Ohio River
_river | river_name = Ohio River
image_name = Ohio_river_ripley_ohio_2005.jpg | caption = Ohio River viewed from Liberty Hill in Ripley, Ohio. | origin = Confluence of Allegheny and Monongahela at Pittsburgh | mouth = Mississippi River at Cairo, Illinois | basin_countries = USA | length = 981 miles (1,579 km) | elevation = ~730 feet (223 m) | discharge = 248,000 cubic feet/sec (7,440 m³/sec) at Metropolis, Illinois | watershed = 189,422 square miles (490,603 km²)The Ohio River is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River, 1,579 km (981 mi) long in the eastern United States.
Of great significance in the history of North America dating from the time of the Native Americans, the river was a primary transportation route during the westward expansion of the early U.S. It flows through or along the border of six states, and its watershed encompasses 14 states, including many of the states of the southeastern U.S. through its largest tributary, the Tennessee. During the eighteenth century it was the southern boundary of the Northwest Territory, thus serving as the border between free and slave territory. | The Allegheny and Monongahela River rivers unite to form the Ohio at Point State Park in Pittsburgh |
The river is formed by the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers at The Point of Pittsburgh. From Pittsburgh, it flows to the northwest through western Pennsylvania, before making an abrupt, almost 180 degree, turn to the south-southwest at the West Virginia state line, from which point it forms the border between West Virginia and Ohio. The river then follows a roughly southwestern and then western course between Kentucky and Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois until it joins the Mississippi from the east at Cairo, Illinois. [1]Major tributaries of the river, indicated by the location of their mouth, include:
*Allegheny River — Pennsylvania
*Monongahela River — Pennsylvania
*Beaver River— Pennsylvania
*Little Muskingum River — Ohio
*Duck Creek — Ohio
*Muskingum River — Ohio
*Little Kanawha River — West Virginia
*Hocking River — Ohio
*Kanawha River — West Virginia
*Guyandotte River — West Virginia
*Big Sandy River — Kentucky-West Virginia border
*Scioto River — Ohio
*Little Miami River — Ohio
*Licking River — Kentucky
*Great Miami River — Ohio-Indiana border
*Kentucky River — Kentucky
*Green River — Kentucky
*Wabash River — Indiana-Illinois border
*Saline River — Illinois
*Cumberland River — Kentucky
*Tennessee River — Kentucky
*Cache River — IllinoisWatershedThe Ohio's watershed covers 490,603 square kilometers (189,422 square miles), including the eastern-most regions of the Mississippi Basin. States drained by the Ohio include:*Illinois (the southeast quarter of the state),
*Indiana (all but the northern area of the state),
*Ohio (the southern half of the state),
*New York (a small area of the southern border along the headwaters of the Allegheny River),
*Pennsylvania (a corridor from the southwestern corner to north central border),
*Maryland (a small corridor along the Youghiogheny River on the state's western border),
*West Virginia (all but the eastern border of the state),
*Kentucky (all but a tiny part in the extreme west of the state drained directly by the Mississippi River),
*Tennessee (all but a small part in the extreme west of the state drained directly by the Mississippi River),
*Virginia (the western border of the state),
*North Carolina (the western border of the state),
*Georgia (the northwest corner of the state),
*Alabama (the northern fringe of the state), and
*Mississippi (the northeast corner of the state).
See [2] for a map and information on the Ohio's watershed. | Overview of the middle Ohio River region. The river is indicated by yellow (Y) arrows and flows south and then west in this image; north is roughly straight up the image. The ancient, abandoned valleys of the Teays River can be clearly seen and are indicated by blue (B) arrows. The Scioto River is a descendant of the Teays River and is indicated by a red (R) arrow. The Kanawha River joins the Ohio River near the orange (O) arrow. |
OverviewThe Ohio River is young from a geologic standpoint. The river formed on a piecemeal basis beginning between 2.5 and 3 million years ago. The earliest "Ice Ages" occurred at this time and dammed portions of north flowing rivers. The Teays River was the largest of these rivers and the modern Ohio River flows within segments of the ancient Teays. The ancient rivers were rearranged or consumed by glaciers and lakes.Upper Ohio RiverThe upper Ohio River formed when one of the glacial lakes overflowed into a south flowing tributary of the Teays River. Prior to that event, the north flowing Steubenville River (no longer in existence) ended between New Martinsville and Paden City, West Virginia. Likewise, the south flowing Marietta River (no longer in existence) ended between the cities. The overflowing lake carved through the separating hill and connected the rivers. The resulting flood would have been very dramatic and exciting to see. The floodwaters enlarged the small Marietta valley to a size more typical of a large river. The new, large river subsequently drained glacial lakes and melting glaciers at the end of several Ice Ages. The valley grew with each major Ice Age.
