Horse Creek (Kentucky)

Horse Creek is a creek a tributary of Goose Creek river in Clay County, Kentucky. It is 1.5 mile upstream of Manchester on Goose at an altitude of 800 ft.

The Cumberland and Manchester Railway built a spur line up the creek, and it has been the site of operations of at least eight coal mining companies. The name comes, according to local tradition, from the proliferation of "horseweed" in the creek valley.

Tributaries and post offices

 * Its major tributaries are:
 * Muddy Gap Branch 0.25 mile upstream at an altitude of 805 ft
 * Crawfish Branch 2 mile upstream at an altitude of 820 ft, mouth 37.12025°N, -83.7794°W
 * PawPaw Branch 2.75 mile upstream at an altitude of 830 ft, mouth 37.12184°N, -83.78974°W
 * Yager Branch 0.5 mile upstream, mouth 37.1275°N, -83.7943°W
 * Hurd Branch 3.15 mile upstream at an altitude of 850 ft
 * Webb Branch 3.75 mile upstream at an altitude of 865 ft
 * Johnson Branch 4.25 mile upstream at an altitude of 885 ft, mouth 37.11026°N, -83.81139°W
 * House Branch 4.75 mile upstream at an altitude of 900 ft, mouth 37.10873°N, -83.82047°W
 * Pigeon Roost Branch 2.5 mi long and 6.75 mile upstream at an altitude of 950 ft, mouth 37.09918°N, -83.84582°W

General
In 1918, E. G. Hurd had a mine 0.25 mile upstream on the eponymous Hurd Branch.

Paw Paw Branch and Siebert
The Paw Paw Branch is the location of Siebert town, railroad depot, and erstwhile post office.

Thomas Sibert had a mine 0.25 mile upstream on Paw Paw.

Crawfish Branch and Hima post office
The mouth of the Crawfish Branch is the location of the Crawfish post office, established on March 29, 1907, by postmaster Hugh Gregory. It is 3 mi south of Manchester and the creek that it serves is 2 mi long. However, the station on the spur line, a loading depot for the coal mining operations, was named Hima. On May 4, 1920, then postmaster David Gregory renamed the post office to the name of the railway stop.

Pigeon Roost Branch
The mouth of the Pigeon Roost Branch was the original location of the Pigeon Roost post office, established on 1888-05-11 by storekeeper and postmaster Jefferson D. Rowland. Local oral history is that they were named after a large flock of pigeons roosting on timber. The postoffice moved around to several locations along Horse Creek and Kentucky Route 80 over the years, its name becoming Pigeonroost in 1894, until it closed in 1974, its final location being two miles downstream of Pigeon Roost Creek and 5 mi south-west of Manchester.

Coal
The coal beneath the creek is part of Kentucky's Breathitt Formation.

Pollution caused by the mining operations was measured in 1969. The pH of the river water was 4.2 in Horse Creek itself, and 5.8 in Goose Creek. Fish kills were reported for Goose Creek, and both Goose Creek and downstream South Fork of Kentucky River were occasionally acidic. The problems of acidic outflow and sediment affecting the downstream waters of Goose continued to be reported in 1979.

The Cumberland and Manchester Railway railway spur was built in 1918, contracted to L.L. Richardson for building the road and John C. White for supplying 200000 ft of timber for trestles.