Big Timber Creek
Big Timber Creek is a 5.6-mile-long (9.0 km) stream in southwestern New Jersey. The creek was called Tetamekanchz Kyl by Lenape tribes prior to European settlement in the area. The creek drains a watershed of 63 square miles (160 km2) and is a tributary of the Delaware River.
| Big Timber Creek | |
|---|---|
Big Timber Creek in 2007 | |
| Etymology | Dutch, Timmer Kill |
| Location | |
| Country | United States |
| State | New Jersey |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Source | Big Lebanon Branch |
| • location | Cross Keys, New Jersey |
| • coordinates | 39°43′38″N 75°01′28″W |
| • elevation | 158 ft (48 m) |
| Mouth | |
• location | Westville, New Jersey |
• coordinates | 39°53′05″N 75°07′59″W |
• elevation | 0 ft (0 m) |
| Length | 5.6 mi (9.0 km) |
| Basin size | 63 sq mi (160 km2) |
| Discharge | |
| • location | Delaware River |
Big Timber Creek enters the Delaware River between Brooklawn and Westville, just south of Gloucester City and across from Philadelphia. The main stream and south branch form roughly half of the border between Camden and Gloucester counties.
Pre-Columbian Big Timber Creek was home to numerous villages of the Lenni Lenape. In colonial times, the creek was a commercial waterway, and it powered a multitude of mills up through the 1950s. In the second half of the 20th century, it suffered some ill effects of the rapid post–World War II development that impacted many of America's waterways. As of 2007, the creek had recovered as a result of pollution controls and improvements in sewage treatment.