Red Bird River


The Red Bird River is one of two tributaries at the head of the South Fork Kentucky River, the other being the Goose Creek.
It is located in the Daniel Boone National Forest, in the southeast of the U.S. state of Kentucky.
It is long and drains the eastern half of Clay County.

Hydrology and basin

At its mouth, the Red Bird River's mean annual discharge is.
It drains an area of.
Its overall gradient is.

Tributaries and other locations

The headwaters of Red Bird River are in north-eastern Bell County, separated from the rest of that county by the Kentucky Ridge.
It constitutes the county line between Clay and Leslie Counties for a reach.
Kentucky Route 66 follows the course of the River from Oneida to the Clay-Bell County line.
  • Its major tributaries include:
  • * Bear Creek upstream at altitude, mouth at, whose further tributaries and locations are in its own article
  • * Banks Branch upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • * Sam Branch upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • * Dry Branch upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • * Hector Creek upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • ** Ben Branch upstream at altitude
  • ** a right branch upstream at altitude
  • ** a left branch upstream
  • ** a left branch upstream
  • ** a left drain upstream at altitude
  • * Jacks Creek upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • ** Dave Bowling Branch upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • *** Right Fork upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • * Copes Branch upstream at altitude
  • * Big Creek upstream at altitude, mouth at, whose further tributaries and locations are in its own article
  • * Elk Creek upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • ** Town Branch upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • ** Left Fork upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • * Little Double Creek upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • * Big Double Creek upstream at altitude, mouth at right and left forks at
  • ** Right Fork upstream at altitude, headwaters at
  • ** Left Fork upstream at altitude, headwaters at
  • *** upper forks upstream,
  • * Sugar Creek upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • ** Bond Hollow upstream at altitude,
  • ** Spruce Pine Branch upstream at altitude,
  • ** Masters Branch upstream at altitude,
  • ** Sulphur Spring Branch upstream at altitude,
  • * Gilbert Creek upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • ** Bowling Branch upstream at altitude,
  • * Little Creek upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • ** Right Fork upstream at altitude,
  • ** Left Fork upstream at altitude,
  • * Elisha Creek upstream at altitude, mouth at
  • ** Left Fork upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • ** Middle Fork upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • ** Right Fork upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • * Flat Creek upstream at altitude, long and which rises in the Sand Hills, mouth at headwaters at
  • ** Little Flat Creek upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • ** Panther Branch upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • ** Left Fork upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • * Bowen Creek upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • ** Daniel Branch upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • ** Brushy Fork upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • * Spring Creek, long and rising in the Sand Hills east of the Brightshade post office on Goose Creek, mouth at headwaters at
  • ** Cane Knob Branch upstream at altitude,
  • ** Right Fork upstream at altitude, headwaters at
  • ** Left Fork upstream at altitude, headwaters at
  • * Rich Branch upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • * Katy's Creek upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • ** Left Fork upstream at altitude,
  • * Jacks Creek upstream at altitude, mouth at upper forks at
  • ** Old-House Branch upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • ** Left Fork upstream at altitude, headwaters at
  • *** Oakley Cave Branch upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • ** Right Fork upstream at altitude, headwaters at
  • *** Jesse Fork upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • * Bear Creek upstream at altitude, mouth at upper forks at
  • * Whitehead Branch upstream at altitude,
  • * Phillips Fork upstream at altitude, long with a gradient of ; mouth just south of Queendale at headwaters at. Flowing generally north-east, it varies in width between to.
  • ** Saw-Pit Branch upstream at altitude,
  • ** Pups Branch upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • ** East Hilton Branch upstream at altitude,
  • ** Sandy Fork long
  • * Blue-Hole Branch upstream at altitude,
  • ** Bear Wallow upstream,
  • ** the forks upstream,
  • * Lick Fork upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • ** the forks upstream,
  • * Rich Branch upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
  • * Meadow Fork upstream at altitude,
  • * Cow Fork upstream at altitude, mouth at headwaters at
The two Bear Creek tributaries are sometimes distinguished as Lower Bear Creek and Upper Bear Creek.
The two Jack's Creek tributaries are likewise sometimes distinguished as Lower Jack's Creek and Upper Jack's Creek.
Similarly, on some modern maps a distinction is drawn between Red Bird Creek, which is the reach upstream of the confluence with Phillips Fork, and Red Bird River, which is the reach downstream; although the KGS Fourth Report in 1918 made no such distinction and simply named whole thing Redbird Creek.
The meeting point of Clay, Bell, and Leslie counties is just east of Sandy Fork.

