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Oatka Creek ( ) is the third longest tributary of the Genesee River, located entirely in the Western New York region of the U.S. state of New York. From southern Wyoming County, it flows to the Genesee near Scottsville, draining an area of that includes all or part of 23 towns and villages in Wyoming, Genesee, Livingston and Monroe counties as well. Its name means "leaving the highlands" or "approaching an opening" in Seneca. Like its parent stream it originated during the end of the last Ice Age, as glacial impact on the upper Allegheny Plateau created a rolling landscape streams could gradually erode through, The Oatka carved a deep groove known today as the Oatka Valley, where the upper creek's two major settlements would be established. Native Americans of the Seneca nation established a few settlements along it where clearings arose in the forest. The Revolutionary War's Sullivan Expedition, brought the valley's fertile soil to the attention of the emerging nation, and the region was opened for settlement shortly after the war. For a time the Oatka was called Allan's Creek after the area's first settler, Ebenezer "Indian" Allan. Its waterpower facilitated early 19th-century European settlement of the abundant fertile lands in the Holland Purchase. Today it remains an important regional resource, used for water supply and recreational purposes, and actively protected to assure water quality. It is a popular trout stream, stocked from the oldest fish hatchery in the Western Hemisphere near its mouth. A dam in Le Roy makes the section below it a losing stream, dry during the warm months of the year as the stream flows through subterranean channels. ==Course== Several small streams, some of which ultimately rise to the north at elevations of almost , come together to create the main stem of the creek amid the fields and woodlots on the high plateau just in Gainesville just south of the Warsaw town line, a short distance west of Silver Spring Road. The new stream flows first south a mile, then turns northwest paralleling the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks toward the small hamlet of Rock Glen. There it crosses for the first time New York State Route 19 (NY 19), which it will parallel closely for much of the rest of its length. To the west of Rock Glen, it passes through the narrow gorge that gave it its name, emerging at another hamlet, Newburg, at the head of the Oatka Valley it follows for the rest of its run. Again crossing under Route 19, it has descended since its rise. From Newburg it meanders northwest, then north, staying close to the highway on the valley floor. Several miles further downstream it enters Warsaw, the county seat. It goes under Route 19 again and trends to the west, flowing under U.S. Route 20A to pass to the west of Warsaw High School and its athletic fields. North of the village the valley widens, staying generally level. The creek and NY 19 cross again amid large cultivated fields. The valley begins to angle northeasterly towards Wyoming, which the Oatka bypasses to the southeast into a large wooded area. It then passes through the largest wetlands along it course. North of that it crosses Route 19 again as that road turns eastward briefly. The two return to each other when they cross into Genesee County at Pavilion, where NY 63 crosses as they resume a northward heading, and there is another significant wetlands area. In another small wood two miles (3.2 km) north of Pavilion, US 20 crosses. The creek bends west, reaching its greatest distance from Route 19, then north-northeast back to the highway's vicinity. It enters the village of Le Roy on a northeast course, crossing Route 19 again as it widens into a reservoir behind the dam just south of NY 5. It narrows again north of the village towards Buttermilk Falls and the section that flows underground in warm, dry weather. The valley here is broad, its walls now long and gently sloped instead of steep and short. After going over the falls, marking the Onondaga Escarpment, it turns east, leaving NY 19 a mile south of the New York State Thruway. This geologically distinct section is known as the lower Oatka. It dips south, north and then south again through a largely wooded area as it approaches Genesee Country Village and enters Monroe County near Mumford. After bypassing that hamlet to the north, NY 383 parallels on the north and the CSX rail line across New York on the south, as the creek reaches Oatka Creek Park, a large tract of former farmland to its south. Here both road and rail are to the north of the stream, widening again. Beyond the park it enters an area of predominantly farmland again as it passes south of Scottsville, where NY 251 enters the village by bridging the Oatka. A mile further along, it empties into the Genesee. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Oatka Creek」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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