Irondequoit Creek is a
stream in eastern
Monroe County, New York
Monroe County is a county in the Finger Lakes region of the State of New York. The county is along Lake Ontario's southern shore. At the 2020 census, Monroe County's population was 759,443, an increase since the 2010 census. Its county seat an ...
that feeds
Irondequoit Bay
Irondequoit Bay is a large body of water located in northeastern Monroe County, New York. The bay, roughly wide and in length, is fed by Irondequoit Creek to the south and flows into Lake Ontario at its northern end. On average, the surface o ...
. It begins in rural
West Bloomfield in
Ontario County, flowing north into the town of
Mendon in Monroe County. Accumulating a few small tributaries, it twists eastward back into the Ontario County town of
Victor, then back north into Monroe County, where it flows through the towns of
Perinton and
Penfield on its way to the bay. It also skirts the edge of the combined town and village of
East Rochester.
The creek is believed to lie in a valley carved out by a pre-glacial
Genesee River
The Genesee River is a tributary of Lake Ontario flowing northward through the Twin Tiers of Pennsylvania and New York in the United States.
The river provided the original power for the Rochester area's 19th century mills and still provides ...
, which at the time would have flowed into
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border sp ...
where Irondequoit Bay does today. Glacial debris caused the river to be rerouted as the glaciers retreated, leaving only the comparatively small creek (
Rogers 1893).
The first settlements in the town of Penfield sprang up along the creek, as its waters were well suited to mills. The
Daisy Flour Mill, previously a restaurant, was the last of over a dozen mills that once used the creek's waters.
The creek's valley caused a problem for the engineers of the original
Erie Canal
The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly redu ...
, who ultimately had to build the
Great Embankment aqueduct to bridge the valley near
Bushnell's Basin (
Fairchild 1896:134,
Farley 2010,
Schoff:505).
The creek is stocked annually with fish by the
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (informally referred to as NYSDEC, DEC, EnCon or NYSENCON) is a department of New York state government. The department guides and regulates the conservation, improvement, and protection ...
for year-round fishing.
References
*
*
*
*
{{authority control
Rivers of New York (state)
Rivers of Monroe County, New York
Rivers of Ontario County, New York