Mahantango Creek (Snyder and Juniata Counties, Pennsylvania)

For the Mahantango Creek in Dauphin, Schuylkill and Northumberland counties, see Mahantango Creek.

Mahantango Creek (also known as Mahantongo Creek[1]) is a 2.1-mile-long (3.4 km) tributary of the Susquehanna River in Snyder and Juniata counties, Pennsylvania, in the United States.[2] Its name comes from a Delaware Indian word meaning "where we had plenty to eat". The creek flows along the border between Snyder County and Juniata County.

Historically, numerous sawmills and gristmills have been built on the creek. The first inhabitants of the area arrived in the late 1700s. In the 1750s, Peter and Michael Shaffer had land grants along and near the mouth of Mahantango Creek. They were both farmers, Michael also had a lumber mill and a distillery.

The watershed of the creek has an area of 86.2 square miles (223 km2). Trout inhabit the tributaries of Mahantango Creek, but not the main stem. Smallmouth bass, however, may inhabit Mahantango Creek itself.

  1. ^ Pennsylvania Angler Vol. 5 Num. 1 (PDF), Pennsylvania Angler, January 1, 1936, archived from the original (PDF) on May 12, 2014, retrieved May 10, 2014
  2. ^ U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map Archived 2012-03-29 at the Wayback Machine, accessed August 8, 2011