| Normans Kill | |
| Normanskill Creek | |
| River | |
| Country | |
|---|---|
| State | |
| Region | Upstate New York |
| Metropolitan area | Capital District |
| Counties | Albany County Schenectady County, Schoharie County |
| Part of | Hudson River Watershed |
| Tributaries | |
| - left | Hunger Kill, Krum Kill |
| - right | Bozen Kill, Vly Creek |
| Source | Darby Hill |
| - location | Duanesburg, near Delanson, Schenectady County, New York |
| Mouth | Hudson River |
| - location | Bethlehem, Albany County, New York |
| - elevation | 0 ft (0 m) |
| Length | 45 mi (72 km) |
| Basin | 170 sq mi (440 km2) |
| Discharge | |
| - average | 150 cu ft/s (4 m3/s) |
| Basin [1] Discharge [2] |
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The Normans Kill is a 45.4-mile-long (73.1 km)[3] creek in New York's Capital District located in Schenectady and Albany counties. It flows southeasterly from its source in the town of Duanesburg near Delanson to its mouth at the Hudson River in the town of Bethlehem. The stream creates the Watervliet Reservoir in the town of Guilderland. The Normans Kill has a drainage area of over 170 square miles (440 km2),[4] and includes portions of Schoharie County along with the counties in which the Normans Kill itself flows through.
The Normans Kill has been used historically as a source of water power during colonial times, during which many mills sprung up along its banks. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, blocks of ice were cut out of the creek for shipment to the city of New York as a form of early refrigeration. Its name is derived from the Dutch word for a Norwegian, the ethnicity of an early settler who owned mills at the mouth of the creek in the early 1600s, and the word kill, Dutch for creek. Earlier names of the stream include[5] Godyns Kil, Norman's Kill, Normans Kil, and the indigenous place name Ta-wa-sen-tha, Ta-wal-sou-tha, or Tawalsontha.
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The Normans Kill is over 45 miles (72 km) long[3] with a basin that is over 170 square miles (440 km2).[1] The last 1-mile (1.6 km) is tidal.[6]
The Normans Kill is named for Albert Andriessen Bradt, a Norwegian immigrant to Rensselaerswyck. The creek is named for his Norwegian (Norman) heritage. He was one of the first Scandinavians to the Dutch colony of New Netherland. He was a tobacco planter and as such came to the area of the Normans Kill for that purpose. The tobacco which he planted of several years was never of any great quality, and he proceeded to construct two sawmills along the Normans Kill.[7]
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