Medicine Creek (Republican River tributary)

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Medicine Creek
(Medicine River)
Medicine Creek 735 bridge from S.JPG
Medicine Creek above Harry Strunk Reservoir
Location
CountryUnited States
StateNebraska
Physical characteristics
Source 
 • coordinates40°50′20″N 100°53′09″W / 40.83889°N 100.88583°W / 40.83889; -100.88583
MouthRepublican River
 • coordinates
40°16′55″N 100°08′53″W / 40.28194°N 100.14806°W / 40.28194; -100.14806Coordinates: 40°16′55″N 100°08′53″W / 40.28194°N 100.14806°W / 40.28194; -100.14806
 • elevation
684 m (2,244 ft)[1]
Basin size916 sq mi (2,370 km2)
Basin features
Official River Code10250008

Medicine Creek is a 96-mile-long (154 km)[2] tributary of the Republican River in Nebraska. Medicine Creek rises in an outlying portion of the Nebraska Sand Hills near the unincorporated community of Somerset in Lincoln County and flows southeast through Frontier County to its confluence with the Republican River .5 mi (0.80 km) east of Cambridge, in Furnas County, Nebraska. About 7 mi (11 km) north of Cambridge, the Medicine Creek Dam impounds the Harry Strunk reservoir, 1,850 acres (750 ha) in area and primarily created for flood-control. A state park and recreational area is located around the dam and lower portion of the reservoir. [3][4]

Medicine Creek flows through mixed grass prairies, intermediate between the tallgrass prairie to the east the shortgrass prairie (steppe) to the west. Precipitation is highly variable but averages 50 cm (20 in) per year which is the minimum required for unirrigated agriculture in the Great Plains. Forests are found in the stream bottoms along Medicine Creek and its tributaries.[5] Cambridge, with a population of about 1,000 in 2020, is the largest town in the basin of Medicine Creek.

Archaeology[]

A 12 mi (19 km) portion of Medicine Creek around the reservoir and extending up Lime Creek, a tributary, has been an area of extensive archaeological research since the 1920s. Findings include fossils of extinct mammoths, evidence of Clovis Culture and pre-Clovis Paleo-Indians, and many sites associated with the prehistoric Plains Village period from roughly 1000 to 1450 CE.[6] The Mowry Bluff Archeological Site, is located below the dam and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.[7]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Medicine Creek
  2. ^ U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map Archived 2012-04-05 at WebCite, accessed March 29, 2011
  3. ^ "Medicine Creek". Britannica. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  4. ^ Roper, Donna C. (2002). Medicine Creek: Seventy Years of Archaeological Investigations. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. pp. 2–3. ISBN 9780817384258.. Downloaded from Project Muse.
  5. ^ Roper 2002, pp. 2–4.
  6. ^ Roper 2002, pp. 1–8.
  7. ^ Blasing, Robert. "The History of Archaeological Research at Medicine Creek Reservoir". Research Gate. National Park Service. Retrieved 1 December 2021.

External links[]

  • USGS - Water Resources of the United States [1]
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