MAPLE CREEK MEMORIES
THE CREEK
The valley is about one and one-half to two miles long, with a flat plain which runs from fifty feet wide to as much as three hundred feet wide in some places. The plain is divided by a creek of usually small consequence, as it normally lies next to the hill on one side of the valley or the other. In truth, the creek crosses from one side to the other about five times i its course down the valley until it turns north to lie beside the state highway for a spell and then make an easterly turn to run into the river. The stream is called Maple Creek.
Maple Creek starts way up on the east face of Maple Mountain where it gathers water from Maple and two adjoining heights, then flows down the mountain until it reaches the upper part of the valley. In normal weather, after rushing off the mountain, it becomes a shallow and rather sluggish watercourse. Coming out of Washington Hollow, the creek is joined immediately by another, which just about doubles the volume, as this creek drains both Oak Hill and Ash Hollow.
Small rills and runs join the creek from the surrounding hills and valleys for about the next three-quarters of a mile or so, and then a middling sized creek joins in from up Johns Hollow. At this juncture, the creek has assumed a year-round flow except in extremely dry weather. Another largish creek flowing off Finney Hill joins the creek about a half-mile farther on downstream. From this junction, it is a short quarter-mile out of the valley and around a hill to run beside the hard road, and then wend its way to the river.
There were about sixteen houses along the creek from the hard road to the head of the hollow. As a child, I knew everyone in the hollow, calling some Mister and Missus, and others by their given name or nickname. As well, I knew every turn and almost every rock in that creek as it wound through the hollow. A very few places, though, I never went. The bank was too high, it was near a place where we didn't get along too well with the folks who lived there--any number of reasons, but not many places I didn't know.
There were six footlogs and six bridges utilized for either carrying the road over the creek, carrying people over the creek or carrying vehicles and people over the creek to someone's home. Two of the bridges on the road itself were constructed of railroad ties, creosoted and interwoven for supports and then planked with the same railroad ties. The other bridge on the road was a concrete high-walled bridge built by the WPA at the time the road was built back in the 1930's. Until that time, the road was simply a mud track into the valley, and the road ran through the creek where the bridges were built.
The other bridges were of various construction, but always wooden. One had been built by the WPA to carry traffic up Finney Creek. It was of railroad tie support bases and had two by twelve board planking for the surface with oaken beams supporting the planks. The other two bridges were simple oversized footlog type construction with two inch planking for the surface. The footlogs were large or small, with usually, two long large diameter logs placed on a platform or rock on each side of the stream and then one inch planking driven into them with nails for a walking surface. Not a true footlog--but more serviceable.
Our house sat on stilts on the hillside about three-eighths of a mile from the hard road. The stilts were on the downhill side of the house, the rear of the house seated in the dirt of the hillside. There was a large front porch and a narrow side porch, with another large porch on the opposite end from the front porch. No porch was possible, of course, on the hill side of the house. Access to the house from the dirt road that led up the hollow was a path cut into the hillside at the front end of the house, and tumble-down steps that had really tumbled down at the back of the house. To clarify--the the front of the house faced the woods above the road downstream, the stilt side of the house faced the road, the back of the house faced the woods upstream and the rear of the house faced the hillside.
The hollow road ran just beneath our house. It seemed that way anyhow, when one of the larger trucks went up or down the road. The road itself was one built by the WPA back in the 1930's and was surfaced with sandrock, supposedly. Truthfully, it was mostly mud. When it rained it was muddy, when it didn't rain it was dusty. There was little 'in between' except when it was just beginning to dry out. Then there were enormous puddles surrounded by small patches of drying sandy mud.
The road was elevated as it passed our house. It was about seven or eight feet above the level of the bottomland which led to the creek, about a hundred yards away. The road continued to climb until it passed the house just up the road from ours and then began a descent to creekbank level about a quarter-mile farther on.
As the creek, across this field, passed the house it was about fifteen to twenty feet wide and varied in depth from practically none to as deep as two or three feet, in its natural flow. In those days, we would make dams on the creek for swimming holes at some of the deeper places, if there were enough sand and gravel present to do so. One of these pools, directly across from the house, was about forty to fifty feet long and some two to three feet deep. With a two foot dam, we had a swimming pool of some four to five feet in depth.
We also used these pools for fishing, of course. As it was so far up the creek from the river, there were only minnows, suckers and chubs, but a few of them grew to respectable size. In very dry months, when digging for worms became a fruitless chore, we'd catch crawfish, tear off their tails and use the meat of the tails for bait. It worked just as well as shrimp and cost a whole lot less.
There were three other largish pools close by. One was up the creek where it made a transit across the valley from the north to south side. Midway of the valley in this transit a large pool developed that was somewhere between five and six feet deep and ran for about fifty to sixty feet in length. This was a prime fishing spot. There was always water in this pool, even though in really dry spells it got down to where it was only a foot or so, there was still water there.
