The Post TOBY’'S CREEK Sunday, October 10, 2004 7 WALKING THE CREEK —— / (cyntinued from page 6) Like Street — one of more than 20 such crossings — and meets its first man-made obstruction, a snall earthen dam behind 390 Elmcrest Drive. Wa- tir gurgles as it struggles to exit from a standpipe that carries it from a broad pool to the stream bed leyond. | As it moves on its generally southeastern course, fobs Creek gains mass from countless small tribu- laries that feed into it. Soon, the stream bed is six feet across, and the banks are steep. Here, behind the Elmcrest development, the creek runs parallel to a dirt road built to service a pump station for the [Dallas Area Municipal Authority. And this is the beginning of the indignities that 'have been inflicted on Toby’s Creek over the years, | since it appears before the road was built the flow must have spread out in this low-lying space, its wa- ter being purified as it seeped slowly through the swamp. The first worn-out tire appears here, soon to be followed by many more. And an odd culvert, about 20 feet long, lies in the bed, the water directed through it, but nothing passing overhead. The banks grow steeper now, and the flow quick- ens. Sewer basins protrude from the stream bank, about 100 yards apart as the stream approaches the geaump station. ln. Merle Thomas has run a produce stand near the creek for more than 60 years. Since 1972 it has been located where Toby’s Creek meets Memorial High- way, nzar Payne Printery. Until the mid-1940s he grew green tomatoes on land he leased from Howard Wardan. Then someone suggested a fresh produce stand would be popular and he built his first sx by eight foot stand a few hundred yards away. Ashe creek turns parallel to the highway, a clue appeirs of how powerful the innocuous looking strean can be. Barely a mile from its source, it pass- es through a culvert that is about 8 feet wide by 6 feet high. Most of the time, the waterway looks puny by comparison, but it can rise amazingly quictly in a hard rain, such as during last month’s flooting associated with the remnants of Hurricane Ivan Litler, litter everywhere Because it now runs alongside a busy roadway, thestream banks become incredibly littered here, wifi a hubcaps, fast-food packaging, beer cans and other detritus of modern civilization staining the laniscape. Is it approaches the Meadows Nursing Center conplex, the stream zigs sharply left, then zags rigit, through a 75-foot-long culvert that deposits it 1ind the Dallas Agway. After meandering beside =. 7 not into a pond on the Meadows property, it heads back toward the highway. Many people think the duck-filled stream that cosses between the Meadows Center and Pickett’s Qarge restaurant is Toby’s Creek, but it is not. That waterway is fed by runoff from the Meadows’ pnd, and a small tributary that runs down from tie area of the Fern Knoll cemetery. The real Toby’s Creek hugs the highway in front d Pickett’s before swinging hard left to go behind Tilbert’s Equipment. From there it continues traight to its next highway crossing, near A.J.’s 3everage. When it reaches the center of Dallas, Toby's Creek begins a series of twists and turns that take it beneath buildings and highways, through concrete- lined sluiceways and past venerable stone walls. Crossing Memorial Highway (Rt. 415) at Lake @ rect the creek flows underground much of the “zzastance to the Dallas Post Office, about 500 feet in all. On the way, it emerges briefly on the western side of the highway, only to disappear beneath ~Fino’s Pharmacy, confined by 15-foot-tall concrete - walls. The water is next seen on the eastern side of Main Street, gurgling along between White’s Appli- ance and the Bufalino Law Office. Finally, it again runs through a tunnel below the highway, flowing into a channel defined by now-hidden but beautiful- ly cut stone walls that take it about 150 feet away from tte roadway, behind the post office. At that point, the creek takes a sharp bend to the right teward Mill Street, where it will again cross under ‘he highway, but not before passing below a tumbledown bridge made of old railroad ties that connerted two parcels of land that once housed the Agwaj store, and before that the Hildebrandt Frantzmill. Early maps show a mill pond here, fed by Toly’s Creek and a small tributary that runs throwh a marshland off Upper Demunds Road be- fore ttmbling down to the center of town. At nany highway crossings such as this, metal or plast: pipes carrying water and gas are suspended over he creek. Fo the first 50 feet after it reaches the western side ff the highway, the stream runs in a 15-foot- deerchannel lined by concrete walls. When the concete ends, the creek widens and several differ- nt 1aterials are used to keep the bank from slid- g ito the stream, with varying degrees of suc- cess Aittle below Wendy's restaurant, the bank be- cores soft and vulnerable to erosion. At several poits, the guard rail has begun to lean toward the Continued on page 8 POST PHOTOS/RON BARTIZEK erle Thomas holds his hand at about the