The creek itself rises near Tinker's Creek State Park in Streetsboro, Portage County. The creek then flows through Twinsburg Township and Twinsburg in Summit County, and Glenwillow, Oakwood, Bedford Heights, Bedford, and Walton Hills in Cuyahoga County before its confluence with the Cuyahoga River in Valley View village near Independence. The 24 municipalities within the watershed are: Cuyahoga County Beachwood Bedford Bedford Heights Glenwillow Highland Heights Maple Heights North Randall Oakwood Orange Solon Valley View Walton Hills Warrensville Heights Geauga County Bainbridge Township Portage County Aurora Franklin Township Streetsboro Sugar Bush Knolls Summit County Hudson Village Macedonia Northfield Reminderville Twinsburg Twinsburg Township Organizations Tinker's Creek Watershed Partners Tributaries Tinker's Creek has eight major tributaries and countless unnamed smaller tributaries. From the headwaters moving downstream, the major tributaries are: Bell Run Hudson Springs Pond Brook Beaver Meadow Run Mud Creek Hawthorne Creek Deer Lick Run Wood Run Geology The walls of the Tinker's Creek valley expose four geologic layers. The youngest sediments, unconsolidated glacial till deposited on top of bedrock by the retreat of the Wisconsin glaciation 12,000 years ago, occur in the upper portion of the watershed. These poorly sorted and poorly drained materials largely account for the marshes, swamps, bogs and fens that characterize the headwaters of the creek. Further downstream, at the Great Falls, the creek plunges over a cliff of Berea sandstone composed of tiny quartz crystals cemented with clay. Berea sandstone is about 330 million years old (Mississippian), and was generated by rivers bearing sand from higher ground to the east and north and depositing it in fan-shaped deltas in an ocean. These deltas eventually dried and were buried under subsequent sediments where they hardened into a layer of resistant rock. Cleveland shale (350 million years old; Devonian) underlies the sandstone. The shale is composed of extremely fine bits of quartz, clay and mica deposited at the edge of a sea. Ripple marks created by the sea's wave action are visible in the shale. The Cleveland shale is less resistant to erosion than the overlying Berea sandstone, so the creek was able to scour its impressive gorge once it had penetrated the sandstone cap—a process still occurring at the Great Falls. Downstream of the gorge, approaching the creek's confluence with the Cuyahoga River, the creek has begun to reveal Chagrin Shale, bluish-gray and opaque, laid down 360 million years ago. Water pollution Tinker's Creek has substantial