Wills Creek (North Branch Potomac River)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wills Creek is a tributary of the North Branch Potomac River in Pennsylvania and Maryland in the United States.

Wills Creek drops off the Allegheny Plateau of southeastern Somerset County, Pennsylvania, and enters the North Branch Potomac River at Cumberland, Maryland.

Contents 1 Tributaries 2 History 3 Cumberland flood control system 4 See also 5 References

[edit] Tributaries

• Brush Creek (Wills Creek)
• Little Wills Creek

[edit] History

Wills Creek was named after Will's Town, a former settlement of the Shawnee Indians at the site of Cumberland, Maryland. After the Shawnee deserted this region, an Indian named Will lived a short distance from the site of the old Shawnee town at the mouth of Caiuctucucer. At the time of the coming of the first white settlers he was living in a cabin on the mountain side. The creek, mountain, and town were afterward named for him. Will's creek is noted on the maps of Lewis Evans (1755) and Scull (1759, 1770), and on the map in Gist's Journal. (See, Hodge 1912)

[edit] Cumberland flood control system

In the 1950's, the city of Cumberland, Maryland and the United States Army Corps of Engineers embarked upon an 18.5 million dollar flood control program along a strench of Wills Creek boardering the city. The project was one of the most costly public works project in city's history. Disastrous floods from Wills Creek have ravaged Cumberland over the years, particularly in 1924, 1936, and 1942, and the Army Corp of Engineers was called upon to design a system that would prevent property damage caused by high waters. It began just upstream from the Route 40 Bridge, where the corps paved the bottom of Will’s Creek, constructing concrete walls along its banks, and implementation of a sophisticated pumping system to prevent the watershed from flooding during heavy rain. The work took a decade to complete, being finished in 1959, and has successfully prevented flooding ever since.

[edit] See also

• List of Maryland rivers
• List of Pennsylvania rivers

[edit] References

• Frederick Webb Hodge, "Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico", Copyright 1912, Vol 4. Page 956

	Potomac River system Cities and towns | Bridges | Islands | Variant names
	Regions
	Allegheny Front | Allegheny Mountains | Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area | Blue Ridge Mountains | Cumberland Valley | Eastern Panhandle | Northern Neck | Northern Virginia | Potomac Highlands | Ridge-and-valley Appalachians | Shenandoah Valley | Southern Maryland | Western Maryland
	Tributaries
	North Branch | Stony River | Abram Creek | Savage River | Georges Creek | Wills Creek | Evitts Creek | Patterson Creek | South Branch | North Fork South Branch | South Fork South Branch | Town Creek | Little Cacapon River | Fifteenmile Creek | Sideling Hill Creek | Cacapon River | Lost River | North River (West Virginia) | Tonoloway Creek | Sleepy Creek | Licking Creek | Back Creek | Little Conococheague Creek | Conococheague Creek | Opequon Creek | Antietam Creek | Shenandoah River | North Fork Shenandoah River | South Fork Shenandoah River | North River (Virginia) | South River | Catoctin Creek (Maryland) | Catoctin Creek (Virginia) | Monocacy River | Little Monocacy River | Goose Creek | Little River | Seneca Creek | Cabin John Creek | Rock Creek | Anacostia River | Sligo Creek | Four Mile Run | Oxon Creek | Hunting Creek | Piscataway Creek | Dogue Creek | Accotink Creek | Pohick Creek | Occoquan River | Bull Run | Neabsco Creek | Mattawoman Creek | Quantico Creek | Chopawamsic Creek | Aquia Creek | Potomac Creek | Nanjemoy Creek | Port Tobacco River | Wicomico River | Coan River | St. Marys River | Yeocomico River | Hull Creek
	Lakes and reservoirs
	Lake Accotink | Lake Anne | Lake Artemesia | Lake Bernard Frank | Lake Braddock | Breckenridge Reservoir | Brushy Fork Lake | Burke Lake | Dalecarlia Reservoir | Georgetown Reservoir | Jennings Randolph Lake | Kingman Lake | McMillan Reservoir | Mount Storm Lake | Lake Needwood | Sleepy Creek Lake | Stony River Reservoir | Trout Pond | Warden Lake
	Dependent states
	District of Columbia | Maryland | Pennsylvania | Virginia | West Virginia