Chiques Creek Explained

Chiques Creek
Source1 Location:	Mount Gretna Heights, Pennsylvania
Mouth Location:	Susquehanna River at Marietta, Pennsylvania
Subdivision Type1:	Country
Subdivision Name1:	Lebanon and Lancaster Counties, Pennsylvania, United States

Chiques Creek (known as Chickies Creek until 2002) is a 31.6adj=midNaNadj=mid^[1] tributary of the Susquehanna River in Lebanon and Lancaster counties, Pennsylvania in the United States.

The source is at an elevation of near Mount Gretna Heights in Lebanon County. The mouth is the confluence with the Susquehanna River at an elevation of at Marietta in Lancaster County.^[2]

Name

The name of the creek comes from the Lenape Chiquesalunga, meaning "place of crayfish".^[3]

The United States Geological Survey Board on Geographic Names has made three official decisions on the name of the creek, deciding it was Chickies Creek in 1896 and 1916 before changing it to Chiques Creek in 2002. The USGS Geographic Names Information System recognizes the following thirteen variant names for the creek: Big Chickies Creek, Big Chiques Creek, Big Chiquesalunga Creek, Chickesalapga Creek, Chickeswalungo Creek, Chickies Creek, Chickisalungo Creek, Chicques Creek, Chikiswalunga Creek, Chikiswalungo Creek, Chiquasatunga Creek, Chiquesatonga Creek, and Chiquesatunga Creek.^[4]

Course and watershed

Chiques Creek flows generally south for its entire course. The Chickies Creek watershed has a total area of and is part of the larger Chesapeake Bay drainage basin. Chiques Creek's major tributary is Little Chiques Creek, entering roughly one mile upstream its mouth. (hence the variant names with Big in them for the main creek).^[5]

Covered bridges

Five covered bridges cross the creek in Lancaster County:

• Shearer's Covered Bridge
• Kauffman's Distillery Covered Bridge
• Schenck's Mill Covered Bridge
• Siegrist's Mill Covered Bridge
• Forry's Mill Covered Bridge

Tributaries

• Donegal Creek
• Little Chiques Creek
• Dellinger Run
• Hife Run
• Boyers Run
• Shearers Creek

See also

• List of rivers of Pennsylvania

Notes and References

1. U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map, accessed August 8, 2011
2. Book: Shaw , Lewis C. . Prepared in Cooperation with the United States Department of the Interior Geological Survey . Pennsylvania Gazetteer of Streams Part II (Water Resources Bulletin No. 16) . 1st . Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Environmental Resources (no ISBN) . Harrisburg, PA.
3. Web site: Indian Names Data Chart . . September 4, 2006 . September 21, 2006 . https://web.archive.org/web/20060921133421/http://www.srbc.net/docs/IndianNamesDataChart.PDF . dead .
4. Web site: . . August 30, 1990 . [{{GNIS3|1171772}} Feature Detail Report for: Chiques Creek ]. September 5, 2006.
5. Web site: Chesapeake Bay Program: Watershed Profiles: The Chickies Creek - At Marietta Watershed . Chesapeake Bay Program Office, 10 Severn Avenue, Suite 109, Annapolis, MD 21403 . September 3, 2006 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110516022346/http://www.chesapeakebay.net/wspv31/(3fwefm55tzka3q45qloiyxbu)/WspAbout.aspx?basno=254&topic=5 . May 16, 2011 . dead .