The creek flows southwest and then south through the dissected Allegheny Plateau, through rock from the Mississippian sub-period and Devonian period.

Although the Plunketts Creek watershed was clear-cut and home to a tannery, sawmills, and a coal mine in the nineteenth century, today it is heavily wooded and known for its high water quality, fishing, and other recreational opportunities.

Tourism, hunting, and fishing have long been important in the region, and the year-round population of Plunketts Creek Township is increasing much faster than that of either Lycoming or Sullivan County.

He died in 1791, aged about 100, and was buried in Northumberland, without a grave marker or monument (except for the creek that bears his name).

Its water level is typically highest (perhaps 3 feet (1 m) deep) in spring or for a few days after a heavy rain, and lowest in late summer, when it can shrink to a trickle.

[14] The September 2011 flood was caused by remnants of Tropical Storm Lee, which dumped 11.36 inches (289 mm) of rainfall in the nearby village of Shunk in Fox Township in Sullivan County (just north of the creek's source).

[16] The Barbours Fire Hall became an "emergency relief center offering food, shelter and supplies to victims of the flood".

[25] However, a potentially large source of natural gas is the Marcellus shale, which lies 1.5 to 2.0 miles (2.4 to 3.2 km) below the surface here and stretches from New York through Pennsylvania to Ohio and West Virginia.

[31] The clear-cutting of forests in the 19th century adversely affected the ecology of the Plunketts Creek watershed and its water quality.

Another four deaths originally blamed on pneumonia were suspected of being due to pulmonary anthrax, and some cattle drinking from Plunketts Creek downstream from the tannery were also infected.

Because Plunketts Creek is in a sandstone and shale mountain region, it has a relatively low capacity to neutralize added acid.

This makes it especially vulnerable to increased acidification from acid rain, which poses a threat to the long term health of the plants and animals in the creek.

[37] The 2002 Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) report on "State Forest Waters with Special Protection" rated Plunketts Creek (from its source to mouth) and two of it tributaries, Wolf Run and Mock Creek (from the county line to the mouth), as "High Quality-Cold Water Fisheries".

[38] Meginness (1892) wrote that "Plunkett's Creek township, on account of its dashing mountain streams of pure water, has always been a favorite place for trout fishing.

"[6] In 2007, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission classified both Engle Run and the Noon Branch of Wolf Run as Class A Wild Trout Waters, defined as "streams which support a population of naturally produced trout of sufficient size and abundance to support a long-term and rewarding sport fishery.

"[37][39] Barbours has been popular from early on with "anglers seeking trout in the 'Sock and its tributaries", as well as with hunters after black bear, white-tailed deer, and wild turkey in the surrounding forests.

[42] Camping, hiking, mountain bike and horseback riding, snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, and bird watching are all possible on state forest lands.

The lands of the West Branch Susquehanna River Valley were then chiefly occupied by the Munsee phratry of the Lenape (or Delaware), and were under the nominal control of the Five (later Six) Nations of the Iroquois.

[6] On November 5, 1768, the British acquired the "New Purchase" from the Iroquois in the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, opening what are now Lycoming and Sullivan counties to settlement.

Initial settlements were on or near the West Branch Susquehanna River, and, as noted, Plunkett did not receive the land including the creek until 1776, nor was it surveyed until 1783.

[6] Like all streams in Lycoming and Sullivan Counties, Plunketts Creek served as an area for settlers to establish homesteads, mills, and to a lesser extent, farms.

Originally known as "Barbour's Mills", the village is in a rare area of flat land in the narrow Loyalsock valley and contains the mouths of both Plunketts and Bear Creeks.

[22] In 1868, Proctor was built as a company town in the midst of the timber required for the tannery (Barbours had initially been considered for the site).

The second village on Plunketts Creek was originally named "Proctorville" for Thomas E. Proctor of Boston, who produced leather for the soles of shoes there.

[6][35][44] Hemlock bark, used in the tanning process, was hauled to the tannery from up to 8 miles (13 km) away in both summer and winter, using wagons and sleds.

[6][35] Finished sole leather was hauled by horse-drawn wagon south about 8 miles (13 km) to Little Bear Creek, where it was exchanged for "green" hides and other supplies brought north from Montoursville.

[22] Although hemlock logs were originally left to rot after their bark was peeled for tanning, with time their lumber was used, among other places in a sawmill on Engle Run north of Proctor.

When a May 2007 fire destroyed a brooder house there just days before 18,000 pheasant chicks were due to hatch, the eggs were transferred to the nearby Northcentral State Game Farm without reduction in the production goal.

[42] Pennsylvania's state forests and game lands are managed, and small-scale lumbering operations continue in the watershed today.

[60][61] Tourists still come too: the opening weekend of the trout season brings more people into the village at the mouth of Plunketts Creek than any other time of the year.