level @®: Creek water reached in the 1972 Agnes ood. He has operated a produce stand near the sreek for nearly 60 years. Ee, et . IN Sl a All things considered, By RONALD BARTIZEK Post Staff Is it Toby's, Toby, Tobey’s or To- bey? Looking through historical resources, you can find all those names for the stream that flows through the heart of the Back Moun- tain. On a map of Bedford Town- ship, from the early 1800s, several streams and creeks are shown, but only two TOBY CREEK fk LER are named: Harveys and Tobys, neither using an apostrophe. To this day, Harveys Lake appears to be incorrect by the terms of strict - meme English usage. So does Clarks Sum- mit, the Lack- awanna Coun- ty town named after its first preacher. F. Charles Petrillo, a lawyer with a keen interest in local his- tory, provided several references for the name. In one of them, both Toby’s and Harvey's are used, and so is Harvey's Lake. One of the earliest publications, Pearce’s Annuals of Luzerne County, falls on the side of Toby's, and so do we. So, who — or what — was Toby? The answer to that is as murky as the water in the creek during a spring flood, but here are some of the historical legends: we'll opt for “Toby’s’ » Toby was an elderly Native American who lived in the area in the middle of the 19th century. According to Petrillo, a Wilkes- Barre newspaper, the Luzerne Union, described a Toby’s Cove, and other references say he lived somewhere near the creek, but in the Wyoming Valley. ¢ Toby is a contraction of Toby- hanna, a Native American term for alder or birch-like tree. Or, it could refer to a Tobyhanna Creek in Monroe County, although that seems the most farfetched possi- bility. This hidden stretch, across from the Sheetz convenience store, illus- trates both the beauty and abuse of Toby's Creek. An uplift of shale forms the eastern bank, where trash and de- bris interrupt the flow of water. TOBY'S CREEK (continued from page 1) cats,” he said. The creek provides drinking wa- ter to deer, bear and other wildlife in more wooded areas such as Trucksville, while the wetlands between the Meadows and Route 415 is home to birds, turtles and “spring peepers,” little frogs that “usher in spring with a wonderful chorus of chirping or peeping,” Chamberlain said. Although the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission doesn’t stock the creek, some residents have done so on their own. Adamchick, co-owner of Pizza Perfect in Trucksville, began in 1992 to stock Snake Creek, a trib- utary of Toby’s Creek, with trout for children to catch during fish- ing season. Each year he would purchase $600 worth of trout, he said. Part of the money came from a collec- tion jar that Adamchick would start shortly after Super Bowl and the rest would come out of is own pocket. Just before trout season, Adam- chick, with the help of volunteers from fire and police departments as well as nearby businesses, would prepare the creek for deliv- ery of the trout from a Bear Creek hatchery. “We enjoyed cleaning up the creek,” he said. But he stopped stocking the creek two years ago because too many adults used nets to remove fish from the creeks. “Adults ruined it for the kids,” Adamchick said. Unfortunately, many human habits and attitudes negatively af- fect the creek. “Por years Toby's Creek has been treated as a nuisance,” said Chamberlain, of the conservation district. “It has been channeled, piped, redirected and filled in. For years, residents and businesses have filled its banks and elevated its flood plain, attempting to acquire more level land to the rear of their property,” he said. All of the changes made to the land by humans have affected ani- mals’ mobility and quality of life. “Wildlife attempting to use and enjoy the creek must traverse highways, parking lots, steep banks, and chain link fences to do so,” Chamberlain said. “The lack of wildlife torridors, a stream buffer zone, greenways and open space along the creek, and a conduit to and from wooded or natural areas diminishes sssasseress sams “Toby's Creek has a fair amount of suburban development but its water quality looks reasonably good at this point.” Dr. Dale Bruns Dean of the College of Science and Engineering at Wilkes University wildlife populations of both song- birds and animals.” Items like a stream buffer zone act as “vegetated filter strips” be- tween a body of water and areas that could contaminate it such as parking lots, chemically treated lawns, plowed fields, barnyards, or junkyards, he said. “A natural steam buffer not only provides a corridor for wildlife but it provides an ecosystem for habi- tat and food sources for wildlife ranging from birds to mammals,” Chamberlain said. Another problem involves stormwater runoff and what it car- ries. Jim Stout, an officer with the Fish and Boat Commission, said that like most waterways, Toby’s Creek is at risk from construction pollution from residential develop- ments, industrial pollution from retail gasoline stores or industrial development, or pollution caused by vehicle accidents. “They generally