West Virginia Waterways
Encyclopedia
West Virginia
waterway
s find their highest sources in the highland watersheds of the Allegheny Mountains
. These watershed
s supply drainage to the creeks
often passing through deep and narrow hollows. From the hollows, rushing highland streams collect in bottom land brooks and river
s. People have lived along and boated on the waterways of what is now the Mountain State from the time of antiquity.
and Shepherdstown
area in what is now Jefferson County
, in order to establish a Swiss colony
. Neither the land grant nor the Swiss colony ever materialized. However, the early British fur trade
outpost, Fort Conolloways (today Tonolloways) with the "Canallaway", "Cawnoyes" and "Conestogoes" tribes appeared near the mouth of the Conococheague
on the Potomac River
after 1695. The Treaty of Albany (1720) designated the Blue Ridge Mountains
as the western boundary of white settlement. Orange County, Virginia
was formed in 1734. It included all areas west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, constituting all of present West Virginia. By 1739, Thomas Shepherd had constructed a flour mill powered by water from the Town Run or the Falling Springs Branch of the Potomac River
. Shepherd, along with Isaac Garrison and John Welton, established the present town of Shepherdstown in today's Jefferson County. In October 1748 the Virginia General Assembly
passed an act establishing a ferry across the Potomac River from the landing of Evan Watkin near the mouth of Conococheague Creek
in present-day Berkeley County
to the property of Edmund Wade in Maryland
. Robert Harper obtained a permit
to operate a ferry
across the Shenandoah River
at present-day Harpers Ferry, Jefferson County in March 1761. Thus, these two ferry crossings became the earliest locations of government-authorized civilian commercial crafts on what would become West Virginia waterways.
" that in 1660 and 1662 they were able to described a river below the Great Lakes
to France. In 1670, Jesuit Dablon was able to write a good description of this river. Sulpician missionaries Dollier de Casson and Bréhant de Galinée, using their contacts with the natives, reported in 1671 the aboriginal names of the Ohio
or Mississippi
("Ohio", in the Iroquois language, and "Mississippi", in the Ottawa language
, both mean "beautiful river"—belle rivière). The French Canadian
Sulpicians had replaced the Jesuit Fathers, who had replaced the original Récollets
. Confused European cartographers' ideas about the Ohio Country
continued somewhat beyond the first decade of the 18th century.
In 1691–1692 the British sent an envoy to the Shawnoe, who were called the "further Indians" (Broshar, 1920:232) by some at this time. Dutchman
Arnoult Vielle commanded this float down the Ohio River
to as far as the "Falls of Ohio". Captain Arent Schuyler returned to New York
from the Minisink
Indians of New Jersey
in February, 1694. He was told by them that, "six days agoe three Christians
and two Shanwans Indians who went about fifteen months agoe with Arnout Vielle into the Shanwans Country were passed by the Minnissinek going for Albany to fech powder for Arnout and his Company.” On September 11, 1694, Henri de Tonti made his report to France saying, "We have even been advised that one named Annas (Arias?), of the English nation, accompanied by the Loup savages has had some speech with the Miami
in order to draw them to them, which will give them a strong foothold for the success of their enterprise, if he corrupts them." With the help of a large number of Shawnee
, and some from seven other "nations", portering beaver furs with Arnoult Vielle, they arrived in Albany, New York
, at the end of a very lucrative two-year hunt in the Ohio River Valley. "A band of Shawnee left their hunting grounds on the Cumberland (River, Ky)
to follow Viele east to the Delaware river
where they established a settlement." In August 1699, Iberville reported to France saying, "some men, twelve in number, and some Maheingans who are savages whom we call Loups started seven years ago from New York in order to go up the river Andaste
which is in the province of Pennsylvania
, as far as the River Ohio which is said to join the Wabash
, flowing together into the Mississippi
." Perhaps not the first white man to go boating on the Ohio River, but, Arnoult Vielle was the first well documented as such.
(1720s~30s) trading house near Letart Falls (namesake at the Jackson and Mason
county line) from the Allegheny's Beaver Creek area fur trade by 1740, where his son married a Shawnee
maiden. Along with them, much of his trade was coming from Little Kanawha River
tributaries and Mill Creek
, which reaches into Roane County
to the Elk River
watershed
. Western Virginia "Cherokee
" were reported at Cherokee Falls (today's Valley Falls
) in 1705 and continued the many Kanawhan old fields
. Soon, these evolved into a fireside cabin culture with the pioneer, too. They had not been quite like Keetoowah
, seldom called to counsel by the Ahniyvwiya. Some migrated north of Daniel Boone
's Kentucky
settlement before he arrived, but not all for the assimilation with local Virginia
colonizers. There were several different historical tribes in the Kanawhan region during the 18th century, including the Bulltown
Delaware. A Mingo
Indian statue commemorates the first inhabitants of the tributaries of the Monongahela
, Potomac
, Greenbrier
, Elk
, Tygart
, and Gauley
highland watershed's divide, near the village of Mingo Flats. Simply, none were villaging at that particular year on any Old Fields
on the Kanawha River
during Salley's expedition, nor did he report any people on the lower Ohio, only describing the "Ohio Falls" area as a "Spanish Manor".
