Monocacy Creek (Lehigh River tributary)

Monocacy Creek (pronounced muh-naw-cuh-see) is a tributary of the Lehigh River in Northampton County, Pennsylvania.

[1] The creek's name is a corruption of the Native American menagassi, which means "stream with several large bends."

As late as 1883, it was known as the Manokesy River, but by the twentieth century the spelling became standardized as Monocacy.

[2] One of only fifty-six limestone streams in Pennsylvania, this creek's headwaters lie in the Slate Belt, near the borough of Chapman.

[1] In all, the creek drains an area of about 49.6 square miles, flowing through six townships, Bushkill, Moore, East Allen, Upper Nazareth, Lower Nazareth, and Hanover before reaching its confluence with the Lehigh River in Bethlehem.