Little Dry Creek is a short tributary of the

South Platte River The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River. Flowing through the U.S. states of Colorado and Nebraska, it is itself a major river of the American Midwest and the American Southwest/Mountain West. It ...

, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
, accessed March 25, 2011 in

Arapahoe County Arapahoe County may refer to: *Arapahoe County, Colorado *Arapahoe County, Kansas Territory Arapahoe County was a county of Kansas Territory in the United States that existed from August 25, 1855, until Kansas's admission into the Union on January ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...

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., ...

. The creek drains a suburban area south of

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

. It rises in

Centennial {{other uses, Centennial (disambiguation), Centenary (disambiguation) A centennial, or centenary in British English, is a 100th anniversary or otherwise relates to a century, a period of 100 years. Notable events Notable centennial events at a ...

, west of

I-25 Interstate 25 (I-25) is a major Interstate Highway in the western United States. It is primarily a north–south highway, serving as the main route through New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. I-25 stretches from I-10 at Las Cruces, New Mexic ...

, and flows generally northwest into Englewood. It has historically been used for

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been devel ...

and feeds an aqueduct that runs parallel to it. The creek flows into South Platte just south of West Dartmouth Avenue approximately two tenths of a mile west of its intersection with Santa Fe Drive which is US 85. The Little Dry Creek Trail intersects the Highline Canal Trail in

Cherry Hills Village The City of Cherry Hills Village is a home rule municipality located in Arapahoe County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 6,442 at the 2020 United States Census. Cherry Hills Village is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, C ...

. The mouth of the creek is noted as the location of the first significant

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

discovery in present-day Colorado. In the first week of July 1858,

Green Russell William Greeneberry "Green" Russell (1818–1877) was an American prospector and miner. Early life Green Russell was born in South Carolina but moved with his family to Georgia as a small child. His father James Russell engaged in gold mining dur ...

and his brothers discovered a gold pocket that yielded several hundred dollars' worth of gold.Elma Dill Russell Spencer, Green Russell and Gold, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1966, 57 The discovery set off the

Colorado Gold Rush The Pike's Peak Gold Rush (later known as the Colorado Gold Rush) was the boom in gold prospecting and mining in the Pike's Peak Country of western Kansas Territory and southwestern Nebraska Territory of the United States that began in July 185 ...

in the following year.

References

Colorado Mining Boom Rivers of Colorado Rivers of Arapahoe County, Colorado Englewood, Colorado Tributaries of the Platte River {{Colorado-river-stub

See also

References