[Wikipedia] October 19: Larrys Creek

[Faraaz Damji]

   Larrys Creek is a 22.9 mile (36.9 km) long tributary of
   the West Branch Susquehanna River in Lycoming County in the U.S. state
   of Pennsylvania.  A part of the Chesapeake Bay drainage basin, the
   Larrys Creek watershed drains 89.1 square miles (230.8 km²) in six
   townships and a borough.  The creek flows south from the dissected
   Allegheny Plateau to the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians through
   sandstone, limestone, and shale from the Devonian, Mississippian, and
   Pennsylvanian periods.  The first recorded inhabitants were the
   Susquehannocks, followed by the Lenape and other tribes.  The Great
   Shamokin Path crossed the creek near its mouth, where Larry Burt, the
   first settler, (for whom Larrys Creek is named) also lived by 1769.  In
   the 19th century, the creek and its watershed were a center of the
   lumber and other industries, including 53 sawmills, grist mills,
   leather tanneries, coal and iron mines.  No other stream in the country
   had so many sawmills in so small a territory.  For transportation, a
   plank road ran along much of the creek for decades, and two "paper
   railroads" were planned, but never built.  As of 2006, the Larrys Creek
   watershed is 83.1% forest and 15.7% agricultural (in marked contrast
   to the 19th century's clear-cut land).

Read the rest of this article:
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larrys_Creek


_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:

1469:
   Ferdinand II of Aragon wedded Isabella of Castile, a marriage that
   paved the way to the unification of Aragon and Castile into a single
   country, Spain.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_II_of_Aragon)

1781:
   American Revolutionary War: British forces led by Lord Cornwallis
   officially surrendered to Franco-American forces under George
   Washington, ending the Siege of Yorktown.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Yorktown)

1943:
   Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, was
   first isolated by researchers at Rutgers University.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streptomycin)

1987:
   The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 22.6% on Black Monday, the
   largest one-day percentage decline in stock market history.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Monday_%281987%29)


_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:

   churlish: Of or pertaining to a serf, peasant, or rustic.
   (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/churlish)


_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:

   Nothing is unthinkable, nothing impossible to the balanced person,
   provided it comes out of the needs of life and is dedicated to life's
   further development.  -- Lewis Mumford
   (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lewis_Mumford)