Normans Kill | |
Normanskill Creek | |
River | |
Normanskill Creek in Duanesburg
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Country | ![]() |
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State | ![]() |
Region | Upstate New York |
Metropolitan area | Capital District |
Counties | Albany County Schenectady County, Schoharie County |
Part of | Hudson River Watershed |
Tributaries | |
- left | Hunger Kill, Krum Kill |
- right | Bozen Kill, Vly Creek |
Source | Darby Hill |
- location | Duanesburg, near Delanson, Schenectady County, New York |
Mouth | Hudson River |
- location | Bethlehem, Albany County, New York |
- elevation | 0 ft (0 m) |
Length | 45 mi (72 km) |
Basin | 170 sq mi (440 km2) |
Discharge | |
- average | 150 cu ft/s (4 m3/s) |
The Normans Kill basin encompasses
parts of three counties. |
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Basin Discharge |
The Normans Kill is a 45.4-mile-long (73.1 km)creek in New York's Capital District located in Schenectady and Albany counties. It flows southeasterly from its source in the town of Duanesburg near Delanson to its mouth at the Hudson River in the town of Bethlehem. In the town of Guilderland, the stream is dammed to create the Watervliet Reservoir, a drinking water source for the city of Watervliet and the Town of Guilderland. A one megawatt hydrolectric plant at the dam provides power to pump water to the filtration plant.
The Normans Kill has a drainage area of over 170 square miles (440 km2), and includes portions of Schoharie County along with the counties in which the Normans Kill itself flows through.
The Normans Kill has been used historically as a source of water power during colonial times, during which many mills sprung up along its banks. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, blocks of ice were cut out of the creek for shipment to the city of New York as a form of early refrigeration. Its name is derived from the Dutch word for a Norwegian, the ethnicity of Albert Andriessen Bradt(more accurately spelled "Bratt"), an early settler who owned mills at the mouth of the creek in the early 17th century, and the word kill, Dutch for creek. Earlier names of the stream include Godyns Kil, Norman's Kill, Normans Kil, and the indigenous place name Ta-wa-sen-tha, Ta-wal-sou-tha, or Tawalsontha.