Crooked Creek is a stream in

Bollinger Bollinger () is a French Champagne house, a producer of luxury sparkling wines from the Champagne (wine region), Champagne region. They produce several labels of Champagne (wine), Champagne under the Bollinger name, including the vintage ''Vieil ...

and Cape Girardeau counties of southeast

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

. It is a tributary to the Headwater Diversion Channel. The stream

headwaters The headwater of a river or stream is the geographical point of its beginning, specifically where surface runoff water begins to accumulate into a flowing channel of water. A river or stream into which one or many tributary rivers or streams flo ...

arise in Bollinger County at the confluence of Henson Branch and Reagan Branch at and an elevation of approximately 790 feet. The stream flows south passing under

Missouri Route A A supplemental route is a state secondary road in the U.S. state of Missouri, designated with letters. Supplemental routes were various roads within the state which the Missouri Department of Transportation was given in 1952 to maintain in addi ...

one mile west of Tallent. It meanders southward passing the communities of Grisham, Bessville and Glenallen where it turns eastward paralleling

Missouri Route 34 Route 34 is a highway in southeastern Missouri. Its eastern terminus is at the Illinois state line on the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau where it overlaps Route 74. Its western terminus is at U.S. Route 60 (US 60) near Van Buren. Th ...

passing under

Missouri Route 51 Route 51 is a highway in southeastern Missouri. Its northern terminus is the Illinois state line near Chester, Illinois; its southern terminus is at the Arkansas state line northwest of Piggott, Arkansas. It continues into Illinois as Ill ...

between Marble Hill and Lutesville. The stream flows past the community of Laflin, enters Cape Girardeau County and turns south as it passes the Lake Girardeau Conservation Area. It passes under

Missouri Route U A supplemental route is a state secondary road in the U.S. state of Missouri, designated with letters. Supplemental routes were various roads within the state which the Missouri Department of Transportation was given in 1952 to maintain in addit ...

and enters the Diversion Channel two miles southwest of

Whitewater Whitewater forms in the context of rapids, in particular, when a river's Stream gradient, gradient changes enough to generate so much turbulence that air is trapped within the water. This forms an unstable current that foam, froths, making t ...

at and an elevation of approximately 350 feet. The stream was named due to its crooked course. The stream originally was a tributary to the Whitewater River prior to the creation of the Diversion Channel. The name predates 1818 and

Henry Schoolcraft Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (March 28, 1793 – December 10, 1864) was an American geographer, geologist, and ethnologist, noted for his early studies of Native American cultures, as well as for his 1832 expedition to the source of the Mississippi ...

mentioned it in his journals.''Bollinger County Place Names, 1928-1945'', State Historical Society of Missouri
/ref>

References

Rivers of Bollinger County, Missouri Rivers of Cape Girardeau County, Missouri Rivers of Missouri {{CapeGirardeauCountyMO-river-stub