Every so often I will find a concept or phrase that baffles
me. More often than not, these concepts seem strange due to cultural
differences. I’m not talking about measurements like inches and centimeters or
Celsius and Fahrenheit. No. I’m referring to things like a dam being a body of
water that forms after damming a river. Here in the USA, a dam is a wall but
not a body of water. The concept this time around is one that I know from
watching television, but don’t understand; this is the notion of a creek.
The Oxford dictionary defines a creek as a stream, brook, or
minor tributary of a river. Does this then mean that you can exchange the word
creek with stream or brook? Somehow Dawson’s Stream just has a different ring
to it. A definition is a great starting point, but often there is a cultural
understanding behind the words. As an example, by the definition, Las Vegas
Creek is not a creek. It is a stream of water running into Lake Mead and not a
tributary of a river. By water mass and size alone it should be a river itself,
and yet it’s a creek.
In contrast, Carpenter Canyon is a stream in the Spring
Mountains. Or is this a brook or a creek? This spring-fed cascade of water
offers me something that I have not ran across in South Africa. We have rivers
and “creeks”, but seldom are they fishable. We have Yellow Fish - evolution’s
answer to replace trout in our waterways - but these are typically found in
rivers. There is something enchanting about stalking these streams to catch
small wild trout in a few inches of water. Even warmer creeks seemingly are
the perfect habitat for all the sunfishes.
This Lahontan Cutthroat trout is my biggest, and yet it is a
small fish compared to the sizes they can reach. But had it not been for this
creek, I would have probably never seen this species. There are few creeks here
in Southern Nevada, even some of the rivers like the Virgin River look more
like a creek than a river. Maybe that’s the problem; trying to find the meaning
of a creek in a desert. At the end of the day, this mystery makes it fun. It is
what guides you to get out there and explore. To find your own answer for what
a creek is.
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