Sitlington Creek is a 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...

 of the Greenbrier River

Greenbrier River

The Greenbrier River is a tributary of the New River, long, in southeastern West Virginia, USA. Via the New, Kanawha and Ohio Rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River, draining an area of...

 in Pocahontas County

Pocahontas County, West Virginia

As of the census of 2000, there were 9,131 people, 835 households, and 527 families residing in the county. The population density was 10 people per square mile . There were 7,594 housing units at an average density of 8 per square mile...

, 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...

. It was once an important stream for sending trimmed logs of white pine

Eastern White Pine

Pinus strobus, commonly known as the eastern white pine, is a large pine native to eastern North America, occurring from Newfoundland west to Minnesota and southeastern Manitoba, and south along the Appalachian Mountains to the northern edge of Georgia.It is occasionally known as simply white pine,...

 down the river to the St. Lawrence Boom and Lumber Company

St. Lawrence Boom and Lumber Company

The St. Lawrence Boom and Manufacturing Company was founded in 1802 by a Colonel Cecil C. Clay, a former US Army Brigadier-General from Philadelphia....

.

Sitlington--also called Setlington, Sitlington's, Stetlington, Stetlingtons, and Suttleton Creek, sits at Latitude: 38.3595636 and Longitude: -79.9245046. It drains west where the confluence

Confluence

Confluence, in geography, describes the meeting of two or more bodies of water.Confluence may also refer to:* Confluence , a property of term rewriting systems...

 into the Greenbrier sits between Deer Creek and Clover Creek.

Sitlington features prominently in W. E. Blackhurst

W. E. Blackhurst

Warren E. "Tweard" Blackhurst was an author and a lifelong resident of the Cass community who centered on the culture of eastern West Virginia where the higher elevations supported northern pine forests...

's book, RIDERS ON THE FLOOD and in the play of the same name based on the book by the RIDERS ON THE FLOOD Outdoor Drama.[ridersontheflood.com]

Blackhurst wrote of the creek:

"When the Deer Creek [logging] crew arrived, all the others were tied at mooring at the mouth of Sitlington Creek. This stream was not quite as large as Deer Creek, but flowed more rapidly and presented a rougher bed. Since its channel

Channel (geography)

In physical geography, a channel is the physical confine of a river, slough or ocean strait consisting of a bed and banks.A channel is also the natural or human-made deeper course through a reef, sand bar, bay, or any shallow body of water...

 was narrow, [log]jams were common and of the worst sort. ... Both company camps and contract jobs had operated on the headwaters of the stream during the winter. Much of the work was far up the stream where the smaller flow of water made the clean-up of the logs slow work. On the extreme upper portions a considerable amount was being floated out by means of splash dam

Splash dam

A splash dam was a temporary wooden dam used to raise the water level in streams to float logs downstream to sawmills. By impounding water and allowing it to be released on the log drive's schedule, these dams allowed many more logs to be brought to market than the natural flow of the creek allowed...

s. ... The splash dam

Splash dam

A splash dam was a temporary wooden dam used to raise the water level in streams to float logs downstream to sawmills. By impounding water and allowing it to be released on the log drive's schedule, these dams allowed many more logs to be brought to market than the natural flow of the creek allowed...

 was simply a dam

Dam

A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...

 built across the stream bed. Usually it was made of logs in crib style. A water gate in the center could be opened and closed readily. The gate being closed, the dam would fill within an hour. With the sudden release of the accumulated water the logs were carried forward on a man-made flood. With the aid of such dams even small streams could be made to carry unbelievably large quantities of timber."

Sitlington is the site of some of the most thrilling scenes in the book, where the loggers struggle against the weather, the river, and a narrowing deadline to move the year's cuttings of logs out of Pocahontas County

Pocahontas County, West Virginia

As of the census of 2000, there were 9,131 people, 835 households, and 527 families residing in the county. The population density was 10 people per square mile . There were 7,594 housing units at an average density of 8 per square mile...

.