North East Creek

North East Creek runs through the grounds of Plumpton Park Zoo, and it is the reason anything is here at all. The creek is why a miller built on this spot in 1734, why a farm grew up around the mill, and why the property was worth keeping for three centuries before it became a zoo.

Where it comes from and where it goes

The creek and its tributaries rise in the rolling country of the Maryland–Pennsylvania border, reaching as far north as just east of Nottingham, Pennsylvania. From there the water runs south through Cecil County, past Rising Sun and the zoo, and feeds the North East River.

The river itself is short — about five miles — running southwest from the town of North East, past Charlestown, and out into the main body of the Chesapeake Bay between Carpenter’s Point and Red Point. Everything that falls as rain on this part of Cecil County ends up in the Chesapeake, and most of it goes by way of this creek.

The watershed

The Maryland portion of the North East River watershed covers roughly 63 square miles, and the drainage reaches north across the state line into Chester County, Pennsylvania. It is a small watershed by Chesapeake standards, which makes it a responsive one: what happens on the land here shows up in the water quickly.

Water as power

Before the creek was scenery, it was industry. A stream with steady flow and enough drop to turn a wheel was the eighteenth century’s power grid, and North East Creek had both. Jeremiah Brown Sr. built his water corn and grist mill on it in 1734, alongside a sawmill; he was one of a line of millers who set up along the creek and its neighbors across Cecil County. Farmers hauled grain to the mill, and the creek did the work.

Read about the Jeremiah Brown Mill

An older name

The water here was on European maps early. When John Smith charted the upper Chesapeake in 1612 he marked the North East River as Gunter’s Harbour — a reminder that this corner of Maryland was being mapped and named more than a century before Jeremiah Brown set his first millstone.

The creek today

North East Creek still runs through the zoo, past the mill it once powered. It is a working piece of the Chesapeake watershed rather than an exhibit, and it shapes the landscape visitors walk through. Plan a visit.

Back to the history of Plumpton Park Zoo · Jeremiah Brown Mill