BATTLE CREEK (CALLAHAN COUNTY)
BATTLE CREEK (Callahan County). Battle Creek rises four miles north of Cottonwood and three miles east of Spring Mesa in southeast Callahan County (at 32°13' N, 99°10' W) and winds through eastern Callahan, northwestern Eastland, southeastern Shackelford, and southwestern Stephens counties to its mouth on Big Sandy Creek, ten miles southwest of Breckenridge (at 32°39' N, 99°01' W). The mostly intermittent stream passes through numerous oilfields on its fifty-mile course. A Battle Creek Cemetery and the communities of Eureka and Eolian, all in Stephens County, lie near the creek. The upper area of Battle Creek was first settled in the late 1860s. A skirmish near the stream in 1840 between Indians and a frontier militia under the command of James F. Smith gave the stream its name. The creek passes through a flat area with local shallow depressions and a clay and sandy loam surface that supports water-tolerant hardwoods, conifers, and grasses.
Callahan County Historical Commission, I Remember Callahan: History of Callahan County, Texas (Dallas: Taylor, 1986).
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article."BATTLE CREEK (CALLAHAN COUNTY)," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/rbb38), accessed March 26, 2015. Uploaded on June 12, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.