The head of the Creek begins in the Dannersville neighborhood of Bath at 40°44′16″N latitude 75°25′58″W longitude (or 40.737849,-75.432824), forming a steep sided ravine almost immediately as it gathers waters over its first mile.

As it passes Sauerkraut Hill, it gathers two major tributary creeks and leaves a steeper terrain for a gentler run over the last four miles.

Catasauqua Creek was the water course along which six of the first eight successful anthracite-fueled iron smelting hot blast furnaces in North America were erected[4] for it was chosen in 1839 as a mill stream by Erskine Hazard and Josiah White, co-founders of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company, along which to establish their new subsidiary: the Lehigh Crane Iron Company with imported Welsh expert David Thomas as superintendent to construct and operate blast furnaces.

[6] By late 1839, Catasauqua Creek was reshaped to begin providing water power for the production of the first North American pig iron.

For a period of thirty years, three decades that shaped the future of the valley, anthracite fueled furnaces throughout the Lehigh Valley produced greater quantities of iron than any other part of the nation.The creek's source in Northampton is approximately 2,052 feet (625 m) south of Pheasant Drive in the dell between Hilltop and Sickle Roads, approximately 3,530 feet (1,080 m) north of their junction.