get stressed by the activities around them,” he said. Mark Carmon, community rela- tions’ coordinator at the Depart- ment of Environmental Protec- tion, agrees that growth in Back Mountain communities can poten- tially impact the creek. “Stormwater is the largest im- pact,” he said. “It comes from everywhere — parking lots, drainage ditches, rain gutters. Dif- ferent points of impact can be more harmful than just one.” The DEP is working on developing stormwater management plans with counties, he said. Luckily, programs exist to re- verse the damage and monitor any potential problems. A major but basic step in renovating the creek is by cleaning it. Chamberlain said that his dis- trict recommended Toby’s Creek as a potential cleanup project for the Wyoming Valley Watershed Coalition's annual Streamside Cleanup program. Then they planned and coordinated the cleanup with Dallas Borough offi- cials, he said. During the cleanup, volunteers collected 35 cubic yards of junk from a 900-foot section located be- hind the Commonwealth Tele- phone building, Chamberlain said. “The creek has become a depos- itory for trash, tires, and garbage,” he said. The weeds that hid all of the garbage were another problem. Through a Chesapeake Bay Foun- dation grant, the district provided seedlings, technical support and assistance ‘to Dallas Borough’s road department, which is trying to control invasive plants such as Japanese knotweed and multiflora rosa, Chamberlain said. The seedlings, he said, would be used for enhancement, bank stabiliza- tion, and screening as well as to prevent invasive weeds and shrubs from choking the creek’s banks. The creek will also be marked with blue PennDOT-approved identification signs, Chamberlain said. The district and the Pocono Northeast Resource, Conservation & Development Council is help- ing Dallas Borough acquire the signs. The district also created a con- ceptual site plan for a Green- way/Rail trail behind The Com- monwealth Telephone building on Lake Street in Dallas. It then “pre- sented this plan to both Common- wealth and College Misericordia on behalf of Dallas Borough and the Anthracite Scenic Trails Asso- ciation in hope of gaining their support, Chamberlain said. So far the trail group has devel- oped the Back Mountain Trail along Toby’s Creek from Luzerne to N-Mart in Trucksville and con- tinues to convert the abandoned Lehigh Valley Railroad grade into a trail. During a recent hike on the 2- mile trail, Chamberlain said he didn’t encounter any litter or trash. That, he said, illustrates an unseen benefit of the trail. “Having a linear park attached to your property or business may increase property value and the profitability of a business. The people who utilize a trail often treat it as if it were their own and keep it clean.” While some work on beautify- ing the creek’s banks, others con- cern themselves with monitoring water quality. A research proposal by Dr. Dale Bruns, dean of the. College of Sci- ence and Engineering at Wilkes University, led to the start of the Environmental Monitoring for Public Access and Community Tracking (EMPACT) program in 2001. : Created under the Heritage River program and initially fund- ed by the Environmental Protec- tion Agency, EMPACT “inte- grates GIS (geographic informa- tion system) software, computer mapping, and environmental as- sessments of watersheds with real time water quality moni- tors,” Bruns said. By using measuring equipment called sondes, the team collects information on items such as dis- solved oxygen, acidity, nitrates, and ammonia, he said. One of four sondes was installed by the Dallas Area Municipal Authority, which offered some security since vandalism was a concern. So far, the team hasnt found any surprising data. “Toby’s Creek has a fair amount of suburban development but its water quality looks reasonably good at this point,” Bruns said. The most interesting find, he said, were “salt spikes” from snow melt runoff and the salting of roads. “But I cannot say that lev- els were severely high to impact aquatic life,” he said. The community can easily see EMPACT’s findings by visiting displays at events such as Earth Day, the Wyoming Valley River- Fest, or watershed demonstration projects with the Pennsylvania De- partment of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bruns said. At these events, EMPACT dis- plays items such as the global po- sitioning system, sondes, and samples of aquatic insects, “all of which help to provide environ- mental education to the public about the causes and solutions to water quality problems in our re- gion and watershed,” he said. Several EMPACT websites also exist. “In our grant, our web mate- rial was intended to be a critical part of our education and out- reach programs,” Bruns said. The conservation district also works with sponsors, communi- ties, watershed associations and schools “to promote awareness, appreciation, education, and sensi- tivity to all our natural resources,” Chamberlain said. A
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers