Larrys Creek is a tributary of the West Branch Susquehanna River in Lycoming County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. A part of the Chesapeake Bay drainage basin, its watershed drains in six townships and a borough. The creek flows south from the dissected Allegheny Plateau to the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians through sandstone, limestone, and shale from the Devonian, Mississippian, and Pennsylvanian periods.
The valley's first recorded inhabitants were the Susquehannocks, followed by the Lenape and other tribes. The Great Shamokin Path crossed the creek near its mouth, where Larry Burt, the first Euro-American settler and the man who gave the creek its present name, also lived by 1769. In the 19th century, the creek and its watershed were a center for logging and related industries, including 53 sawmills, grist mills, leather tanneries, coal and iron mines. A 1903 newspaper article claimed "No other stream in the country had so many mills in so small a territory". For transportation, a plank road ran along much of the creek for decades, and two "paper railroads" were planned, but never built.
As of 2006, the Larrys Creek watershed is 83.1% forest and 15.7% agricultural (a reforestation of land clear-cut in the 19th century). Nearly of second-growth forest are protected public and private land for hunting and trout fishing, with more land protected in parts of Tiadaghton State Forest. Pollution from past industrial use is gone and Larrys Creek "has an exceptionally scenic, ultra-highwater, whitewater run" for canoeing. Despite agricultural runoff and small amounts of acid mine drainage, water quality is quite good, and a water filtration plant on Larrys Creek supplies over 2500 customers.
Name
Larrys Creek is named for Larry Burt, the first European settler in the area, who lived near the mouth of the creek outside what is now the hamlet of Larrys Creek in Piatt Township. He traded with the indigenous peoples, and, according to a tradition reported by Meginness (1892), he had a Native American wife. Larry Burt was already there when surveyors came through in 1769 (after the land was purchased by the colonial government of Pennsylvania on November 5, 1768, as part of the "New Purchase" in the first Treaty of Fort Stanwix), but disappeared sometime soon after, perhaps moving west with the Native Americans who left the area.
Larrys Creek is the only major creek in Lycoming County for which a Native American name is unknown. As of 2006, it is the only stream named "Larrys Creek" on USGS maps of the United States and in the USGS Geographic Names Information System. The possessive apostrophe is not part of the official name of the creek, although records from the 19th century often spell it as "Larry's Creek" (as do some highway bridge signs today).
Today the creek has given its name to the hamlet at its mouth, as well as the village of "Larryville" further upstream. Before it became a borough, Salladasburg was also known as "Larrys Creek" (from the name of its post office). The "First Fork" and "Second Fork" of Larrys Creek are named in the order in which they are encountered traveling upstream, with "Fork" here denoting a major tributary. "Lawshe Run", the major tributary of the Second Fork, is named for Robert Lawshe, who established a tannery in Salladasburg in 1848. "Seeley Run", a minor tributary entering the creek at Larryville, is named for Mr. Seely, who built the first sawmill on Larrys Creek in 1796. While the USGS uses "Seeley Run", it is still "Seely Run Road" that follows the stream. The First Fork, Canoe Run, Joes Run, and Wolf Run also have roads named for them.
Course
Larrys Creek is the only major watershed in Lycoming County entirely within the county. Measured directly, Lycoming County is about northwest of Philadelphia and east-northeast of Pittsburgh. It is from the mouth of Larrys Creek along the West Branch Susquehanna River to its confluence with the Susquehanna River at Northumberland, Pennsylvania. The source of Larrys Creek is in northern Lycoming County in Cogan House Township, just south of the hamlet of Steam Valley, at an elevation of It flows west-southwest through the village of Cogan House, and then under the Cogan House Covered Bridge.