Black Creek is a 7.6-mile-long (12.2 km) brook[1] tributary of the Lehigh River in Carbon County, Pennsylvania, in the United States,.
[4] Black Creek was named because of the because of the dark background pigment in the water created by anthracite coal, but this was a later development as its confluence origin and main course easterly became far more important hosting Railroad trackage than the Turnpike ever hoped to become.
[c] The banks-side footpath from the Lehigh River at the 19th century settlement of Lausanne Landing climbed the steep south slopes of Broad Mountain and followed a chain of watercourses to Nescopeck opposite Shickshinny, PA on the main Susquehanna branch.
Initially, in 1830, the Beaver Meadow mining operations sent coal out by pack mules, but then capitalized the railway, when the technology was emergent and untried.
Consequently, the creek hosted the first operating steam locomotives employed as mobile traction engines in the United States.