers of Ohio

History

Flora and Fauna

See also

References