| Spring Creek | |
|---|---|
| Physical characteristics | |
| Main source | Morgan County east of Jacksonville, Illinois 39°41′20″N90°00′09″W / 39.6889374°N 90.0026103°W |
| River mouth | Confluence with the Sangamon north of Springfield, Illinois 518 ft (158 m) 39°51′35″N89°38′30″W / 39.8597722°N 89.6417678°W Coordinates: 39°51′35″N89°38′30″W / 39.8597722°N 89.6417678°W |
| Basin features | |
| Progression | Spring Creek → Sangamon → Illinois → Mississippi → Gulf of Mexico |
| GNIS ID | 418940 |
Spring Creek is a tributary of the Sangamon River in the U.S. state of Illinois. [1] After rising in Morgan County, it flows into Sangamon County and discharges into the Sangamon River. In the lower part of its course, it flows through the city of Springfield, bordering Springfield's Oak Ridge Cemetery and the tomb of Abraham Lincoln. [2]
The Sangamon River is a principal tributary of the Illinois River, approximately 246 miles (396 km) long, in central Illinois in the United States. It drains a mostly rural agricultural area between Peoria and Springfield. The river is associated with the early career of Abraham Lincoln and played an important role in the early white settlement of Illinois, when the area around was known as the "Sangamon River Country". The section of the Sangamon River that flows through Robert Allerton Park near Monticello was named a National Natural Landmark in 1971.
Illinois is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It has the 5th largest Gross Domestic Product by state, is the 6th-most populous U.S. state and 25th-largest state in terms of land area. Illinois is often noted as a microcosm of the entire United States. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in northern and central Illinois, and natural resources such as coal, timber, and petroleum in the south, Illinois has a diverse economic base, and is a major transportation hub. Chicagoland, Chicago's metropolitan area, contains over 65% of the state's population. The Port of Chicago connects the state to other global ports around the world from the Great Lakes, via the Saint Lawrence Seaway, to the Atlantic Ocean; as well as the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River, via the Illinois Waterway on the Illinois River. The Mississippi River, the Ohio River, and the Wabash River form parts of the boundaries of Illinois. For decades, Chicago's O'Hare International Airport has been ranked as one of the world's busiest airports. Illinois has long had a reputation as a bellwether both in social and cultural terms and, through the 1980s, in politics.
Morgan County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it had a population of 35,547. Its county seat is Jacksonville.
The tributary can be fished from its banks, and is known for bullhead, carp, channel catfish, and sucker. The maximum depth of the creek is 2 feet (0.6 m) at mean waterflow. [3]
Ameiurus is a genus of catfishes in the family Ictaluridae. It contains the three common types of bullhead catfish found in waters of the United States, the black bullhead, the brown bullhead, and the yellow bullhead, as well as other species, such as the white catfish, which are not typically called "bullheads".
Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish from the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia.
The channel catfish is North America's most numerous catfish species. It is the official fish of Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Tennessee, and is informally referred to as a "channel cat". In the United States, they are the most fished catfish species with around 8 million anglers targeting them per year. The popularity of channel catfish for food has contributed to the rapid expansion of aquaculture of this species in the United States.
According to the U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), there are 10 streams having the name Spring Creek in the state of Illinois.
The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database that contains name and locative information about more than two million physical and cultural features located throughout the United States of America and its territories. It is a type of gazetteer. GNIS was developed by the United States Geological Survey in cooperation with the United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) to promote the standardization of feature names.