Many small rivers were altered or abandoned after the upper Ohio River formed. Valleys of some abandoned rivers can still be seen on satellite and aerial images of the hills of Ohio and West Virginia between Marietta, Ohio and Huntington, West Virginia. As testimony to the major changes that occurred, the valleys are actually found on hilltops.Middle Ohio RiverThe middle Ohio River formed in a manner similar to formation of the upper Ohio River. A north flowing river was temporarily dammed just southwest of Louisville, Kentucky, creating a large lake until the dam burst. A new route was carved to the Mississippi River and eventually the upper and middle sections combined to form what is essentially the modern Ohio River.Since it was considered by pre-Columbian inhabitants of eastern North America to be part of a single river continuing on through the lower Mississippi, it is perhaps an understatement to characterize the Ohio as a mere tributary of the Mississippi. The river is 981 miles (1579 km) long and carries the largest volume of water of any upper tributary of the Mississippi. The Indians and early explorers and settlers of the region often considered the Allegheny to be part of the Ohio, though the forks (the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers at what is now Pittsburgh) was considered a strategic military location.
On May 19, 1749 King George II of Great Britain granted the Ohio Company a charter of land around the forks of the Ohio River. Exploration of the territory and trade with the Indians in the region near the Forks by British colonials from both Pennsylvania and Virginia led to conflict with French forces that also claimed the region and had built forts along the Allegheny River. This led to the French and Indian War, also known as the Seven Years War, in which Britain gained sovereignty over the Ohio Valley.
Louisville, Kentucky was founded at the only major natural navigational barrier on the river, the Falls of the Ohio. These were a series of rapids where the river flowed over hard, fossil-rich beds of limestone. The first locks on the river were built at Louisville to circumnavigate the falls. Today, this is the site of McAlpine Locks and Dam. Little of the river's course is free flowing, actual river. It is a series of dams and reservoirs used to widen and deepen this formerly shallow river for navigation. The first dam on the river exists below Pittsburgh and causes water to pool up into reservoir-like conditions in both the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers.
Because the Ohio River flowed westwardly, it became the convenient means of westward movement by pioneers travelling from western Pennsylvania. After reaching the mouth of the Ohio, settlers would travel north on the Mississippi River to St. Louis, Missouri. There, some continued on up the Missouri River, some up the Mississippi, and some further west over land routes. In these early days, in the early 19th century, pirates set up shop at Cave-In-Rock, Illinois, waylaid travellers on their way down the river, killed them, stole their goods, and scuttled their boats. The folktales of Mike Fink recall the keelboats used for commerce in the early days of European settlement.
Other boats would travel south on the Mississippi to New Orleans and sometimes beyond to the Gulf of Mexico and other ports in the Americas and Europe. This provided a much needed route for goods from the west, since the trek east over the Appalachian Mountains was long and arduous. The need for access to the port of New Orleans by settlers in the Ohio Valley led to the United States' Louisiana Purchase in 1803.
Because of its role as the southern border of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, the Ohio River is famous as a large part of the border that divided free states and slave states in the years before the Civil War. As depicted in several novels by Harriet Beecher Stowe and Toni Morrison, the Ohio River was the barrier which, by crossing by boat or 'on ice floes', slaves were freed. Today, the Ohio River generally separates Midwestern and Great Lakes states from Southern border states.
Interestingly, by an accident of history, the charter for Virginia went not to the middle of the Ohio River, but to its far shore so the entire river was included. Wherever the river serves as a boundary between states—Illinois, Indiana and Ohio on the north, and Kentucky and West Virginia on the south, the river essentially belongs to the two states on the south that were divided from Virginia. Kentucky brought suit against Indiana in the early 1980s because of the building of the Marble Hill nuclear power plant in Indiana, which would have discharged its waste water into the river. The U.S. Supreme Court held that Kentucky's jurisdiction (and, implicitly, that of West Virginia) extended only to the low water mark of 1793, important because the river has been extensively dammed for navigation, so that the present river bank is north of the old low water mark. Similarly in the 1990s, Kentucky disputed Illinois' right to collect taxes on a riverboat casino docked in Metropolis, citing their control of the entire river.
In the early 1980s, the Falls of the Ohio National Wildlife Conservation Area was established at Louisville, Kentucky. In 2006, Cincinnati, Ohio Indie Rock band Nevada Smith published a bootleg version of their song "Il Fiume Fluisce Colore Maronne", a humorous protest song against the pollution in the Ohio.'Cities along the Ohio include:
*Pittsburgh, Monaca, Beaver Falls, Rochester, Shippingport, Aliquippa, Sewickley, Neville Island, McKees Rocks, Coraopolis, Moon Township, Crescent Township in Pennsylvania
*East Liverpool, Steubenville, Marietta, Belpre, Pomeroy, Gallipolis, Ironton, Portsmouth, Ripley and Cincinnati in Ohio
*Weirton, Wheeling, Moundsville, New Martinsville, Paden City, Parkersburg and Huntington in West Virginia
*Ashland, Newport, Maysville, Covington, Louisville, Owensboro, Henderson and Paducah in Kentucky
*Madison, Jeffersonville, Clarksville, New Albany, Tell City, Evansville and Mount Vernon in Indiana.
*Cairo, Metropolis, Brookport, Old Shawneetown, Cave-In-Rock, Elizabethtown and Golconda in Illinois*List of crossings of the Ohio River
*List of variant names of the Ohio River
*List of Pennsylvania rivers
*Muskellunge
*Ohio and Erie Canal
*Ohio River Bridges Project*Ohio River Valley Families Online Searchable Database, a genealogy resource
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