| Wheeling Creek | |
| River | |
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Wheeling Creek in Wheeling in 2006
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| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | West Virginia |
| Counties | Marshall, Ohio |
| Source | Enlow Fork |
| - location | boundary of Greene and Washington Counties, Pennsylvania |
| - elevation | 1,339 ft (408 m) [1] |
| - coordinates | [2] |
| Secondary source | Dunkard Fork |
| - location | Confluence of North Fork and South Fork, Richhill Township, Greene County, Pennsylvania |
| - elevation | 927 ft (283 m) [1] |
| - coordinates | [3] |
| Source confluence | |
| - location | northeastern Marshall County near Majorsville, West Virginia |
| - elevation | 829 ft (253 m) [1] |
| - coordinates | [4] |
| Mouth | Ohio River |
| - location | Wheeling, West Virginia |
| - elevation | 630 ft (192 m) [1] |
| - coordinates | [4] |
| Length | 25 mi (40 km) [4] |
| Basin | 300 sq mi (777 km2) approx.[5] |
| Discharge | for Elm Grove, Wheeling |
| - average | 343 cu ft/s (9.7 m3/s) [5] |
| - max | 22,300 cu ft/s (631.5 m3/s) |
| - min | 0.1 cu ft/s (0 m3/s) |
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Location of the mouth of Wheeling Creek in Wheeling, West Virginia
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Wheeling Creek is a tributary of the Ohio River, 25 miles (40 km) long, in the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia in the United States, with a watershed extending into southwestern Pennsylvania. Via the Ohio River, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River, draining an area of approximately 300 square miles (780 km2) on the unglaciated portion of the Allegheny Plateau. It flows into the Ohio River in downtown Wheeling, just downstream of Ohio's Wheeling Creek on the opposite bank.[6] According to the Geographic Names Information System, it has also been known as Big Wheeling Creek.[4]
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Wheeling Creek is formed in northeastern Marshall County, West Virginia, by the confluence of streams known as the Enlow Fork and the Dunkard Fork:
From the confluence of the Dunkard and Enlow forks, Wheeling Creek flows northwestwardly into the city of Wheeling in Ohio County. In the Elm Grove neighborhood of Wheeling, it collects Little Wheeling Creek,[10] which rises in Ohio County just west of the Pennsylvania state line and flows southwestwardly through the communities of Valley Grove and Triadelphia. In Triadelphia, Little Wheeling Creek collects Middle Wheeling Creek,[11] which rises in West Finley Township in Greene County, Pennsylvania, and flows generally westwardly into southeastern Ohio County.[6][7]
The National Road (U.S. Route 40) parallels Little Wheeling Creek through eastern Ohio County, and follows Wheeling Creek for part of its route through the city of Wheeling;[6] the creek is also paralleled for five miles (8 km) in Wheeling by a rail trail as part of the Wheeling Heritage Trail network.[12]
According to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, of the 141 square miles (370 km2) drained by Wheeling Creek in West Virginia, approximately 67% is forested; approximately 27% is used for agriculture; and approximately 5% is urban.[13]
The United States Geological Survey operates a stream gauge on the creek in the Elm Grove neighborhood of Wheeling, downstream of the mouth of Little Wheeling Creek and 7.8 miles (12.6 km) upstream of the creek's mouth. Between 1941 and 2005, the annual mean flow of the creek at the gauge was 343 cubic feet per second (9.7 m³/s). The creek's highest flow during the period was estimated at 22,300 ft³/s (632 m³/s) on September 17, 2004. The lowest recorded flow was 0.1 ft³/s (0 m³/s) on October 7, 1963, and on two days in September 1964.[5]