The area in grey outlines the watershed of Stroubles Creek. It covers ~23 square miles. According to the Historical Marker Database, it covers 6,393 hectares which is approximately 24.6 square miles.
Stroubles Creek originates from 3 natural springs in the Town of Blacksburg: Town, Keister-Evans, and Spout (Younos, 2017). These springs are the headwaters of the creek. The mouth of Stroubles empties into the New River. While traveling areas around the Town of Blacksburg and the Town of Christiansburg, one will encounter several other prominent and well-known creeks, not to be confused with Stroubles.
Tom’s Creek lies northwest of the Stroubles watershed. It also empties into the New River. Indian Run Creek lies northeast of the Stroubles watershed. It empties into the North Fork of the Roanoke River. Crab Creek, which lies to the south of Stroubles watershed flows underneath parts of the Town of Christiansburg and into the New River. Cedar Run Creek lies to the east of Stroubles watershed and it empties into the North Fork of the Roanoke River.
The headwaters of Stroubles Creek consist of 3 natural springs in the Town of Blacksburg Town, Keister-Evans, and Spout. Until the 1950’s, the springs once provided drinking water for Blacksburg residents. (Younos, 2017). According to Gathering Blacksburg History, “Town spring was located about at the corner of Draper…and Lee Streets. Originally, it was owned by the Goodrich family and protected by a log structure.”
Photo taken from Gathering Blacksburg History
According to 16 Frogs in Blacksburg Virginia, The Keister-Evans spring is located across Progress Street, near the area shown in the screenshot below. In the photo, to the right is the downtown fire and rescue station. To the left is a private residence. In the middle of the photo, you can see an uncovered section of Stroubles Creek that runs between the residence and the fire-rescue station.
This section of the Creek is marked by a sidewalk painting of a turtle and a tiny, bronze frog named “Nannie Bell”. The Nannie Bell frog is one of the 16 Frogs that mark some places where Stroubles Creek runs under and through the Town of Blacksburg.
Photo taken from Google Maps
Spout spring is easy to view if you go to the corner of Clay Street and Wharton Street. According to 16 Frogs in Blacksburg, Virginia, “Buildings have been constructed over the other two [springs], but Spout Spring still looks like it did when residents stopped by every day to fill their buckets.” If you look closely, you will find the small bronze frog named “Phillip”which marks this area of Stroubles. Here is a picture of Virginia Tech’s Office of Sustainability Water interns at the site of Spout spring in October of 2024. The interns hosted a 16 Frogs walking tour for campus and broader community. The tour is in process of being digitized so that people can experience it anytime.
Photo by Kristina Cook
Two main tributaries of Stroubles Creek are Walls Branch on the west side of the watershed and Slate Branch to the South. The below graphic from Dr. Tamim Younos’s “The Stroubles Creek Watershed: History of Development and Chronicles of Research” clearly shows the locations of the two main tributaries of Stroubles. It also shows what parts of the watershed overlap with the Town of Blacksburg. Both Town of Blacksburg and Town of Christiansburg are located in Montgomery County, Virginia.
The mouth of Stroubles empties into the New River. In the Google Map on the next slide (slide 7), you can see where Stroubles Creek empties into the New River (blue arrow). You can also see the close proximity of the Radford Army Ammunition Plant along the New River and this portion of Stroubles (red circle). The Blacksburg Virginia Polytechnic Institution (VPI) Sanitation Authority is also visible (yellow arrow). Wastewater from the Town of Blacksburg flows via gravity and pumping stations to Blacksburg VPI Sanitation Authority where the wastewater is treated and then released back into the New River (Town of Blacksburg, n.d.)
By reading the Google topographical map in Google Maps, the elevation at the headwaters of Stroubles is approximately 2,200 feet above sea level and the elevation at the mouth of Stroubles is approximately 1,800 feet above sea level. This gives a change in altitude from headwaters to mouth of 400 feet.
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