Buffalo Creek is a 4.1 miles (6.6 km) free-flowing tributary

Tributary

A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean...

 stream

Stream

A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...

 of the South Branch Potomac River, itself a tributary of the Potomac River

Potomac River

The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...

, making it a part of the Chesapeake Bay

Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...

 watershed

Drainage basin

A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...

. Buffalo Creek is located in west-central Hampshire County

Hampshire County, West Virginia

Hampshire County is a county located in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of 2010, the population was 23,964. Its county seat is Romney, West Virginia's oldest town . Hampshire County was created by the Virginia General Assembly on December 13, 1753, from parts of Frederick and Augusta counties ...

 in the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of West Virginia

West Virginia

West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...

. Because the stream flows through several small farms, Buffalo Creek primarily serves agriculture purposes with segments used for livestock watering.

History

Buffalo Creek and its eponymous hollow were named so during the eighteenth century due to the abundant populations of buffalo

Bison

Members of the genus Bison are large, even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Two extant and four extinct species are recognized...

 in their vicinity. In 1755 at the onset of the French and Indian War

French and Indian War

The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...

, Fort Forman

Fort Forman

Fort Forman was a stockade fort erected by Captain William Foreman at the beginning of the French and Indian War situated three miles north of Romney on the South Branch Potomac River near Vance on West Virginia Route 28...

 was constructed by Captain William Forman near the banks of Buffalo Creek, and the stream served as the fort's source of water. A historical highway marker along West Virginia Route 28 marks the approximate location of the stockade

Stockade

A stockade is an enclosure of palisades and tall walls made of logs placed side by side vertically with the tops sharpened to provide security.-Stockade as a security fence:...

 fort.

Headwaters and course

The stream's headwaters lie along the eastern flanks of South Branch Mountain

South Branch Mountain

South Branch Mountain is a mountain ridge that runs southwest to northeast through Hampshire and Hardy counties in the Eastern Panhandle of the U.S. state of West Virginia, rising to its greatest elevation of 3,028 feet above sea-level in the Nathaniel Mountain Wildlife Management Area...

 southwest of Three Churches

Three Churches, West Virginia

Three Churches is an unincorporated community in Hampshire County in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The town is located north of Romney along Jersey Mountain Road at a crossroads with Three Churches Hollow Road...

. From its source, Buffalo Creek meanders in a southwest direction along the forested foot of South Branch Mountain. The stream winds a northwesterly path through a gorge that leads it through the Buffalo Hollow

Hollow

-A noun:*A non-closed body which is not solid or filled. i.e. contains empty space or air.**Hollow Earth theory, the idea that the planet Earth has a hollow interior and possibly an inhabitable inner surface....

 in South Branch Mountain. It is through this hollow that Buffalo Creek parallels Buffalo Hollow Road (West Virginia Secondary State Route 28/1) until its intersection with West Virginia Route 28. Buffalo Creek flows beneath West Virginia Route 28 and the South Branch Valley Railroad

South Branch Valley Railroad

The South Branch Valley Railroad consists of a 52.4 mile length of railroad in the U.S. state of West Virginia extending north along the South Branch Potomac River from Petersburg to the CSXT mainline at Green Spring adjacent to the Potomac River...

 at Vance

Vance, West Virginia

Vance is an unincorporated community in Hampshire County in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Vance lies on the South Branch Potomac River. Most of its residents reside along West Virginia Route 28. Buffalo Creek empties into the South Branch at Vance....

before emptying into the South Branch Potomac River.