Hector Creek, Jack's Creek, the Red Bird post offices, Beverly, Nuckles, and the Red Bird school

Red Bird was the name of a Native American who was murdered near the river, according to a 19th-century tale that traces back at least to an early settler and preacher named John Gilbert.
The story goes that a Chief Red Bird with his housekeeper Jack were murdered just upstream of the creek mouth of Hector Creek, at the former site of the Red Bird River Petroglyphs.
Jack's Creek is named after the Jack in the tale.
Gilbert, or his son Abijah, is also credited in a similar story with coining the name of Hector Creek, naming it after his hunting dog that was killed by a bear on its banks.
Local schoolteacher and minister John Jay Dickey recorded the Gilberts's tales in his diary in the 1890s.
Chief Red Bird and Jack are not recorded in any history books at all from the early 19th century, only being recorded by Dickey as aforementioned and by Richard Collins in the 1870s; however there were two Red Bird post offices and several other things named after the river and the two creeks.
The first Red Bird post office is largely a mystery.
It is known to have operated from 1828 to 1831, but its location and postmaster are unknown, and its location only narrowed down as far as being either on Red Bird Creek next to the mouth of Big Creek or somewhere on Big Creek.
The second Red Bird post office in Bell County was established on 1876-10-24 by postmaster Richard Wilkerson Asher.
It was located at the mouth of Cow Creek and remained there as it passed through the hands of successive family members.
When R. W. Asher died in 1884 it passed to his daughter Amanda "Mandy" Jane, who married one William R. "Bill" Knuckles.
She attempted to rename the post office Knuckles, but she misspelled it as Nuckles on the USPS forms.
She in turn died in 1890, the postmastership passing to her husband, who in his turn died in 1910 with their son John Beverly Knuckles taking over the postmastership.
The USPS requested a change of name in August 1911, and the post office finally became Beverly.
John was replaced by his wife Myrtle as postmaster on 1913-12-22.
In the latter part of the 20th century the Beverly post office moved to the mouth of the Lawson Branch of Lawson Creek, some away.
It is still open as of the 21st century.
R. W. Asher was a storekeeper and a preacher, and in his time the post office served a small area with a corn mill, a school, and a church.
Bill Knuckles was also a storekeeper, and also a lawyer.
John Beverly Knuckles and Millard F. Knuckles were landowners, who in 1921 offered their land to build a school and hospital.
This was to become the Red Bird Mission and Settlement School, built by the Women's Missionary Society of the Evangelical Church of Pennsylvania.
It has operated a sales outlet for local craftspeople, a community store, several schools, fifteen churches across five counties, a hospital, and a clinic.
The Jacks Creek post office was established on 1932-02-26 by postmaster Marion Hensley.
It closed in June 1954.
The Burns post office was established on 1892-06-20 by postmaster Harriet Burns.
She had wanted the names Burns Store, Hector, or Hayes.
It was located upstream on Hector Creek, and closed in August 1893.
The Hector post office was established on 1900-12-28 by postmaster Arazona Davidson.
It was originally upstream on Hector Creek, but was moved in 1924 by postmaster Jane L. Chadwell to the mouth of a left branch of Hector now known as Davidson Branch and earlier known as Jim Hubbard's Branch, close to where Burns had been years before.
It closed in 1977.
A gap named Hector Gap connects the headwaters of Hector Creek to the Lockhart Creek tributary of Goose Creek.
Kentucky Route 149 crosses that gap and follows Hector Creek for the whole of its course, the Daniel Boone Parkway also following the creek for most of it.