Another was also up the creek but just a short way, maybe two hundred yards above our swimming pool. It was about a three feet deep pool at the upper end, anchored by a huge rock, and tapered down to a foot-and-a-half or so at the lower end and eventually petered out into a sandy-bottomed couple of inches. The attraction here was the large rock. We would sit on it and watch the fish and snakes in the water. This pool was covered overhead by a roof of beech branches and so stayed cool even on hot summer days--as long as there was water in the pool,
The third was a real marvel to us. It was perhaps a couple hundred feet below our swimming pool. A huge log had at some time in the past lodged itself from bank to bank across the creek. The log itself was about four feet thick and was lying just below the surface of the water (the creek here would normally have been three or four feet lower but the log had dammed up sand and gravel behind it to where the creek ran level up to the log, normally just a few inches over top of the log.) The creek water poured over top of the log and fell some three feet into a sparkling pool that was about three or four feet deep itself. Fishing was always great here as long as the water was clear or only slightly milky.
From here, as the creek descended farther into the valley, it made a sharp turn back to the north. Right in the middle of this bend, a privy sat on the bank, propped up up on posts so that the filth would run out into the creek, and the owners would not have to worry about digging a new pit every few years. This was not unusual, it happened on every creek in the area, and probably throughout the region. We were smart enough to have checked out upstream and this was the first and only one from the start of the creek until it passed our place. After the bend, the creek ran straight, making another transit from south to north. Midway of this transit, there was a junction with Finney Creek flowing in from the south. The creek then made a sharp right turn (south) and aligned itself with the hill on the north side of the valley (the same hill our house sat upon.) The creek then ran under a bridge that moved traffic up Finney Hollow, a much larger creek than it had been before. The water level under this bridge was some ten or twelve feet below the surface of the bridge (I know for I fell off a bicycle crossing the bridge and fell to the creek bottom one time. I still have a scar on my thigh from that fall.)
and was only about ten or twelve inches deep.
The creek then followed the south side of the hill, curving with it to go out of the hollow underneath the concrete bridge which was located about one hundred feet from the hard road. About a half-mile farther on it was joined by the north branch of the creek and then bore eastward under the highway bridge and joined the river after about a mile of additional flow.
The valley is about one and one-half to two miles long, with a flat plain which runs from fifty feet wide to as much as three hundred feet wide in some places. The plain is divided by a creek of usually small consequence, as it normally lies next to the hill on one side of the valley or the other. In truth, the creek crosses from one side to the other about five times i its course down the valley until it turns north to lie beside the state highway for a spell and then make an easterly turn to run into the river. The stream is called Maple Creek.
Maple Creek starts way up on the east face of Maple Mountain where it gathers water from Maple and two adjoining heights, then flows down the mountain until it reaches the upper part of the valley. In normal weather, after rushing off the mountain, it becomes a shallow and rather sluggish watercourse. Coming out of Washington Hollow, the creek is joined immediately by another, which just about doubles the volume, as this creek drains both Oak Hill and Ash Hollow.
Small rills and runs join the creek from the surrounding hills and valleys for about the next three-quarters of a mile or so, and then a middling sized creek joins in from up Johns Hollow. At this juncture, the creek has assumed a year-round flow except in extremely dry weather. Another largish creek flowing off Finney Hill joins the creek about a half-mile farther on downstream. From this junction, it is a short quarter-mile out of the valley and around a hill to run beside the hard road, and then wend its way to the river.
There were about sixteen houses along the creek from the hard road to the head of the hollow. As a child, I knew everyone in the hollow, calling some Mister and Missus, and others by their given name or nickname. As well, I knew every turn and almost every rock in that creek as it wound through the hollow. A very few places, though, I never went. The bank was too high, it was near a place where we didn't get along too well with the folks who lived there--any number of reasons, but not many places I didn't know.
There were six footlogs and six bridges utilized for either carrying the road over the creek, carrying people over the creek or carrying vehicles and people over the creek to someone's home. Two of the bridges on the road itself were constructed of railroad ties, creosoted and interwoven for supports and then planked with the same railroad ties. The other bridge on the road was a concrete high-walled bridge built by the WPA at the time the road was built back in the 1930's. Until that time, the road was simply a mud track into the valley, and the road ran through the creek where the bridges were built.
The other bridges were of various construction, but always wooden. One had been built by the WPA to carry traffic up Finney Creek. It was of railroad tie support bases and had two by twelve board planking for the surface with oaken beams supporting the planks. The other two bridges were simple oversized footlog type construction with two inch planking for the surface. The footlogs were large or small, with usually, two long large diameter logs placed on a platform or rock on each side of the stream and then one inch planking driven into them with nails for a walking surface. Not a true footlog--but more serviceable.
