Big Timber Creek

The creek was named Tetamekanchz by the local Lenape tribe, with the North Branch named Tetamekanchz, the Chews Landing section named Arwames, Beaver Branch called Tekoke, and Little Timber Creek named Sassackon. The earliest recorded use of the current name is by an early Dutch explorer, David P. DeVries, who refers to a Timmer Kill, "Timber Creek" in Dutch, in his memoirs of his journey of 1630–1633, after the construction of Fort Nassau at its mouth. This name became anglicized when the Quakers arrived. In 1697, the West Jersey Proprietors, in creating the town of Gloucester, decreed that the name be the "Gloucester River", and although that name did appear in documents for several years, it faded away. A much smaller creek lying to the north, Little Timber Creek, finds the Delaware at the same place as its larger namesake. To differentiate between the two, the latter came to be known as "Great Timber Creek", which soon became "Big Timber Creek". Even so, at the end of the 20th century it was still usually referred to in speech as simply "Timber Creek". ==Description==

Course (Note: All course mileage figures are approximate river miles, not as the crow flies.) Big Timber Creek flows roughly to the northwest. Two streams, the North Branch and the South Branch, join above its mouth to form the main stream. The South Branch is considered the source stream. Both branches are dammed at several points to form impoundments—no natural lakes occur along either branch. South Branch Two streams join to form the South Branch of Big Timber Creek, the Big Lebanon Branch and the Little Lebanon Branch. Big Lebanon Branch is considered the source stream, as it is the longer. Indeed, it appears on some maps as "Big Timber Creek". It rises near Cross Keys in Gloucester County (under a housing development) at an elevation of about and flows northwesterly , A teardrop-shaped impoundment about , Lekau Lake lies at an elevation of in a hollow of the hills. Leaving the lake, the North Branch twines its way a mile northwest, down to , and enters Clementon Lake in Clementon, long a recreational mecca for the region. below the lake Trout Run enters from the east, and a half mile farther on, Gravelly Run. The North Branch then runs more to the west for a mile to Laurel Lake, a sinuous impoundment which lies at an elevation of about . The North Branch continues its westerly course for below Laurel Lake, turning northward where Mason Run enters from the south. It turns to the westward again after another three-quarters of a mile, immediately after which it receives Signey Run from the north. The North Branch then tends northwestward, widening and slowing a mile along, and, turning west upon receiving Otter Branch from the north a half mile farther down, enters an impoundment at Chews Landing. This impoundment is a consequence of the constriction at the point about down where the North Branch passes under the Black Horse Pike. The North Branch is now tidal and runs westward through wetlands another mile to its confluence with the South Branch. Main stream , looking downstream The main stream of Big Timber Creek begins in Glendora, just upstream from Clement's Bridge, at the confluence of the North and South branches. It meanders northwest for to empty into the Delaware River between Westville and Brooklawn. Over much of its length it is hemmed in by roads, old dumps, and fill. It opens out into wetlands here and there. The main stream is tidal throughout. The first mile (1.6 km) of the main stream is essentially a ditch between a housing development and a trash dump. Three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km) downstream from its head, the main stream receives from the north the waters of Hirsch Lake in Runnemede, a smallish impoundment fed by an unnamed stream. A on, the left bank recedes into wetlands, and Almonesson Creek enters on the left another quarter mile down. A further sees Beaver Brook enter on the right, and the stream narrows again as it passes under Route 42 and the New Jersey Turnpike. It remains confined for the next mile and a half (2.4 km), receiving Ladd's Branch on the left at one mile and flowing another half mile to pass under Route 295, shortly after which it opens out into three-quarters of a mile of wetlands crossed by navigable channels. The stream forms three channels here, the main one hugging the left bank by Westville. The rightmost channel flows through the borough of Bellmawr and has several small marinas and private docks located along its banks. The creek then flows another three-quarters of a mile under State Route 47, through Michael K. Galbraith Park in Westville, finally opening up into a shallow bay and flowing into the Delaware River. The land Geology Big Timber Creek lies wholly within the Atlantic Coastal Plain Physiographic Province, specifically that portion known as the Inner Coastal Plain. The coastal plain is a wedge-shaped mass of sediments, mostly unconsolidated, lying upon Precambrian basement rock. It extends from the Fall Line out onto the continental shelf, thickening as it goes at the rate of 80 to 100 feet per mile (15–19 m/km). New Jersey's inner coastal plain is defined by a cuesta that runs through the coastal plain roughly northeast to southwest across the middle and southern parts of the state. This cuesta marks the transition between the underlying Cretaceous sediments toward the Piedmont and the more recent Miocene sediments seaward and is itself Cretaceous in origin. In its southern reaches, where Big Timber Creek lies, it runs roughly parallel to the Delaware River at a distance of about and delineates the left edge of the Delaware River watershed in southern New Jersey. The surficial geology of the New Jersey inner coastal plain is among the most complex in the world. At least eight of the 14 or 15 sedimentary strata, or formations, laid down since the Cretaceous period appear at the surface in the Big Timber Creek basin. Each formation is itself made up of many layers, some the result of irregular interglacial stream deposition. The situation is further complicated by the appearance of fragments of older formations at a shallower level than more recent ones, owing to cycles of deposition and erosion; in fact, the so-called Bridgeton formation, the oldest, containing iron-indurated sand, forms the summits of the few prominences on the landscape. Generally speaking, the surface of the area is weathered Cretaceous coastal plain consisting of quartz sand, with patches where gravel or clay are found. Glauconite occurs in varying concentrations in the younger formations, and some bog iron is seen. There is no rock, though some iron-bearing sand has become concreted and rock-like. Geography Big Timber Creek dissects the inner coastal plain in the dendritic pattern characteristic of streams flowing over soft materials. It has been cutting down through sand, clay, and gravel since the retreat of the last of the Pleistocene marine inundations which deposited fresh layers of sediment. Big Timber Creek's watershed encompasses , including Little Timber Creek, a small creek that shares its mouth. The sides of the basin are defined by the patchy remains of relatively erosion-resistant formations. Nowhere in its basin does the relief exceed , and much lies below . What relief there is entirely due to erosion, mostly by Big Timber Creek and its tributaries. The terrain consists mainly of a jumble of the low, flattened ridges typical of mature sandy basins. The scattered prominences of or more, some quite steep, owe their existence to caps of iron-rich sand. A cuesta forms escarpments beyond the headwaters of the Creek and along some of its southerly tributaries. There is a small, marshy floodplain in the lower reaches. ==See also==