How old is Creek Town? The answer depends on whom you ask. Chief Efiong Ukpong Aye placed the founding as early as the fourteenth century. The historian A.J.H. Latham favored the late sixteenth century. P.A. Talbot split the difference, estimating the first half of the seventeenth century. The confusion arises from the layered nature of settlement along the lower Cross River, where the Efut -- part of the broader Bantu migration -- arrived in waves alongside the Efik, who came from different directions and at different times. The Adadia community of the Efut settled first, according to one account presented at the 1964 Hart's inquiry, only to be driven out when an Efik group arrived from Ndodoghi. The families that formed this Efik contingent -- the Efiom Ekpos and the Atais -- would shape Creek Town's identity for centuries to come.

Like many coastal communities in West Africa, Creek Town became enmeshed in the transatlantic slave trade. The Efik were the principal traders; there is no evidence that the Efut Abua community participated in the exportation of enslaved people. Creek Town sat about eight miles northeast of Duke Town, and together with the other city-states of Old Calabar, it formed a network of ports from which captured people were shipped to the Americas. The trade was profitable, entrenched, and would not end voluntarily. It continued even after international abolition in 1812, persisting until Commander Raymond arrived with documents demanding that the kings and chiefs stop. King Eyo Honesty II and King Eyamba V signed those documents, marking a turning point not just for Creek Town but for the entire Old Calabar region.

Eyo Honesty II was pragmatic. Having signed away the slave trade, he recognized that Creek Town needed new economic foundations. Together with Eyamba V, he wrote letters to Liverpool ship captains and supercargo merchants, requesting that teachers and missionaries be sent to Old Calabar to teach commerce and religion. The request reached Scotland, and in 1846, missionaries from the United Presbyterian Church arrived. Creek Town received the first school in the region. What followed was remarkable: under Honesty II's liberal leadership, religious reform progressed faster in Creek Town than in any other Old Calabar community. The symbol of the Ekpenyong deity was banished. New practices replaced old ones with a speed that reflected not just missionary zeal but a local ruler's willingness to transform his own society from within.

When the colonial government reorganized Old Calabar, Creek Town became the seat of its own division, encompassing the communities of Mbiabo, Adiabo, and Ibonda. Duke Town anchored the other division, which included Henshaw Town, Cobham Town, and Aqua Town. The 1904 declaration that retired the name "Old Calabar" in favor of simply "Calabar" marked the administrative end of an era, but Creek Town's distinct identity persisted. Today, the town preserves its cultural heritage through the annual Creek Festival, a vivid display of traditional dances, colorful costumes, and local cuisine that connects modern residents to the centuries of Efik and Efut tradition layered into this riverine settlement. The founding date remains debated. The significance does not.