Fishkill Creek
New York
The kill in Fishkill has nothing to do with killing fish. It is just Dutch for creek.
The kill in Fishkill is Dutch. Vis kille meant fish creek, and that is all the name ever said. The creek runs thirty-three and a half miles, which makes it the second longest stream in Dutchess County. It starts in the swamps of the upper Clove Valley, drains them into a pond north of the hamlet of Clove, and heads generally southwest from there. For most of its length it crosses low, level ground. Then, in its last five miles below the village of Fishkill, it drops two hundred feet, and in the city of Beacon it turns into rapids and waterfalls in a narrow valley with a rail line running along the shore. Below the last bridge the shores go wooded again, the estuary opens, and a small island splits the water before it reaches the Hudson. Trout fishermen work the upper stretches. The estuary holds largemouth and smallmouth bass.
This is the first of 3 parts. The rest runs about 3 minutes and is read to you as you drive past. Hear the whole piece.
Fishkill Creek (also Fish Kill, from the Dutch vis kille, for "fish creek")
Written from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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