Crooked Creek is a

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

of Kitchen Creek in

Luzerne County, Pennsylvania Luzerne County is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and is water. It is Northeaste ...

, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Fairmount Township. The watershed of the creek has an area of and there is one named tributary. The creek is considered to be

Class A Wild Trout Waters Class A Wild Trout Waters are the highest biomass class given to streams in Pennsylvania by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. They are considered to contain the highest-quality naturally reproducing trout populations in Pennsylvania. The ...

and a portion of it flows through

Ricketts Glen State Park Ricketts Glen State Park is a List of Pennsylvania state parks, Pennsylvania state park on 13,193 acres (5,280 ha) in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, Columbia, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, Luzerne, and Sullivan County, Pennsylvania, Sulliva ...

. Wisconsinan Till, Wisconsinan Outwash, and alluvium can be found in its vicinity.

Course

Crooked Creek begins in a

pond A pond is a small, still, land-based body of water formed by pooling inside a depression (geology), depression, either naturally or artificiality, artificially. A pond is smaller than a lake and there are no official criteria distinguishing ...

at the base of North Mountain, just west of the community of Ripple and not far from

in Fairmount Township. The creek flows southwest for several hundred feet, crossing

Pennsylvania Route 118 Pennsylvania Route 118 (PA 118) is a state route located in northeastern Pennsylvania. The western terminus of the route is at Pennsylvania Route 405, PA 405 in Hughesville, Pennsylvania, Hughesville. The eastern terminus is at Penn ...

. It then turns west-southwest for more than a mile, its valley gradually deepening. It crosses Bethel Hill Road and receives an unnamed tributary from the

left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * ''Left'' (Helmet album), 2023 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relativ ...

. The creek eventually turns south and after a few tenths of a mile, reaches its confluence with Kitchen Creek. Crooked Creek joins Kitchen Creek upstream of its mouth.

Hydrology, geography and geology

The concentration of

alkalinity Alkalinity (from ) is the capacity of water to resist Freshwater acidification, acidification. It should not be confused with base (chemistry), basicity, which is an absolute measurement on the pH scale. Alkalinity is the strength of a buffer s ...

in the waters of Crooked Creek is 7 milligrams per liter. The elevation near the

mouth A mouth also referred to as the oral is the body orifice through which many animals ingest food and animal communication#Auditory, vocalize. The body cavity immediately behind the mouth opening, known as the oral cavity (or in Latin), is also t ...

of Crooked Creek is above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

. The elevation of the creek's

source Source may refer to: Research * Historical document * Historical source * Source (intelligence) or sub source, typically a confidential provider of non open-source intelligence * Source (journalism), a person, publication, publishing institute ...

is between . For much of its length, Crooked Creek flows through Wisconsinan Till, Wisconsinan Outwash, and

alluvium Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...

. The Wisconsinian Till is a

glacial till image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...

that is more than thick. The Wisconsinian Outwash consists of stratified

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is usually defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural ...

and

gravel Gravel () is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally on Earth as a result of sedimentation, sedimentary and erosion, erosive geological processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gr ...

and ranges from to more than thick. The alluvium contains stratified

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension (chemistry), suspension with water. Silt usually ...

, sand, and gravel, and is typically more than thick.

Bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid rock that lies under loose material ( regolith) within the crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface material. An exposed portion of bed ...

made of

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...

and

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

can also be found in the vicinity of the creek in its lower reaches. The Wisconsinian Till is prevalent in the creek's upper reaches.

Watershed

The

watershed Watershed may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, an area of land where surface water converges (North American usage) Music * Watershed Music Festival, an annual country ...

of Crooked Creek has an area of . The creek is in the

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on Mar ...

quadrangles of Red Rock and Sweet Valley. Its mouth is in the former and its source is in the latter. The lower and middle reaches of the creek are in Ricketts Glen State Park.

History

Crooked Creek was entered into the

Geographic Names Information System The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database of name and location information about more than two million physical and cultural features, encompassing the United States and its territories; the Compact of Free Association, asso ...

on August 2, 1979. Its identifier in the Geographic Names Information System is 1192314.

Biology

Crooked Creek is considered by the

Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is an independent state agency responsible for the regulation of all fishing and boating in the state of Pennsylvania within the United States of America. Unlike many U.S. states, Pennsylvania has a sepa ...

to be Class A Wild Trout Waters for

brook trout The brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the char genus ''Salvelinus'' of the salmon family Salmonidae native to Eastern North America in the United States and Canada. Two ecological forms of brook trout h ...

. The creek holds this designation for its entire length. The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission describes Class A Wild Trout Waters as being able to "support a population of naturally produced trout of sufficient size and abundance to support a long-term and rewarding sport fishery" and also not being stocked with fish.

References