Wood Creek is a river in Central New York State that flows westward from the city of Rome, New York to Oneida Lake. Its waters flow ultimately to Lake Ontario, which is the easternmost of the five Great Lakes. Wood Creek is less than long, but has great historical importance. Wood Creek was a crucial, fragile link in the main 18th and early 19th century waterway connecting the Atlantic seaboard of North America and its interior beyond the Appalachian Mountains. This waterway ran upstream from the Hudson River (at Albany, New York) along the Mohawk River. Near present day Rome, the Mohawk River is about one mile from Wood Creek across dry land. In the 18th century, cargo and boats were portaged between the Mohawk and Wood Creek; the crossing was called the "Oneida Carry". In 1797, the Rome Canal was completed and finally established an all-water route. The waterway then followed a downstream run along Wood Creek to the east end of Oneida Lake. After a 20 mile crossing to the west end of the lake, the waterway entered the Oswego River system. This system led either to the Lake Ontario port at Oswego, or further westward along the Seneca River. The Mohawk River route was very important for more than a century. The only other waterway crossing the Appalachians lies far to the north in Canada. This was the St. Lawrence River, which flows northeast out of Lake Ontario to Montreal, Quebec City, and the Atlantic. Philip Lord, Jr., for many years a researcher at the New York State Museum, has published extensively on the Albany-Oswego waterway and on its Wood Creek section. 18th Century fortifications and battles In the 18th century, boats and their cargoes coming up the Mohawk River had to be moved a few miles overland to Wood Creek at the Oneida Carry (present-day Rome). The relaunched boats then navigated downstream to Oneida Lake and the Oswego River, which discharges into Lake Ontario. Wood Creek and the Carry were used by the canoes of Native Americans, and in 1702 representatives of The Five Nations petitioned Lord Cornbury, the governor of the British colony of New York, to mark the Carry and to clear Wood Creek of obstructions. In addition to periodically clearing obstructions, in 1730 a short canal was built to bypass a notorious "hook" in the Mohawk River. It is one of the first