There is a gap between the Mill Creek lowlands and the large Great Kanawha bottoms that was an eastern black buffalo (Eastern Forest Buffalo) migration route. Wonderful West Virginia magazine, in July 1976, Pp. 27 & 28, "W.Va. Wildlife 1776", by Maurice Brooks mentions these extinct buffalo achieved two hundred years ago along the Pennsylvania border (omitting person's name). Similarly, "The last buffalo seen here was killed on Little Coal river, in what is now Boone county, about half a century ago (~1826), and the last elk was killed (omitting person's name), on the waters of Indian creek of Elk river, about the same time."
Salley did not bother to visit Le Tort and his clientele on the east branches of the Kanawha River. Salley explored and named the Coal River
as we call it today which was Huntington
's Guyandot namesake Guyandotte River
and southern Ohio's Shawnee
farthest reach of hunting land at that time. These folk's period peaked with the Treaty of Fort Meigs
. Exposing the buffalo skin boat present in West Virginia is braved in this section with the use of the following quote:
(sic) "In 1742, John Peter Salley
and four or five others crossed the entire state of West Virginia without seeing a human being who made the region his home. They descended the New River from near the point where Batts saw it, and passed down the Kanawha to the Ohio, traveling in a boat made of buffalo skins." See Christopher Gist
’s Journals, and accompanying papers, published by William M. Dunnington, Pittsburgh, pages 253 and 254.
Frontier freight included highland spice, such as Highland "ginger
", creek
-bank "Spearmint
" (Mint julep
), "Peppermint
" (Mentha canadensis
) still used today, yellow root, ginseng
, hollar
Slippery Elm
aspirin
-like and Yellow Birch
medicinals. Other freight consisted of various dye
s and mineral
s such as Kanawha red salt
, Elizabeth
surface crude oil or the "snake oil" springs and New River sulphurs and saltpeter
, which were illegal to process for black powder in the Colony by English guild
demands. At the time, black powder was often hard to re-supply locally to the Native
gatherers and pioneer Trappers. Goods were canoed down major streams in the state to the few trading posts. After the local trade was made, horse-trains
continued the pack across the gaps eastward and off-loaded onto boats to continue the trek down larger rivers to waiting ships at the bay.
The mountain streams of the eastern side of the state from Pendleton
, Grant
, Hampshire
and Hardy
counties include the Cacapon River
, Patterson Creek
, Sleepy Creek
, Back Creek
, Opequon Creek
and the South Branch Potomac River. "As early as 1721 a trader had built a cabin at the confluence of the Conococheague Creek
and the Potomac River
at what is now Williamsport
, Md., about a dozen miles north of Martinsburg
, W.Va. He was on friendly terms with the Indians (particularly the "Canawest Treaty") and so the most important inroad to the wilderness was opened, the Potomac River ("Co-hon-go-ru-ta")." Charles Poke's trading post dates from 1731 at Cherokee Falls and sending upland forest goods and trade ware across this inroad. This ancient east-west mountain trail, crossing the Seneca Trail, generally follows today's U.S. Route 50
to the Potomac River
. Local trails and waterways in northern West Virginia
tributaries of the Monongahela River
connected with Nemacolin's Trail
, beginning at Redstone Old Fort
as it was called in the 18th century.
French Quebec canal engineer Chaussegros de Léry boated down the Allegheny and Ohio rivers in 1729. He was a noted fortifications engineer. A group of canoes under the direction of Charles Le Moyne reconnoitered down the Ohio River in 1739. The curiously found "elephant-like bones" (mastodon
) became the talk of the colonies. The official colonial surveyors traveled the river in large styled birchbark canoes. It has been reported by many historians that much more than a dozen men would paddle these. The frontier clinic doctors often came along to make their "treaty" stops at fur collection
villages. The reports and letters were transported by these boaters to Fort Henry (present-day Wheeling, West Virginia
), and Fort Pitt
(present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). According to the "Draper Papers" and a few earlier historians, Simon Kenton
had his first trading house at the mouth of the Elk River
at today's state capitol city
on the Kanawha from 1771 and went by the name of Butler. There are local tales of canoeing up to his landing to trade about the year colonial surveyors such as Mr. Taylor, Captain Crawford
and George Washington
proceeded on the first surveys here from 1770. Native American canoe porters were seldom mentioned in these journals. A considerable amount of goods were being moved to the east and Canada
during the earlier decades on the region's waterways.
