Wissahickon Creek - Definition and Overview

Wissahickon Creek is a stream in southeastern Pennsylvania. Rising in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, it runs about 23 miles (37 km) before emptying into the Schuylkill River at Philadelphia. Its watershed covers about 64 square miles (166 km²)

Much of the creek now runs through or next to parkland, with the last few miles running through a deep gorge. The beauty of this area attracted the attention of literary personages like Edgar Allan Poe and John Greenleaf Whittier. The gorge area is now part of the Fairmount Park system in Philadelphia.

The name of the creek comes from the Lenni Lenape language. Industry sprung up along the Wissahickon not long after European settlement, with America's first paper mill set up on one of the Wissahickon's tributaries. A few of the dams built for the mills remain visible today.

External links

• Friends of the Wissahickon website (http://www.fow.org/)
• Wissahickon Valley (http://philaparks.org/wv.htm) page from Friends of Philadelphia Parks