Big Sandy Creek is a 211-mile-long (340 km) tributary of the Arkansas River noted for being the location of the Sand Creek Massacre in Kiowa County. Long stretches are dry most of the time on the surface, although water still flows underground. Big Sandy Creek starts near Peyton in El Paso County, Colorado and flows through Elbert, Lincoln, Cheyenne and Kiowa counties before it joins with the Arkansas River in Prowers county east of Lamar.