Defining runs, creeks and rivers

Recently a reader sent me an e-mail asking a question. She wanted to know the difference between a run, a creek and a river. More specifically, she asked if there were standards of width, depth, flow volume, length or watershed size that were used to determine the application of the terms.

It's a good question, and one for which I didn't have a good answer handy.

First, I thought about the question, and the names of streams I knew in western Pennsylvania. For the runs, some that immediately came to mind were Saw Mill Run in the Pittsburgh's South Hills, Hart's Run in the North Hills, and Nine Mile Run in Pittsburgh's Frick Park. These are just a very few among many, many other streams called runs. In fact, "run" seems to be the most common name for streams in the area.

When I thought about the Allegheny Mountains, Bear Run at Fallingwater, Meadow Run near Ohiopyle and Quebec Run on the east slope of Chestnut Ridge were again a few that immediately came to mind.

Considering just those six waterways I realized that they varied in size considerably.

At one time I lived near Hart's Run in Allison Park. Even in the spring it was small enough to jump across in many places. In the summer I could walk down the middle of Hart's Run and not get my ankles wet. Hart's Run is a tiny stream.

On the other hand, in the spring, Meadow Run near Ohiopyle roars over a magnificent wide cascade near the Ohiopyle State Park office. I can't begin to jump across the torrent in late April, and I wouldn't even try to wade across for fear of being knocked over by the power of the water. In high water the stream is used by kayakers looking for early season thrills. During the summer Meadow Run still has deep pools where an afternoon dip is better than air conditioning. Meadow Run is a big stream.

Even with the vast difference between these two streams, they are still both called runs. So, there doesn't seem to be a standard in the case of runs. Maybe creeks were more clearly defined.

I came up with another list, and focused on Chartiers Creek southwest of Pittsburgh. It begins in Washington County and flows generally north into Allegheny County, then empties into the Ohio River at McKees Rocks. Chartiers Creek is a big watershed and the stream has a significant volume of water. My other creek to consider was Dunbar Creek in Fayette County. It begins near the summit of Chestnut Ridge, north of the Summit on Route 40, and flows a dozen miles down the side of the mountain to Dunbar and into the Youghiogheny River. As far as size and volume are concerned, Dunbar Creek is smaller than Meadow Run.

Again, looking at two examples of creeks there is little similarity, and some creeks are even smaller than runs.

Rivers seem to be more uniform. They are always the largest of the streams, have plenty of water throughout the year, and drain large areas of land. But there are exceptions.

The Allegheny River applies to a watercourse that ends in Pittsburgh where it is a big river. If you follow the river upstream it gets smaller and smaller. Kinzua Reservoir, near Warren, broadens the Allegheny, but the free-flowing river in New York continues to get smaller. The Allegheny turns south and comes back into Pennsylvania. Near Port Allegheny and Coudersport it gets small enough to call it a creek. Following the river even further upstream I can easily jump across the water, and finally on a hillside in Potter County, I can step across what I would call a run. However, even to the spring where it bubbles from the ground, the stream is still called the Allegheny River.

Finally, I stepped away from intuition and checked a couple of my favorite dictionaries. There I found that indeed there isn't a standard classification that defines runs, creeks and rivers. All three are considered to be ambiguous terms, and the proper scientific term for water flowing in a defined channel is a stream. A stream is a body of water with a detectable current or flow, and confined within a bed with banks on either side.

Several of the definitions that I checked added synonyms for run, creek, and river. These included rill, kill (mostly in New York, and a derivation from the Dutch), brook and brooklet, streamlet, rivulet, burn, rindle, branch or tributary, and bourn. In addition, I found that our own beloved western Pennsylvania "crick" is officially listed as a dialect.

One of the definitions I found noted that creeks are usually small natural streams that are rarely navigable. That certainly doesn't apply here where Slippery Rock, French, Loyalhanna, Chartiers, Pymatuning, Conneaut, Red Bank, Mahoning, Oil and other creeks in this area are some of our best canoeing waters in the region. Travel by canoe is considered navigation.

Finally, in my search for an answer I came across some interesting points about rivers.

I had always thought that the accepted convention for naming rivers was to start at the mouth, where the river meets an ocean, and apply the name to each of the largest branches going upstream. That means that if you start at the mouth of the Mississippi you would go upstream, check each tributary, and continue to use the name Mississippi on the connecting stream that had the greatest volume of water.

If you do that with the present Mississippi River you would get to Cairo, Ill., and find the confluence of two large rivers. The Mississippi name at that point ISN'T applied to the largest river tributary at Cairo. If it were, the larger river at Cairo would change from the Ohio River to the Mississippi. Keep going upstream and the next big confluence is here in Pittsburgh, and the larger of the two is the Allegheny River.

Thus, if we named rivers following the largest tributaries the Mississippi would start at the Gulf of Mexico and end in Potter County, Pa. There would be no Ohio or Allegheny Rivers.

Well, I couldn't find any reference that made the point that rivers should be named the way I thought, so the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers are safe.

However, I did notice that the Mississippi was the third longest river in the world, and wondered how rivers were measured. That does have a convention.

River length is measured from the mouth, to the most distant source of the river. So, after all, the Mississippi is indeed misnamed. Just north of St Louis, the Missouri River joins the Mississippi. Since the source of the Missouri is far west near Helena, Mont., that is the most distant reach of the Mississippi River and the point from which it is officially measured. Thus, when the length of 3,710 miles is used, the river is called the Missouri-Mississippi River. The named Mississippi ends in Lake Itasca, Minn., a source far less distant than the confluence of the Gallatin, Madison and Jefferson rivers in Montana.

I hope that clears up any questions about rivers, runs, rills and kills for now. Thanks to the reader that asked the question because it gave me a chance to look into a topic and clarify it for both you and me.