Kinderhook Creek has a drainage area of over 329 square miles (850 km2).

[3] Kinderhook Creek was known as Pasanthkack by the Mahican Native Americans.

[4] Prior to 1667 it was known as "Major Abram's (Staats) Kill" and "Third Falls."

[5] The name "Kinderhook" has its root in the landing of Henry Hudson in the area around present-day Stuyvesant, where he was greeted by Native Americans with many children.

[6] The area around Kinderhook Creek was called Machackoesk by the Native American Mahican Tribe.