Our house sat on stilts on the hillside about three-eighths of a mile from the hard road. The stilts were on the downhill side of the house, the rear of the house seated in the dirt of the hillside. There was a large front porch and a narrow side porch, with another large porch on the opposite end from the front porch. No porch was possible, of course, on the hill side of the house. Access to the house from the dirt road that led up the hollow was a path cut into the hillside at the front end of the house, and tumble-down steps that had really tumbled down at the back of the house. To clarify--the the front of the house faced the woods above the road downstream, the stilt side of the house faced the road, the back of the house faced the woods upstream and the rear of the house faced the hillside.
The hollow road ran just beneath our house. It seemed that way anyhow, when one of the larger trucks went up or down the road. The road itself was one built by the WPA back in the 1930's and was surfaced with sandrock, supposedly. Truthfully, it was mostly mud. When it rained it was muddy, when it didn't rain it was dusty. There was little 'in between' except when it was just beginning to dry out. Then there were enormous puddles surrounded by small patches of drying sandy mud.
The road was elevated as it passed our house. It was about seven or eight feet above the level of the bottomland which led to the creek, about a hundred yards away. The road continued to climb until it passed the house just up the road from ours and then began a descent to creekbank level about a quarter-mile farther on.
As the creek, across this field, passed the house it was about fifteen to twenty feet wide and varied in depth from practically none to as deep as two or three feet, in its natural flow. In those days, we would make dams on the creek for swimming holes at some of the deeper places, if there were enough sand and gravel present to do so. One of these pools, directly across from the house, was about forty to fifty feet long and some two to three feet deep. With a two foot dam, we had a swimming pool of some four to five feet in depth.
We also used these pools for fishing, of course. As it was so far up the creek from the river, there were only minnows, suckers and chubs, but a few of them grew to respectable size. In very dry months, when digging for worms became a fruitless chore, we'd catch crawfish, tear off their tails and use the meat of the tails for bait. It worked just as well as shrimp and cost a whole lot less.
There were three other largish pools close by. One was up the creek where it made a transit across the valley from the north to south side. Midway of the valley in this transit a large pool developed that was somewhere between five and six feet deep and ran for about fifty to sixty feet in length. This was a prime fishing spot. There was always water in this pool, even though in really dry spells it got down to where it was only a foot or so, there was still water there.
Another was also up the creek but just a short way, maybe two hundred yards above our swimming pool. It was about a three feet deep pool at the upper end, anchored by a huge rock, and tapered down to a foot-and-a-half or so at the lower end and eventually petered out into a sandy-bottomed couple of inches. The attraction here was the large rock. We would sit on it and watch the fish and snakes in the water. This pool was covered overhead by a roof of beech branches and so stayed cool even on hot summer days--as long as there was water in the pool,
The third was a real marvel to us. It was perhaps a couple hundred feet below our swimming pool. A huge log had at some time in the past lodged itself from bank to bank across the creek. The log itself was about four feet thick and was lying just below the surface of the water (the creek here would normally have been three or four feet lower but the log had dammed up sand and gravel behind it to where the creek ran level up to the log, normally just a few inches over top of the log.) The creek water poured over top of the log and fell some three feet into a sparkling pool that was about three or four feet deep itself. Fishing was always great here as long as the water was clear or only slightly milky.
From here, as the creek descended farther into the valley, it made a sharp turn back to the north. Right in the middle of this bend, a privy sat on the bank, propped up up on posts so that the filth would run out into the creek, and the owners would not have to worry about digging a new pit every few years. This was not unusual, it happened on every creek in the area, and probably throughout the region. We were smart enough to have checked out upstream and this was the first and only one from the start of the creek until it passed our place. After the bend, the creek ran straight, making another transit from south to north. Midway of this transit, there was a junction with Finney Creek flowing in from the south. The creek then made a sharp right turn (south) and aligned itself with the hill on the north side of the valley (the same hill our house sat upon.) The creek then ran under a bridge that moved traffic up Finney Hollow, a much larger creek than it had been before. The water level under this bridge was some ten or twelve feet below the surface of the bridge (I know for I fell off a bicycle crossing the bridge and fell to the creek bottom one time. I still have a scar on my thigh from that fall.)
and was only about ten or twelve inches deep.
The creek then followed the south side of the hill, curving with it to go out of the hollow underneath the concrete bridge which was located about one hundred feet from the hard road. About a half-mile farther on it was joined by the north branch of the creek and then bore eastward under the highway bridge and joined the river after about a mile of additional flow.
posted by tanstaafl | 5:58 AM
2 Comments:
Oh, this is wonderful. It makes me wish for illustrations and a big, heavy book in my lap. It is already looking like a perfect setting for lots of stories :)
Lots of stories, but not too many that directly involve the creek. Although the next one does.
Post a Comment
<< Home