Cayuga Creek is a small
stream
A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a strea ...
in
western New York
Western New York (WNY) is the westernmost region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The eastern boundary of the region is not consistently defined by state agencies or those who call themselves "Western New Yorkers". Almost all so ...
, United States, with stretches in both
Erie County and
Wyoming County.
The creek enters Buffalo Creek in the northwest corner of the
Town of West Seneca in Erie County, just upstream from the
New York State Thruway
The New York State Thruway (officially the Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway and colloquially "the Thruway") is a system of controlled-access toll roads spanning within the U.S. state of New York. It is operated by the New York State Thruway ...
crossing. At that point, Buffalo Creek becomes the
Buffalo River and flows into
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 ...
near
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...
.
The creek is named after the
Cayuga nation, one of the constituent members of the
Iroquois Confederacy
The Iroquois ( ), also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the Endonym and exonym, endonym Haudenosaunee ( ; ) are an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Ind ...
.
Cities and settlements
The
watershed of Cayuga Creek includes the towns of
Alden,
Cheektowaga,
Elma,
Lancaster, and
Marilla in
Erie County and the towns of
Bennington and
Sheldon in
Wyoming County. Village centers along Cayuga Creek include
Lancaster and
Depew.
A
sewage treatment
Sewage treatment is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable to discharge to the surrounding environment or an intended reuse application, thereby preventing water p ...
facility in the Town of Cheektowaga discharges into Cayuga Creek upstream of Borden Road. Downstream from Borden Road the creek runs along the Indian Road
landfill
A landfill is a site for the disposal of waste materials. It is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of waste with daily, intermediate and final covers only began in the 1940s. In the past, waste was ...
.
Parks and history
Cayuga Creek runs through the Lancaster Country Club and
Como Lake Park in the Town of Lancaster. The Lancaster Country Club diverts some creek water for golf course irrigation.
In Como Lake Park, the creek is dammed upstream of Lake Avenue. Farther downstream the creek is an important feature in Stiglmeier Park in the Town of Cheektowaga.
After Cayuga Creek flooded the Village of Lancaster twice in the early 1940s,
protective
dikes
Dyke or dike may refer to:
General uses
* Dyke (slang), a slang word meaning "lesbian"
* Dike (geology), formations of magma or sediment that cut through and across the layering of adjacent rocks
* Dike (mythology), ''Dikē'', the Greek goddess ...
were constructed.
See also
*
List of rivers of New York
References
Rivers of New York (state)
Rivers of Erie County, New York
Rivers of Wyoming County, New York
Tributaries of Lake Erie
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