White Deer Hole Creek is a 20.5-mile (33.0 km) tributary of the West Branch Susquehanna River in Clinton, Lycoming and Union counties in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania.

The creek flows east in a valley of the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians, through sandstone, limestone, and shale from the Ordovician, Silurian, and Devonian periods.

The western part of White Deer Hole Creek has very high water quality and is the only major creek section in Lycoming County classified as Class A Wild Trout Waters, defined by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission as "streams which support a population of naturally produced trout of sufficient size and abundance to support a long-term and rewarding sport fishery.

The creek was named because "a white deer is said to have been killed at an early day in a low hole or pond of water that once existed where my father built his mill".

[1][16] The creek flows east and soon crosses a natural gas pipeline and the Lycoming County line into Limestone Township.

[17] It receives the unnamed tributary in Beartrap Hollow 10.8 miles (17.4 km) upstream of its mouth, then passes south of the unincorporated village of Elimsport.

[18] Spring Creek rises north of Elimsport in Washington Township and flows east-southeast, passing through Pennsylvania State Game Lands No.

[21] U.S. Route 15 and the Union County Industrial Railroad run north–south here along the river and cross the creek just before its mouth; however, this track is not in service as of 2022.

North White Deer Ridge and Bald Eagle Mountain form the northern edge of the creek valley.

[2][18] White Deer Hole Creek joins the West Branch Susquehanna River 17.66 miles (28.42 km) upstream of its mouth.

[18] White Deer Hole Creek is in a sandstone, limestone, and shale mountain region, entirely in the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians.

[2] From 1961 to 1995, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) operated one stream gauge on White Deer Hole Creek at the Gap Road bridge (upstream of Elimsport), for the uppermost 18.2 square miles (47 km2) of the watershed.

[18] Clearcutting of forests in the early 20th century and the ordnance plant in the Second World War adversely affected the White Deer Hole Creek watershed's ecology and water quality.

[35] Canoeing and kayaking are possible in spring and after hard rain, with 10.6 miles (17.1 km) of Class 1 whitewater on the International Scale of River Difficulty from Back Road bridge east to U.S. Route 15 (the mouth).

[37] In addition to these public lands, there are private hunting and fishing clubs and cabins along White Deer Hole Creek and its tributaries.

Popular game species include American black bear, white-tailed deer, ruffed grouse, and wild turkey.

[38] Part of the 261-mile (420 km) Pennsylvania Mid State Trail, marked with orange blazes to indicate it is solely for hiking, runs along a section of White Deer Hole Creek from west of the Fourth Gap to beyond the source.

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.

The path turned west at Allenwood and followed White Deer Hole Creek until about the present location of Elimsport.

There it headed northwest, crossed North White Deer Ridge and passed west through the Nippenose valley, then turned north and crossed Bald Eagle Mountain via McElhattan Creek and ran along the south bank of the river to the Great Island (near the present day city of Lock Haven).

These trails were only wide enough for one person, but settlers in White Deer Hole valley broadened the path to DuBoistown to take grain to Culbertson's mill on Mosquito Run, hence the name.

[8] Prior to construction, the site of the wastewater treatment plant yielded archeological evidence of habitation by indigenous peoples from the Paleo-Indian, Archaic, and Woodland periods.

[32] The only Native American inhabitant of the valley whose name is known, "Cochnehaw", lived near the mouth of White Deer Hole Creek.

White Deer Hole Creek was acquired by the colonial government of Pennsylvania on November 5, 1768, as part of the "New Purchase" in the Treaty of Fort Stanwix.

The railroad was torn up, and its one second-hand Shay locomotive was moved to the Vincent Lumber Company operation at Denholm in Juniata County.

Despite this small-scale lumbering, the forests have grown back since the clear cutting of the 19th century, and are mixed oak, with blueberry and mountain laurel bushes.

[39] During the Second World War, the federal government built the $50 million Susquehanna Ordnance Depot to make TNT on 8,500 acres (3,400 ha), partially in the White Deer Hole Creek watershed.

[36] Many of the 149 concrete bunkers remain,[48] but it is "a diverse mix of mature forest, impoundments, and brushy thickets, as well as a local hotspot for a variety of birds during migration".

Common animals in the game lands include painted and common snapping turtles, muskrats, frogs, eastern cottontails, red foxes, and white-tailed deer, while birds include golden-winged, hooded, and blue-winged warblers, red-shouldered hawks, wood ducks, tundra swans, pied-billed grebes, American bitterns, herons, and belted kingfishers.

[50] Gray squirrels, groundhogs, raccoons, crows, red-tailed hawks, downy woodpeckers, cardinals, blue jays, American robins, nuthatches, titmice, and sparrows are also found in the White Deer Hole Creek watershed.