The 'Ohio River' is the largest
tributary by volume of the
Mississippi River. It is approximately 981 miles (1,579 km) long and is located in the eastern
United States. The halfway point of the river is marked by a monument in
Cincinnati's Eden Park, called Navigation Point.
The
river had great significance in the history of the
Native Americans. It 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 River. During the eighteenth century, it was the southern boundary of the
Northwest Territory, thus serving as the border between free and
slave territory. It is sometimes referred to as the "
Mason-Dixon line" as it is commonly acknowledged as the western natural extension of the original Mason-Dixon line that divided Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia (and at one time part of Virginia) thus being the unofficial, and at times disputed, border between the
Northern United States and the
American South or
upland South.
Geography and hydrography
The river is formed by the confluence of the
Allegheny and
Monongahela rivers at
Point State Park in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. From Pittsburgh, it flows northwest through
Allegheny &
Beaver Counties, before making an abrupt turn to the south-southwest at the
West Virginia—
Ohio—
Pennsylvania triple state line (near
East Liverpool, Ohio,
Chester, West Virginia, and
Midland, Pennsylvania), from which point it forms the border between West Virginia and Ohio, upstream of
Wheeling, West Virginia.
The river then follows a roughly southwest and then west-northwest course before bending to a west-southwest course for most of its length. It flows along the borders of
West Virginia,
Kentucky,
Ohio,
Indiana, and
Illinois, until it joins the
Mississippi near the city of
Cairo, Illinois.
Major tributaries of the river, indicated by the location of their mouth, include:
★
Allegheny River —
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
★
Monongahela River —
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
★
Chartiers Creek -
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
★
Beaver River —
Rochester, Pennsylvania
★
Wheeling Creek — West Virginia
★
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
★
Salt River —
Louisville, Kentucky
★
Kentucky River — Kentucky
★
Green River — Kentucky
★
Wabash River — Indiana-Illinois border
★
Saline River — Illinois
★
Cumberland River — Kentucky
★
Tennessee River — Kentucky
★
Cache River — Illinois
Drainage basin
The Ohio's drainage basin covers 189,422 square miles (490,603 km²), 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 panhandle of the state),
★
Kentucky (all but a small 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 and a small area in the southeastern corner of the state which is drained by the
Conasauga River),
★
Virginia (most of
Southwest Virginia),
★
North Carolina (the western quarter of the state),
★
Georgia (the northwest corner of the state),
★
Alabama (the
northern portion of the state), and
★
Mississippi (the northeast corner of the state).
Geology
The 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 River
The 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 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 River
The middle Ohio River formed in a manner similar to formation of the upper Ohio River. A north-flowing river was temporarily dammed southwest of present-day
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.
History
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 (1,579 km) long and carries the largest volume of water of any 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. Exploration of the territory and trade with the Indians in the region near the Forks by
British colonials from both Pennsylvania and Virginia—both of whom claimed the territory—led to conflict with
French forces that also claimed the region and had built forts along the Allegheny River. This led to the
Seven Years' War, in which Britain gained sovereignty over the Ohio Valley.
In 1774, the
Quebec Act restored the land east of the Missisippi River and north of the Ohio River to Quebec, appeasing the French-speaking British subjects, but angering the
13 Colonies. They listed it as one of the
Intolerable Acts, which precipitated the
American Revolution.
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 it is the site of
McAlpine Locks and Dam.
Because the Ohio River flowed westwardly, it became the convenient means of westward movement by pioneers traveling 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 the early 19th century,
pirates, such as
Samuel Mason, settled at
Cave-In-Rock, Illinois, waylaid travelers 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 traveled 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
Louisiana Purchase in 1803.
Because it is the Southern border of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, the Ohio River was a part of the border that divided free states and slave states in the years before the
American Civil War. The expression "sold down the river" originated as a lament of Kentucky
slaves being split apart from their families and sold in Louisville and other Kentucky locations to be shipped via the Ohio River down to New Orleans to be sold yet again to owners of cotton and sugar field plantations.
[1][2] Before and during the Civil War, the Ohio River was called the "River Jordan" by slaves escaping to freedom in the North via the
Underground Railroad.
[3] 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 Great Lakes states from
Southern border states.
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, 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. Aztar opened their own casino riverboat that docked in Evansville, Indiana at about the same time. Although cruises on the Ohio river were at first done in an oval pattern up and down the Ohio, the state of Kentucky soon protested and cruises were limited to going forwards then reversing and going backwards on the Indiana shore only.
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. In 1993, Louisville band
Love Jones released a song about recreational life on the Ohio River called "Ohio River".
