Wikipedia:Today's featured article/October 19, 2007



Larrys Creek is a 22.9 mi long tributary of the West Branch Susquehanna River in Lycoming County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. A part of the Chesapeake Bay drainage basin, the Larrys Creek watershed drains 89.1 sqmi in six townships and a borough. The creek flows south from the dissected Allegheny Plateau to the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians through sandstone, limestone, and shale from the Devonian, Mississippian, and Pennsylvanian periods. The first recorded inhabitants were the Susquehannocks, followed by the Lenape and other tribes. The Great Shamokin Path crossed the creek near its mouth, where Larry Burt, the first settler, (for whom Larrys Creek is named) also lived by 1769. In the 19th century, the creek and its watershed were a center of the lumber and other industries, including 53 sawmills, grist mills, leather tanneries, coal and iron mines. No other stream in the country had so many sawmills in so small a territory. For transportation, a plank road ran along much of the creek for decades, and two "paper railroads" were planned, but never built. As of 2006, the Larrys Creek watershed is 83.1% forest and 15.7% agricultural (in marked contrast to the 19th century's clear-cut land). (more...)

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