Irondequoit Creek is a

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 eastern

Monroe County, New York Monroe County is a county in the U.S. state of New York, located along Lake Ontario's southern shore. As of 2022, the population was 752,035, according to Census Bureau estimates. Its county seat and largest city is Rochester. The county is ...

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 of ...

. 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 (state), New York in the United States. The river contains several waterfalls in New York at Letchworth State Park and Roch ...

, 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 (state), New York. The Canada–United Sta ...

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 navigability, navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, ...

, 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 protecti ...

for year-round fishing.

References

* * * * {{authority control Rivers of New York (state) Rivers of Monroe County, New York Rivers of Ontario County, New York