Sweetwater Creek is a stream in the

Texas Panhandle The Texas Panhandle is a region of the U.S. state of Texas consisting of the northernmost 26 counties in the state. The panhandle is a square-shaped area bordered by New Mexico to the west and Oklahoma to the north and east. It is adjacent to ...

and western Oklahoma. It is a tributary to the

North Fork of the Red River The North Fork Red River, sometimes called simply the "North Fork", is a tributary of the Red River of the South about long, heading along the eastern Caprock Escarpment of the Llano Estacado about southwest of Pampa, Texas.United States Board on ...

. The stream

headwaters The headwaters of a river or stream is the farthest place in that river or stream from its estuary or downstream confluence with another river, as measured along the course of the river. It is also known as a river's source. Definition The ...

arise in northern Gray County, Texas at northeast of Laketon and southeast of

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

at an elevation of 3010 feet. The stream flows southeast into

Wheeler County Wheeler County is the name of several counties in the United States: * Wheeler County, Georgia * Wheeler County, Nebraska * Wheeler County, Oregon * Wheeler County, Texas Wheeler County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of t ...

southwest of Mobeetie and under

Texas State Highway 152 State Highway 152 (SH 152) is a Texas state highway that runs from Dumas east to the Oklahoma state line. The route was originally designated in 1930 between Pampa and Wheeler, but was extended both west (replacing State Highway 209 from Pampa t ...

and U.S. Route 83 and through the southwest corner

Roger Mills County, Oklahoma Roger Mills County is a county located in the western part of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2010 census, the population was 3,647, making it the third-least populous county in Oklahoma. Its county seat is Cheyenne. The county was create ...

, and into

Beckham County, Oklahoma Beckham County is a county located on the western border of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2010 census, the population was 22,119. Its county seat is Sayre. Founded upon statehood in 1907, Beckham County was named for J. C. W. Beckham, ...

, southwest of

Sweetwater, Oklahoma Sweetwater is a town in Beckham and Roger Mills Counties in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It was incorporated in 1998. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 87. History Named for nearby Sweetwater Creek, the town is at the junction of S ...

. The stream turns south and southwest to enter the North Fork of the Red River 2.5 miles from the Oklahoma-Texas line. The confluence is at and an elevation of 1978 ft. The confluence is 6.5 miles northwest of

Erick, Oklahoma Erick ( ) is a city in Beckham County, Oklahoma, United States. It is located west of Sayre, the county seat, and east of the Oklahoma-Texas border. The population was 1,052 at the 2010 census. A post office, originally named Dennis, was est ...

I-40 Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west Interstate Highway running through the south-central portion of the United States. At a length of , it is the third-longest Interstate Highway in the country, after I-90 and I-80. From west to ea ...

. Sweetwater Creek is central to the range of the southern buffalo herd. Along its banks were located favored hunting camps of Plains tribes, such as the

Comanche The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( com, Nʉmʉnʉʉ, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in ...

and

Kiowa Kiowa () people are a Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries,Pritzker 326 and e ...

. The encroachment of American hide hunters at Sweetwater Creek was contested by the Comanche and their Kiowa allies. It figured in the

Red River War The Red River War was a military campaign launched by the United States Army in 1874 to displace the Comanche, Kiowa, Southern Cheyenne, and Arapaho Native American tribes from the Southern Plains, and forcibly relocate the tribes to reservati ...

of 1874, which was a campaign by the US Army to confine Native American tribes on the reservations to minimize conflict between the Americans and Native tribes.

Fort Elliott Fort Elliott was a United States Army post in the Texas Panhandle, operational between 1875 and 1890 and named for Major Joel H. Elliott, a casualty of the Battle of Washita River in 1868. The decision to establish Fort Elliott in what was to b ...

was located on the banks of Sweetwater Creek.Lester Fields Sheffy, ''The Life and Times of Timothy Dwight Hobart, 1855-1935: Colonization of West Texas'' (

Canyon A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency to cu ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

: Panhandle-Plains Historical Society, 1950), p. 137 The town of Mobeetie, Texas, a Native American word meaning "sweet water", and Sweetwater, Oklahoma, are named for the creek.

References

External links

Sweetwater Creek @ the Handbook of Texas Online
* Rivers of Oklahoma Rivers of Texas Tributaries of the Red River of the South Bodies of water of Gray County, Texas Bodies of water of Wheeler County, Texas Bodies of water of Roger Mills County, Oklahoma Bodies of water of Beckham County, Oklahoma {{Oklahoma-river-stub

See also

References

External links