Tonawanda Creek
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Tonawanda Creek is a small river in Western New York, in the United States. Tonawanda Creek rises in Wyoming County and enters the Niagara River between Niagara County and Erie County, forming a boundary between them. Tonawanda Creek passes through the Village of Attica, the City of Batavia, and flows past the Town of Amherst, the City of Tonawanda and the City of North Tonawanda before entering the Niagara River, just after being joined by Ellicott Creek.
The creek has a small waterfall at Indian Falls where the stream crosses the Onondaga Escarpment. The Log Cabin Restaurant overlooks the falls from the south.
The length of Tonawanda Creek is 90 miles (145 km), and it has a meandering course for most of its length.
During the spring of each year, some sections of Tonawanda Creek flood to varying degrees. These floods are more of an inconvenience than a danger, but can be more serious, especially when ice jams dam up the water. The larger flooding can cause property damage.
Tonawanda Creek is also part of the Erie Canal, which joins the creek southwest of Lockport and allows canal traffic to proceed into the Niagara River. When the Erie Canal was first built, the Tonawanda Creek was the source of water for the western section of the Canal.
In its upper reaches, Tonawanda Creek and the Little Tonawanda, which is tributary, are trout streams.
