Long ago on independence square (Center, Hayward: 2015, city hall, houses)

[CaseyMO]

Originally Posted by Mad Anthonie

I checked an official topographical map, and it does indeed show Spring Branch Creek coming out of Woodlawn Cemetery. It had no label for the branch coming along Truman Road. That branch is also spring fed, from the old Pioneer Spring near Truman & Noland. More investigation is needed, but may need to wait until after Christmas.

Are you saying that the topographical map includes names or merely shows the creeks? I am still of the belief that Spring Branch Creek ran on the south side of Spring Branch Road. I could be wrong on this next part, but I believe the creek was on the north side of Spring Branch and went under the old bridge just west of Fransden Road. Where it started, I know not. I can see that creek somehow being started at the old spring near Truman and Noland, but I cannot see how it started at the cemetery.

I still cannot read the maps, including your latest. *sigh* Please let me know if it shows you definitively that the creek that ran across my father's land began at the cemetery.

[CaseyMO]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

FEMA lists a North Fork and a South Fork feeding Spring Branch.

Based on an old USGS map, the North Fork comes from the old spring and joins Spring Branch just west of M-291.

A few feet further east and still west of M-291, the South Fork empties into Spring Branch and seems to begin somewhere around where the Triple Lakes use to be just west of M-291.

I think the city controlled much of that North Fork into storm drainage when they widened Truman but part of it pops up just east of the intersection at Lee's Summit and Truman. The old bridge over Kiger would have been just east of there. It follows Truman Road a bit and then goes south to join Spring Branch.

Spring Branch Elementary School is at Truman and Butler. Delorme Maps show Spring Branch to be 1800 feet straight south of the school.

Spring Branch coming from Westlawn is supposed to be spring fed. Maybe that is how it got the name.

I am confused with this. Are you saying that neither creek that goes under current Lee's Summit Road is Spring Branch Creek? Where do the North and South Forks begin?

[CaseyMO]

Check this map out and see if we can find something. I can find the creek behind Elm Street, but I cannot follow it to the West. Also, when I focus in on where the creek should go under Lee's Summit Road, I cannot see the creek on either side. I think I will need to keep looking.

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.0875.../data=!3m1!1e3

[CaseyMO]

I asked a grade school friend of mine who lived on the corner of South Kiger and Spring Branch Road and both she and her husband remember the creek by Spring Branch Road as Spring Branch Creek. I am not sure this answer is definitive.

"Jerry and I both think it was "Spring Branch"....that is was we always called it.. It started up by the square somewhere..."

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by CaseyMO

I am confused with this. Are you saying that neither creek that goes under current Lee's Summit Road is Spring Branch Creek? Where do the North and South Forks begin?

The mystery deepens.

I knew it as Spring Branch also, but all the maps showing Spring Branch show it as starting at Woodlawn Cemetery and it keeps south of the RR tracks.


NORTH FORK
The North Fork comes from the old spring at Truman and Noland. That Fork is what pops up at the east side of Truman and Lee's Summit and goes along Truman for a ways and then dips south to flow into Spring Branch.


SPRING BRANCH
Spring Branch coming from Woodlawn cemetery goes under Lee's Summit Road at Elm south of the tracks.

SOUTH FORK
I mentioned the South Fork as starting near the old Triple Lakes on the west side of M-291 and staying on the west side until draining into Spring Branch. That description was based on a stream that was the only one that I could interpret as being a stream coming from the south into Spring Branch.

But, the City of Independence web site says that the retention basin at Elm and Lee's Summit Road was built to abate the runoff from the South Fork of Spring Branch. It does not say where the South Fork is, however. Spring Branch goes into that basin also before it goes under Lee's Summit.

Other than Spring Branch, I was not able to trace another waterway back from the Elm Street basin but you might recall that there was a small bridge at the bottom of Devil's Hill on Hayward just east of Woodbury. It is now a culvert with warning posts. This spot on Hayward is close to Spring Branch so it could be South Fork, I am not sure.

But if it is the South Fork, that drainage extends back to south of my old house going under Savage Street. There is a small bridge at Sea and Savage. This drainage goes southwesterly and goes under South and Stone streets almost to 23rd Street.

I don't know if that is really the South Fork but I recall as a kid there were no houses at the southwest corner of Savage and Sea and there was a severe drainage ditch in that area. Now, all this drainage has been apparently contained underground and there are houses on that corner.

[WCHS'59]

Here is a map. It does not show the North Fork or the South Fork.

[CaseyMO]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

Here is a map. It does not show the North Fork or the South Fork.

And here I thought South Fork was just east of our home which would put it in Parker, TX. LOL!

Well, I know how we can find out.

MAD, shall we meet once more for a walk along the creeks, east and west? We might want to wait for Spring.

[CaseyMO]

Here is an interesting map showing the creeks and rivers in the area. It show Spring Branch Creek, but I cannot make out which creek that would be and it shows two and possibly three unnamed tributary creeks coming into it from the north. They are unnamed.

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/vi...ntext=usgspubs

[WCHS'59]

Here is some more.

The city identifies this as the Spring Branch retention basin. The direction is west.

It is located north of Truman Road, between Kiger and Rogers.

[WCHS'59]

This ought to clear things up.............................


This is a map of the watershed areas of Independence.