page_title: Kettle Creek (Pennsylvania)
section_title: History and industries
hierarchical_section_title: Kettle Creek (Pennsylvania) / History and industries
caption_attribution_description: Ole Bull (1810 – 1880) Norsk bokmål: Fiolinisten og komponisten Ole Bull English: Violinist and composer Ole Bull Deutsch: Der Violinist und Komponist Ole Bull
context_page_description: Kettle Creek is a tributary of the West Branch Susquehanna River running through Tioga, Potter, and Clinton counties, in Pennsylvania. It is slightly less than 43 miles long. Although many streams in the Kettle Creek watershed are considered "Class A Wild Trout streams" by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, the lower reaches of the stream experience acid mine drainage. The upper reaches of the creek are considered to be very high-quality.
  Kettle Creek flows through Elk Township in Tioga County, then Abbott Township and Stewardson Township in Potter County, then Leidy Township and Noyes Township in Clinton County. Its mouth is at the community of Westport. Major tributaries include Cross Fork, Hammersley Fork, Little Kettle Creek, and others. The Kettle Creek Lake is located on Kettle Creek. Numerous metals and other substances contaminate the creek. These include iron, aluminum, manganese, and sulfates. The creek's discharge at Westport ranges from 4 to 6280 cubic feet per second and the pH ranges from 5.5 to 8.6. It also experiences abnormally high water temperatures.
  Kettle Creek is a freestone stream.
context_section_description: The Kettle Creek was inhabited by the Iroquois and the Delaware prior to European settlement. European explorers reached the watershed in the mid-1700s and the first settlers arrived in 1794. Most of the early settlers were farmers. A number of settlers of German descent formed a settlement in the northern part of the watershed, which came to be known as Germania. Overseen by William Radde and Charles Maine, Germania developed quickly between the 1850s and the 1870s. Slovaks began moving into the watershed in the early 1900s.
  The Kettle Creek Path used by the Native Americans historically linked the Cowanesque River with the West Branch Susquehanna River via Kettle Creek. It is possible that Native Americans camped on the creek while hunting and fishing in the area. An Indian village existed at the mouth of the creek until it was destroyed by the military in 1763. In 1784, at the Treaty at Fort Stanwick, much of Pennsylvania's Northern Tier, including the Kettle Creek watershed, was purchased from the Iroquois, Delaware, and Wyandott for $7000. The Indians retained hunting rights in the area until 1804.
  Richard Gilmore was the first person of European descent to lay claim to a plot of land on Kettle Creek. He settled there on July 21, 1794. James Caldwell was the second European to arrive, reaching the area by 1807. Simeon Pfoutz, a former resident of Perry County arrived in the watershed in 1813. Pfoutz also built a sawmill and gristmill on the creek. Other early settlers included John Calhoun and David Summerson, who arrived in 1822 and 1823, respectively. The population of the watershed increased fairly slowly in the early 1800s, with only a few families inhabiting the watershed by 1834.
  Early roads in the Kettle Creek watershed include Boone Road, which was built in 1779 to aid in combat against the Six Nations and the Jersey Shore Road, which was built some time before 1833. The Jersey Shore Road was later renamed the Cloudersport and Jersey Shore Turnpike. Another road was built in 1834 in the watershed, followed by another road several years later that ran between the West Branch Susquehanna River and Cross Fork. Butler Road was built on the western side of the watershed in 1850. The first post office in the watershed was established at Westport in 1847. The first bridge to cross the creek was built in 1852 at Westport.
  The Norwegian violinist Ole Bull attempted unsuccessfully to start a colony in the Kettle Creek watershed in 1852. A village was built by John Gartsee in 1853 at the confluence of Trout Run with the creek. The first schoolhouse in the watershed was built in 1858 on Yochum Hill. A railroad bridge was built at the mouth of the creek in 1859.
  Several mills powered by Kettle Creek had been built by 1852. Logging, including cutting down hemlock trees, was historically done in the upper Kettle Creek watershed. The main companies doing logging in the area included the Lackawanna Lumber Company, and Emporium and Goodyear Companies. The lumbering industry in the watershed began in the mid-1800s. With the arrival of railroads in the area in the late 1800s, the industry became more prevalent. The Lackawanna Lumber Company began working in the area in 1893. By 1900, there were two railroads along the creek used for hauling logs to a sawmill near Cross Fork. However, the lumbering industry collapsed after 1910. The population had peaked around 1900 and numerous residents of the watershed left shortly after the collapse of the area's lumbering industry. Timber production was done to a limited extent in the northern part of the watershed, as of 2001. The population has remained relatively stable since the 1930s.
  In the 1800s, settlement of the upper reaches of the Kettle Creek watershed centered on Germania, while the settlement of the lower reaches centered on the community of Leidy. A community near Trout Run began to attract people in the 1870s and 1880s.
  Cheese was produced in the communities of Germania and Carter Camp in 1902.
  Mining of coal in the Kettle Creek watershed began in 1874. The coal was discover
caption: Ole Bull, founder of a failed colony in the Kettle Creek watershed
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