Getting to the bottom of Cortland's seven valleys

In my last post, I noted that one of my running routes provides "nice views of Cortland and its seven valleys." The term "seven valleys" gets applied to a lot of businesses and things in Cortland, and Wikipedia refers to Cortland's "location on a plain formed by the convergence of seven valleys." However, I wasn't sure which valleys make up the seven, or if there even are that many. So I decided to poke around on Google maps and try to figure this out.

The results of this search were fairly satisfying, though not totally unambiguous. Here is a map with the valleys I could identify, numbered according to my subjective assessment of their legitimacy:

1. West Branch Tioughnioga River/I-81. This is a classic U-shaped glacial valley running all the way up to Syracuse. Yep, it counts.

2. East Branch Tioughnioga River/Rt. 13. Another well-defined valley with very flat bottom and relatively steep hills in either side.

3. Tioughnioga River/I-81. All the other valleys in Cortland drain into this one, which leads to the Chenango River, then the Susquehanna, then the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean.

4. Trout Brook/Rt. 41. This one is also pretty clear-cut, and you definitely feel like you're in a valley when driving up Rt. 41.

5. Otter Creek/Beaver Creek/Rt. 13. Very broad but not particularly well-defined. Otter Creek flows northeast towards Cortland, but Beaver Creek flows southwest into Fall Creek and on to Ithaca. The divide is just east of Lime Hollow.

6. Factory Brook/Rt. 41. This is a very nice valley- it holds Skaneateles Lake- so I'd like to count it. The only issue is that it converges with the the W. Branch Tioughnioga valley in Homer, so it's technically not it Cortland. But close enough.

7. Dry Creek/Kinney Gulf. While not very long, this is the only valley that has a name I'm aware of, plus the sides are fairly steep and it carries a decent creek.

8 and 9. These two are definitely sketchy. They are both clearly valleys, but neither carries a named stream or is very impressive. The only reason I'd count one of these is if the Factory Brook valley (#6) were disqualified for not really being in Cortland.