Mill Creek is a 14.5 miles (23.3 km) 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 Opequon Creek

Opequon Creek

Opequon Creek is a tributary stream of the Potomac River. It flows into the Potomac northeast of Martinsburg in Berkeley County, West Virginia, and its source lies northwest of the community of Opequon at the foot of Great North Mountain in Frederick County, Virginia...

, belonging to the Potomac River

Potomac River

The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...

 and Chesapeake Bay

Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...

 watersheds

Drainage basin

A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...

, located in Berkeley County

Berkeley County, West Virginia

Berkeley County is a county located in the Eastern Panhandle region of the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of 2010, the population is 104,169, making it the second-most populous county in West Virginia, behind Kanawha...

 in 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...

's Eastern Panhandle. Its name reflects its past as a popular site for various types of mills, beginning with one constructed by Morgan Morgan

Morgan Morgan

Colonel Morgan Morgan is traditionally believed to have founded the first permanent white settlement in present day West Virginia at Cool Spring Farm, and he is credited with founding the first church in what is now West Virginia.-Early life:Little direct evidence of Morgan's early life and...

 in the mid-18th century near his cabin in present-day Bunker Hill

Bunker Hill, West Virginia

Bunker Hill is an unincorporated town in Berkeley County, West Virginia, United States located on Winchester Pike at its junction with West Virginia Secondary Route 26 south of Martinsburg. It is the site of the confluence of Torytown Run and Mill Creek, a tributary of Opequon Creek...

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Headwaters and course

Mill Creek is formed by a series of stream

Stream

A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...

s on the eastern flanks of North Mountain

North Mountain (Virginia-West Virginia)

North Mountain is a mountain ridge within the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians in the U.S. states of Virginia and West Virginia.-Geography:North Mountain spans from the Potomac River in the north to the community of Green Spring in Frederick County, Virginia in the south. The ridge is divided into...

 along Frog Hollow Road (Virginia Secondary Route 654) in northern Frederick County

Frederick County, Virginia

Frederick County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is included in the Winchester, Virginia-West Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area. It was formed in 1743 by the splitting of Orange County. For ten years it was the home of George Washington. As of 2010, the population was...

, Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

. Mill Creek crosses into Berkeley County, West Virginia, and continues its flow in a northerly direction along the eastern flanks of the mountain, parallel to County Route 51/2. Along its course, Mill Creek is fed by a number of smaller spring

Spring (hydrosphere)

A spring—also known as a rising or resurgence—is a component of the hydrosphere. Specifically, it is any natural situation where water flows to the surface of the earth from underground...

-fed streams. Mill Creek then turns to the northeast towards the historic hamlet of Gerrardstown

Gerrardstown, West Virginia

Gerrardstown is an unincorporated village located along West Virginia Route 51 in Berkeley County in the U.S. state of West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle. It was laid out in 1784 by David Gerrard and served as the site of the first Baptist church west of the Blue Ridge Mountains...

, where it then meanders and heads east along Gerrardstown Road (West Virginia Route 51). The stream passes under County Route 24 and turns to the southeast flowing through hilly terrain where it continues to be fed by smaller unnamed spring-fed streams. After Mill Creek passes under County Route 24/3, its size and flow increase and it then passes under Interstate 81

Interstate 81

Interstate 81 is an Interstate Highway in the eastern part of the United States. Its southern terminus is at Interstate 40 in Dandridge, Tennessee; its northern terminus is on Wellesley Island at the Canadian border, where the Thousand Islands Bridge connects it to Highway 401, the main freeway...

 where it flows through the community of Bunker Hill. East of Bunker Hill, Mill Creek parallels County Route 26 and then meanders southeast through a gorge where it then empties into Opequon Creek south of Tarico Heights

Tarico Heights, West Virginia

Tarico Heights is an unincorporated community on West Virginia Route 51 along Opequon Creek in Berkeley County, West Virginia....

 on the Berkeley County border with Jefferson County

Jefferson County, West Virginia

Jefferson County is a county located in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of 2010, the population was 53,498. Its county seat is Charles Town...

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Tributaries

Tributary streams are listed from the headwaters to the mouth.

• Torytown Run
• Sylvan Run