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:
“The leaves are all dead on the ground,
Save those that the oak is keeping”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“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)
“The only law was that enforced by the Creek Lighthorsemen and the U.S. deputy marshals who paid rare and brief visits; or the “two volumes of common law” that every man carried strapped to his thighs.”
—State of Oklahoma, U.S. relief program (1935-1943)