Cobbs Creek
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Cobbs Creek | |
|---|---|
| Country | USA |
| State | Pennsylvania |
| Counties | Philadelphia, Montgomery, Delaware |
| Major cities | Philadelphia, Upper Darby, Darby, Millbourne |
| Length | 30 mi (48 km) |
| Watershed | 100 sq mi (259 km²) |
| Discharge at | Darby |
| - average | 1,650 cu ft/s (47 m³/s) |
| - maximum | 50,200 cu ft/s (1,422 m³/s) |
| - minimum | 195 cu ft/s (6 m³/s) |
| Discharge elsewhere | |
| - Darby | 1,620 cu ft/s (46 m³/s) |
| Source | Cobbs Creek |
| - location | Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, USA |
| - coordinates | |
| - elevation | 1,540 ft (469 m) |
| Mouth | Darby Creek |
| - location | Darby, Pennsylvania, USA |
| - coordinates | |
| - elevation | 0 ft (0 m) |
| Major tributaries | |
| - left | Naylors Run, Indian Creek, Mingo Creek |
| - right | Thomas Run Creek, Paschall Creek |
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Darby Creek watershed
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Cobbs Creek is a tributary of Darby Creek in Delaware County, Pennsylvania in the United States. It used to be called "Karakung" by Native Americans and there were a few mills established around the portion of the river located along Karakung Drive, in Haverford Township.
It forms an approximate border between Montgomery County and Delaware County. After Cobbs Creek passes underneath Township Line Road (U.S. Route 1), it forms the border between Philadelphia County and Delaware County. It later joins Darby Creek before flowing into the Delaware River.
Contents |
[edit] Recreation
Where Cobbs Creek borders Philadelphia, it is surrounded by Cobbs Creek Park; a major section of Philadelphia's Fairmount Park System, the largest urban park in the country. Cobbs Creek Park contains three playgrounds: Cobbs Creek Recreation Center at Cobbs Creek Parkway and Spruce Street, Granahan playground at 65th and Callowhill streets, and Charles Papa Playground, a part of Morris Park in Overbrook, just north of Cobbs Creek Golf Course. For many in West Philadelphia, Cobbs Creek is the primary hiking and recreation attraction. Offering swimming, golf, ball fields, tracks, tennis and basketball courts, ice and roller hockey rinks, and even campgrounds, Cobbs Creek Park is central to fitness and recreation in the region. The park is also extremely popular with families during summer weekends and holidays as a location for picnics, barbecues, family reunions and parties of all types due to its numerous outdoor attractions and abundance of picnic spaces.
[edit] Community Impact
For many West Philadelphia and Upper Darby children, Cobbs Creek is their first introduction to wooded greenspaces and fresh water ecosystems. Local schools have instituted service learning activities to conduct water quality studies to track pollution levels to support conservation activities in the creek and surrounding parks. The varied wildlife including various regional birds, raccoons, opossums, spotted deer, wild turkey, rabbits, and in recent history even a mountain lion, Cobbs Creek Park is a valued resource for the West Philadelphia communities that surround it.
Plans for an expressway up the Cobbs Creek valley designated I-695 began as early as 1930. Anticipated as part of a five mile parkway system around Philadelphia, Cobbs Creek Expressway which would have begun at I-95 near Essington and connected with another expressway at Whitby Avenue in West Philadelphia, were finally abandoned in the mid-1970s as a result of community objections.
[edit] Tributaries
[edit] Naylors Run Creek
Runs underground in Upper Darby from Sherbrook Blvd. to Walnut Park Drive, where it drains into Cobbs Creek. Thousands of feet of Naylor's Run were channeled into underground culverts to facilitate commercial and residential development in the filled land above the pipes.
[edit] Indian Creek
Originating near Montgomery County at Rt.1 running to the Haddington neighborhood of Philadelphia, the east and west branches of Indian Creek joined in what is now Morris Park, at the intersection of 69th Street and Haverford and Lansdowne Avenues. The most notable feature here being the Cobbs Creek Golf Course and Karakung Golf Course.
[edit] Thomas Run Creek
Completely obliterated and converted into a sewer, the largest tributary of Cobbs Creek, once ran from about 53rd and Walnut streets to Cobbs Creek at about 60th Street.
[edit] Paschall Creek
[edit] Mingo Creek
[edit] References
- Images of America:Haverford Township by the Haverford Township Historical Society ISBN 0-7385-1336-9
- Cobb's Creek in the Days of the Old Powder Mill
- Philly H2O
