Sweetwater Creek (Gray County, Texas)

Sweetwater Creek is a stream in northern Texas and western Oklahoma. It is a tributary to the North Fork of the Red River.[1]

The stream headwaters arise in northern Gray County, Texas at 35°36′29″N 100°35′55″W northeast of Laketon and southeast of Miami at an elevation of 3010 feet.[2] The stream flows southeast into Wheeler County southwest of Mobeetie and under Texas State Highway 152 and U.S. Route 83 and through the southwest corner Roger Mills County, Oklahoma and into Beckham County, Oklahoma southwest of Sweetwater, Oklahoma. The stream turns south and southwest to enter the North Fork of the Red River 2.5 miles from the Oklahoma-Texas line.[3] The confluence is at 35°18′03″N 99°56′46″W and an elevation of 1978 feet.[1] The confluence is 6.5 miles northwest of Erick, Oklahoma on I-40.[4]

Sweetwater Creek is central to the range of the southern buffalo herd. Along its banks were located favored hunting camps of plains tribes, such as the Comanche and Kiowa. The encroachment of American hide hunters at Sweetwater Creek was contested by the Comanche and their Kiowa allies. It figured in the Red River War of 1874, which was a campaign by the US Army to confine Native American tribes on the reservations in order to minimize conflict between the Americans and Native Tribes.

Historic Fort Elliott, in existence from 1875 to 1890, was situated on a high elevation of Sweetwater Creek, with the front of the fort facing the southwest.[5]

The town of Mobeetie, Texas, a Native American word meaning "sweetwater," and Sweetwater, Oklahoma, are named for the creek.