Valley Creek

Valley Creek is a 46-mile-long stream draining 257 square miles of western Jones Valley.

The stream originates from various springs and drainage basins in west and southwest Birmingham, and is covered over for most of its course until emerging at a headwall near the intersection of 7th Street and 4th Terrace North at the western terminus of 5th Avenue North.

It continues, paralleling 3rd Avenue West, and is joined by Holly Spring, draining the Green Springs area, just past Center Street.

The creek flows southwest toward the northern edge of Bessemer, then bends northward, emptying into the Black Warrior River near Camp Oliver, below the confluence of Locust Fork and Mulberry Fork.

West of Center Street in Birmingham the creek divides streets named "west" from those called "southwest".

Birmingham's first sewer system, a 15-mile network of brick tunnels constructed in the 1880s, flowed out into Valley Creek about two miles south of the city limits.

Points along Valley Creek

• Center Street North (bridge)
• former John Smith plantation
• Elyton
• Princeton Parkway (bridge)
• Rickwood Field
• Lomb Avenue (bridge)
• Fayette Avenue Southwest (bridge)
• Alabama State Fairgrounds
• Avenue W (bridge)
• South Park Road Southwest (bridge)
• A. G. Gaston Boys and Girls Club
• N. H. Price Elementary School
• Nabors Branch (tributary)
• Alameda Avenue Southwest (bridge)
• West Side Golf Course
• B. Y. Williams, Sr Drive (bridge)
• Midfield High School
• Hawkins Spring/Midfield Park
• Cairo Avenue (bridge)
• Wintergreen Avenue (bridge)
• Valhalla Cemetery
• Bessemer Super Highway (bridge)
• Brighton Road/Jaybird Road (bridge)
• I-20/59 (bridge)
• Opossum Creek (tributary)
• 19th Street North Bessemer (bridge)
• 15th Street North Bessemer (bridge)
• Murphy's Lane (bridge)
• Halls Creek (tributary)
• Talley mounds
• Jonesboro
• proposed Northern Beltline crossing
• Valley Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant
• Powder Plant Road (bridge)
• Fivemile Creek (Eastern Valley) (tributary)
• Little Blue Creek (tributary)
• Johns Road (bridge)
• Valley Creek (community)
• Blue Creek (tributary)
• Black Branch (tributary)
• Johnson Branch (tributary)
• Lick Creek (tributary)
• Lick Branch (tributary)
• Raccoon Branch (tributary)
• Leaning Oak Golf Course
• Warrior River Road (bridge)
• Rock Creek (tributary)
• Toadvine Road (bridge) at Toadvine, former site of Waldrop's Mill (built 1823)
• Panther Branch (tributary)
• Mud Creek (tributary)
• Sexton's Branch (tributary)
• Cedar Creek (tributary)
• Big Branch (tributary)
• Camp Oliver