page_title: Roaring Brook (Lackawanna River tributary)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Roaring Brook (Lackawanna River tributary) / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The Harrison Avenue Bridge in Scranton, Pennsylvania in March 2015.
context_page_description: Roaring Brook is a tributary of the Lackawanna River in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately 21 miles long and flows through Covington Township, Madison Township, Moscow, Roaring Brook Township, Elmhurst Township, Dunmore, and Scranton. The watershed of the stream has an area of 56.3 square miles. Its named tributaries include Little Roaring Brook, Rock Bottom Creek, White Oak Run, Van Brunt Creek, Bear Brook, and East Branch Roaring Brook. It has a high level of water quality for much of its length. However, it is affected by abandoned mining land, stormwater, and other impacts in its lower reaches. Reservoirs in the watershed include the Hollister Reservoir, the Elmhurst Reservoir, and others. The stream also flows through the Nay Aug Gorge and passes over the Nay Aug Falls, which are on the National Register of Geologic Landmarks. It flows through a concrete channel in its lower reaches. The topography of the watershed contains rolling hills in its upper reaches and the mountainous land of the Moosic Mountains in its lower reaches.
context_section_description: Roaring Brook was entered into the Geographic Names Information System on August 2, 1979. Its identifier in the Geographic Names Information System is 1199947. The stream is also known as Roaring Creek or Roaring Branch Creek. The former variant name appears in United States Geological Survey topographical maps while the latter appears in Israel C. White's 1881 book The geology of Susquehanna County and Wayne County, Pennsylvania. The stream was historically known as Nay-aug. Nay-aug is a name derived from a Native American language meaning "roaring".
  The ancient Native American village of Capoose used to be within a mile of the mouth of Roaring Brook. An Indian war path used to cross the stream near what is now Scranton. The Slocum family constructed a gristmill on the stream in 1780 and Philip Abbott constructed a gristmill on the stream in 1788. Ebenezer Slocum and Benjamin Slocum built a forge along the stream in 1799 or 1800. Rolling mills also operated along it in the 19th century. The first bridge in Madison Township was constructed over the stream in 1830 by Nathaniel Carter. A Mr. Rupert constructed the first sawmill in Moscow on Roaring Brook in 1831. An iron works industry known as the Slocum Brothers Mill was constructed on Roaring Brook 0.5 miles (0.80 km) upstream of its mouth in 1838. It struggled at first, but by 1846 managed to get a contract to produce iron T rails for the New York and Lake Erie Railroad. The furnaces of the Lackawanna Coal and Iron Company once stood near the stream. A sawmill was constructed over the stream in Covington Township in 1840 and the first gristmill in that township was built on Roaring Brook in the northeastern part of that township in 1864. The first bridge over the stream was built in 1859. In 1870, the Scranton family constructed a mansion on the stream.
  In the early 1900s, the main industries in the watershed of Roaring Brook included agriculture, brick making, and coal mining. Around this time, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad followed the stream throughout much of its length and the Erie Railroad followed the stream from Elmhurst to its mouth. The former was created by an 1852 merger of the Cobbs Gap and Delaware Railroad and the Lackawanna and Western Railroad, which were previously in the stream's watershed. The main stem was used as a water supply for Scranton by the Scranton Gas and Water Company. It was also used as an industrial water supply by the Spencer Coal Company. The watershed continues to supply water to the Lackawanna Valley in the 21st century. In the early 1900s, major communities in the watershed included Scranton, Dunmore, Moscow, and Elmhurst. At the time, their populations were 129,867, 17,615, 650, and 379, respectively.
  A steel truss bridge with a length of 50.9 feet (15.5 m) was constructed over Roaring Brook in 1907 and is closed. A concrete arch bridge with a length of 400 feet (120 m) was built over the stream in 1917 and another bridge of the same type, but with a length of 392.1 feet (119.5 m), was constructed in 1935. A steel girder and floorbeam system bridge with a length of 76.1 feet (23.2 m) was also constructed over the stream in that year and was repaired in 2006. A concrete culvert bridge with a length of 77.1 feet (23.5 m) was built across the stream in 1948 and three prestressed box beam or girders bridges carrying Ash Street, State Route 2005/Market Street, and State Route 3023/Cedar Ave were built in 1958. Another bridge of that type, with a length of 65.9 feet (20.1 m), was built over the creek in 1961. A bridge carrying US Route 11 over the creek was built in 1969, as was a prestressed box beam or girders bridge. Their lengths are 212.0 feet (64.6 m) and 78.1 feet (23.8 m), respectively.
  A seven-span bridge carrying Interstate 84 over Roaring Brook was constructed in 1974. In 1979, a two-span prestressed box beam or girders bridge with a length of 106.0 feet (32.3 m) was constructed across the stream. I 1996 two ten-span bridges carrying Interstate 81 over the stream were built in Dunmore.
  The last major flood i
caption: Harrison Avenue Bridge over Roaring Brook
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