The creek drains Auburn and Virden, Illinois and has a total length of 52.8 miles (85.0 km).

This fact, and the fertility of the surrounding prairie land, made the Sugar Creek drainage a focus of interest for early American pioneers immediately after the end of the War of 1812.

A six-member kinship group led by Robert Pulliam built homestead cabins on the creek in 1817 near what is now the unincorporated suburban village of Glenarm.

Many pioneers followed Pulliam's group to Sugar Creek in the 1820s and following years, helping to settle central Illinois and building a community of primarily southern heritage.

[2] In 1880, township authorities built a Burr arch covered bridge, the Sugar Creek Covered Bridge, going east-west over Sugar Creek near the site of the original sugar maple grove and Robert Pulliam's long-vanished cabin.