Quassaick Creek Quassaic Creek | |
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![]() Creek along the Newburgh city-town line | |
Etymology | Algonquian for "stony brook"[1] |
Location | |
Country | United States |
State | New York |
Counties | Orange, Ulster |
Municipality | Town of Plattekill, Town of Newburgh, City of Newburgh, Town of New Windsor |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | E of Tuckers Corner |
• coordinates | 41°39′45″N 74°01′34″W / 41.66250°N 74.02611°W |
• elevation | 680 ft (210 m) |
Mouth | Hudson River |
• coordinates | 41°29′16″N 74°00′26″W / 41.48778°N 74.00722°W |
• elevation | 0 ft (0 m) |
Basin features | |
Tributaries | |
• right | Bushfield Creek |
Quassaick Creek (Quassaic Creek on federal maps;[2] also once known as Chambers Creek[3]) is an 18.4-mile-long (29.6 km)[4] tributary of the Hudson River in Orange and Ulster counties in the U.S. state of New York. It rises in the glacial ridges west of the river, near the boundary between the towns of Plattekill and Marlborough. From there it flows south into the town of Newburgh and then the city, where it eventually forms part of the border between it and neighboring New Windsor before emptying into the Hudson.
It was one of the earliest places settled by Europeans in the vicinity of what is present-day Newburgh. Milling and other industries were drawn to its banks, and it is impounded several times in its lower course, most significantly at Chadwick Lake, the Town of Newburgh's local water supply. The industrial development of the lower banks led to serious pollution of the creek in the 20th century. In the wake of successful cleanup efforts, some local citizens and organizations have proposed a system of parks and trails along the lower creek.[5]