River depth
While the Ohio River is quite deep it is a naturally shallow river that was artificially deepened by series of dams. The dams raise the water level in shallow stretches, allowing for commercial navigation. Near its origin at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, the Ohio remains fairly shallow, never rising above around 30 feet deep all the way past Cincinnati. From its origin to Cincinnati, the average depth is approximately 27 feet. However, once past Cincinnati, the river deepens substantially. Due to the damming, along with glacier formations and migrations in the latter part of the second Ice Age, the rivers depth increases nearly fivefold over about 100 miles, coming to a maximum depth of 168 feet just west of Louisville, Kentucky. The 50 miles around Louisville represent the deepest area of the river with an average depth of approximately 132 feet, allowing for much larger vessels to traverse the river. From Louisville, the river loses its depth very gradually until its confluence with the Mississippi at Cairo, Illinois where it has an approximate depth of 20 feet, due to the fact that it is more free flowing in the region.
Water levels for the Ohio River are predicted daily by the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The water depth predictions are relative to each local flood plain based upon predicted rainfall in the Ohio River basin in 5 reports as follows:
★ Pittsburgh, PA to Hannibal Dam, OH (including the Allegheny & Monongahela rivers)
(click to see report)
★ Willow Island Dam, OH to Greenup Dam, KY (including the Kanawha River)
(click to see report)
★ Portsmouth, OH to Markland Dam, KY
(click to see report)
★ McAlpine Dam, KY to Cannelton Dam, IN
(click to see report)
★ Newburgh Dam, IN to Golconda, IL
(click to see report) [4]
Cities and towns
''
Main articles: List of cities and towns along the Ohio River''
Cities along the Ohio include:
★ 'Pennsylvania'
★
★
Pittsburgh
★
★
Monaca
★
★
Beaver
★
★
Rochester
★
★
Shippingport
★
★
Aliquippa
★
★
Sewickley
★
★
McKees Rocks
★
★
Coraopolis
★ 'Ohio'
★
★
East Liverpool
★
★
Steubenville
★
★
Marietta
★
★
Belpre
★
★
Pomeroy
★
★
Gallipolis
★
★
Ironton
★
★
Portsmouth
★
★
Manchester
★
★
Aberdeen
★
★
Ripley
★
★
Cincinnati
★ 'West Virginia'
★
★
Weirton
★
★
Wheeling
★
★
Moundsville
★
★
New Martinsville
★
★
Paden City
★
★
St. Marys
★
★
Parkersburg
★
★
Ravenswood
★
★
Point Pleasant
★
★
Huntington
★
★
Kenova
★ 'Kentucky'
★
★
Ashland
★
★
Augusta
★
★
Newport
★
★
Maysville
★
★
Covington
★
★
Ludlow
★
★
Louisville
★
★
Owensboro
★
★
Henderson
★
★
Paducah
★ 'Indiana'
★
★
Madison
★
★
Jeffersonville
★
★
Clarksville
★
★
New Albany
★
★
Tell City
★
★
Evansville
★
★
Mount Vernon
★ 'Illinois'
★
★
Cairo
★
★
Metropolis
★
★
Brookport
★
★
Old Shawneetown
★
★
Cave-In-Rock
★
★
Elizabethtown
★
★
Golconda
Recreation
The
world record for the largest
blue catfish taken in the line class (104 lbs.), was set on the Ohio River in 1999. The river also holds records for the following species for the state of Kentucky:
[5]
★
Channel catfish (32 lbs.)
★
Longnose gar (40 lbs.)
★
Paddlefish (106 lbs.)
★
Silver carp (9 lbs., 6oz.)
★
Skipjack herring (3.1 lbs.)
★
Saugeye (6.58 lbs.)
References
1. http://www.ket.org/underground/behind/mendes.htm
2. http://filebox.vt.edu/users/wdunaway/publications/slavery.htm
3. http://www.ket.org/underground/research/crossing.htm
4. http://www.riverwatch.noaa.gov/ohio.shtml
5. Kentucky State Record Fish List
See also
★
List of crossings of the Ohio River
★
List of variant names of the Ohio River
★
List of Pennsylvania rivers
★
Ohio and Erie Canal
★
Ohio River Bridges Project
★
Ohio River flood of 1937
★
Watersheds of Illinois
★
List of islands in West Virginia (including islands on Ohio River)
External links
★
'Historic Ohio, the magazine'
★
Indiana Waterways-Ohio River Guidebook
★
'Ohio Historical Preservation Group'
★
Image at the confluence with the Mississippi River
★
Watershed information
★
Ohio River Forecast Center, which issues official river forecasts for rhe Ohio River and its tributaries
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