Oak Orchard Creek is a tributary of Lake Ontario in Orleans County, New York in the United States.
Oak Orchard Creek rises south of Oak Orchard Creek Marsh (also called the Alabama Swamp) at the border of Orleans and Genesee Counties. The swamp contains a state reserve, Oak Orchard Wildlife Management Area, and a national reserve, the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge, both of which are known as major stopover points for migratory birds. It was designated a National Natural Landmark in May 1973. The swamp is a result of a partial blockage of the river by glacial drift and an outcrop of limestone and dolostone known as the Lockport Formation which forms the Niagara Escarpment.
After flowing through the swamp, it flows northward, across the escarpment in a series of waterfalls and rapids at Shelby Center, thence passing through the Village of Medina to the small Glenwood Lake north of the village. The creek departs the town of Ridgeway at its northeast corner, cuts through the northwest corner of the town of Gaines, and widens before entering the town of Carlton. The widest part is now known as Waterport Pond (Lake Alice), and the hamlet of Waterport is on the south bank. A dam at the northeast end of the pond controls water flow.
Oak Orchard Creek narrows again and passes underneath Route 18 and the Lake Ontario State Parkway before entering Lake Ontario at Point Breeze where Oak Orchard State Marine Park is located.
Read more about Oak Orchard Creek: Environment
Famous quotes containing the words oak, orchard and/or creek:
“Below me trees unnumbered rise,
Beautiful in various dyes:
The gloomy pine, the poplar blue,
The yellow beech, the sable yew,
The slender fir that taper grows,
The sturdy oak with broad-spread boughs.”
—John Dyer (1699–1758)
“Some spring the white man came, built him a house, and made a clearing here, letting in the sun, dried up a farm, piled up the old gray stones in fences, cut down the pines around his dwelling, planted orchard seeds brought from the old country, and persuaded the civil apple-tree to blossom next to the wild pine and the juniper, shedding its perfume in the wilderness. Their old stocks still remain.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It might be seen by what tenure men held the earth. The smallest stream is mediterranean sea, a smaller ocean creek within the land, where men may steer by their farm bounds and cottage lights. For my own part, but for the geographers, I should hardly have known how large a portion of our globe is water, my life has chiefly passed within so deep a cove. Yet I have sometimes ventured as far as to the mouth of my Snug Harbor.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)