Wildcat Creek (Indiana)

Wildcat Creek is a tributary of the Wabash River in north-central Indiana. The stream is 84 miles (135 km) long[1] and drains an area of 804.2 square miles (2,083 km2).[2] Wildcat Creek consists of three main forks-North, South, and Middle. All forks flow in a general east-west direction through varied topography and land uses, including cropland, pasture, forest and developed areas.

Wildcat Creek at Foster Park, Kokomo

The major tributaries of the Wildcat are the Little Wildcat Creek and the Kokomo Creek. This creek would be known as a river in most areas of the United States due to its width. According to statistics from the USGS station near Lafayette, Indiana, Wildcat Creek has an annual discharge of 815 cubic feet per second.[3]

In November 1812, an American military force was defeated in the Battle of Wild Cat Creek, sometimes known as "Spur's Defeat".[4]

The Wildcat travels through Greentown, Kokomo and Burlington before joining the Wabash River near Lafayette. Just west of Greentown, the creek becomes the Kokomo Reservoir. The Wildcat Guardians, a private environmental/recreational organization, works to keep the creek free of litter and debris.[5]

Wildcat Creek is also a Group 5 waterway below dams in Kokomo, and due to high mercury and PCB content, fish are not to be consumed west of the dam.

In February 2014, the Wildcat Creek was featured on CBS Evening News for its ice dam jams, because of the frigid winter season.[6]

See also

References
  1. U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map, accessed May 19, 2011
  2. U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset, area data covering Wildcat Creek watershed, 8-digit Hydrologic Unit Code 05120107. The National Map, retrieved 2015-10-24
  3. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/in/nwis/uv/?site_no=03335000&PARAmeter_cd=00065,00060,62614,00010
  4. Wildcat Creek history
  5. Wildcat Guardians
  6. CBS News: Massive ice dams jamming rivers, several states on alert for floods

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