Bridges Spengler Bridge | - elevation 10 ft (3 m) | |
- location Hancock, Taconic Mountains, Massachusetts | ||
Kinderhook Creek is a 49.0-mile-long (78.9 km) tributary to Stockport Creek, an inlet of the Hudson River in the United States. From its source in Hancock, Massachusetts, the creek runs southwest through the Taconic Mountains into Rensselaer County, New York, and then into Columbia County. It flows through the towns of Stephentown, New Lebanon, Nassau, Chatham, Kinderhook and Stuyvesant to its mouth at Stockport Creek in the town of Stockport.
Contents
Map of Kinderhook Creek, United States
Kinderhook Creek has a drainage area of over 329 square miles (850 km2).
HistoryEdit
Kinderhook Creek was known as Pasanthkack by the Mahican Native Americans. Prior to 1667 it was known as "Major Abram's (Staats) Kill" and "Third Falls." In 1823 it was called Stuyvesant Falls (now referring to a village on the creek) and after 1845 "Kinderhook Creek".
The name "Kinderhook" has its root in the landing of Henry Hudson in the area around present-day Stuyvesant, where he was greeted by Native Americans with many children. With the Dutch Kinder meaning "child" and Hoeck meaning "bend" or "hook" [in the river], the name literally means "bend in the river where the children are".
The area around Kinderhook Creek was called Machackoesk by the Native American Mahican Tribe.