Upper Cedar Creek originated as an ice-marginal channel at the western edge of the Erie Lobe of the
Wisconsin Glacier and formed a single stream with the southwest-flowing
Eel River which connected to the
Wabash River. Lower Cedar Creek was a
tributary of the ancestral Eel, carrying glacial meltwater under the ice through a
tunnel valley known today as
Cedar Creek Canyon.[3] Blockage of the Eel's
channel by
outwash from the canyon and a decline in the volume of meltwater caused lower Cedar Creek to reverse its flow. In so doing, it captured the flow of the upper Eel, a classic example of stream piracy that shifted Cedar Creek's drainage (about 175,000 acres) from the Eel-Wabash system to that of the St. Joseph-
Maumee.[4]
Once a
meandering stream, upper Cedar Creek was
channelized (straightened and deepened) in the early 20th century for agricultural and urban drainage, which has increased the
watershed's vulnerability to erosion and contaminated runoff. Once home to 27 species of freshwater
mussel, Cedar Creek has experienced a drastic decline in mussel population since the 1980s.[5]
Course
Cedar Creek originates at Indian Lake (41º27'51" N 85º10'11" W), northwest of
Corunna, Indiana, and comes into formal existence downstream at Cedar Lake.[6] Its
DeKalb County section flows east-southeast from Indian Lake, loops around
Waterloo, passes through
Auburn, then angles southwest until it enters Allen County, where it is crossed by
Indiana State Road 327 south of
Garrett before turning back to the southeast toward
Leo-Cedarville.
Lower Cedar Creek, from
river mile 13.7 to its
confluence with the St. Joseph, is officially designated as an "Outstanding State Resource Water" [7] and is one of four streams in Indiana's Natural, Scenic and Recreational Rivers system.[8]
^McCafferty, Michael (2008). Native American Place-Names of Indiana. University of Illinois Press. p. 86.
ISBN9780252032684.
^U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data.
The National MapArchived 2012-03-29 at the
Wayback Machine, accessed May 19, 2011