Another colonial surveyor, gone boating on the Kanawha and Ohio rivers, was Captain Hanson in April 1774. While on the Kanawha River and quoting from his journal: "16th. We proceeded to Elk River, 6 miles (9.7 km) & found the canoe on the opposite shore of New River. Mr Floyd and a stranger went out to hunt; whilst we finished the canoe, which was done when he returned, after shooting a Deer & a Pike 43 inches (1,092.2 mm) long." "17th. We called our canoe the Good-Hope, imbarked on board of her, sailed 9 miles (14.5 km) down the river, there saw two canoes ashore, which caused us to land, We found Majr Fields in company...The People informed us, that the Indians had placed themselves on both sides of the Ohio, and that they intended war. The Delaware Indians told them that the Shawnese intended to rob the Pensylvainans & kill the Virginians where ever they could meet with them, We parted with them & proceeded to Crab River 3 miles (4.8 km)." "18th. We surveyed 2000 acres (8.1 km²) of Land for Col. Washington, bordered by Coal River & the Canawagh..." "19th. We passed on from hence, passing Pokatalico River at 6 miles (9.7 km), to a bottom Mr. Hogg is improving in all 14 miles (22.5 km), Mr. Hogg confirmed the news we had of the Indians, He says there were 13 People who intended to settle on the Ohio, and the Indians came upon them and a battle ensued..." "20th. We proceeded to the mouth of the Kanawha, 26 miles (41.8 km). At our arrival we found 26 People there on different designs - Some to cultivate land, others to attend the surveyors, They confirm the same story of the Indians. One of them could speak Indian language, therefore Mr. Floyd & the other Surveyors offered him 3 per month to go with them, which he refused, and told us to take care of our scalps..."
Before the dams began to be built in 1885, Wheeling
was known as the "head of dry navigation" during drought. The path between the two locations was used for dispatch, at the time an overnight trip. The officials accompanied by a few friendly scouts
of employ could otherwise canoe them and material more quickly to Fort Henry and down river to as far as Fort Kaskaskia
, a small garrison trading post associated with Colonel George Croghan
et al. The block house (small forts) construction material were more often moved on rafts called flatboat
s.
Chief Cornstalk
's Shawnese (Chalahgawtha
) word for canoe was "Olagashe". Again locally, the Ohio River was also called "Spaylaywitheepi" in Shawnese at the Lower Shawnee Town
. Shawano, Hulagî’si punhanwi, the boat is landing. Iroquois (Tuscarora, Mingoe & Canawagh) call the Kanawha River "Kahnawáʼkye" meaning "waterway" (transport-way), and "kye" is an augmentive suffix. In this context, it renders "Much Transport Way", or "Big Waterway". "Kaháwa'" is a noun phrase meaning "boat" (canoe). It varies with "kahôwö'". "Uhíyu'" is a verbal nominal meaning the Ohio River
or the state of Ohio
. It belongs to the semantic field places. Etymology [u]- NsP/I prefix, -(i)h- /river/, -íyu- /be good, beautiful/, -' Noun suffix. Literal translation is "the beautiful river". The phrase "Kentucky" is also from "Ken-ta-ke", a Mohawk (Iroquois or Six Nations) word signifying "among the meadows". (List of names of places given to Dr. Hough, by an intelligent Indian of the Cahnawagas, or French Mohawks, of the tribe near Montreal. Hough's "History of St. Lawrence County," New York. 1858.)
George Washington
and Christopher Gist
's raft was destroyed by floating ice, stranding them on the Allegheny River
's Garrison Island on December 29, 1753. A frigid night allowed them to walk from the island the next morning. Washington also wrote of the coal
outcrop
burning on the ridge above West Columbia in Mason County
, as university scholars identify. The civilian Ohio River flatboat era began about the time Colonel Brodhead had command at Fort Pitt, 1778–1781. His reports and letters became public in the early 1850s. With the assistance of friendly Kanawha and Monongahela Indians his army retaliated hostiles coming down the Allegheny River
. His campaigns continued which defeated the war chiefs from Ohio in 1781 who came to power after "White Eyes
" died. This clearing of hostiles on the upper Ohio River system aided arrivals from Europe to build flatboats to take them to their new pioneer homes. Some French and Indian War
veterans sold their patent surveyed land for cash to frontier settlement arrivals, not wishing to uproot from their already established easterly homesteads. Many settlers came down the Ohio from the Forks of Ohio and the young town of Wheeling
, located at the end of the Cumberland Road, building their flatboats there. By 1800, a variation as a houseboat
was called an arc. It included a "fireplace" (Franklin stove
?) within the cabin. One of these is recorded being anchored within the Crooked Creek embayment near the Boone trading post at Kanawha Harbor.
Kanawha salt was moved downriver on flatboats in greater quantity than earlier occasional sacks aboard canoes. In 1782, Jacob Yoder launched from the Monongahela at Redstone with a cargo of produce, according to his friend Joseph Pierce of Cincinnati, another flatboat captain. This first commercial attempt reached New Orleans having drifted through the dangerous Spanish region. These crews walked back to their home on the Ohio River, passing through the deep South's Spanish lands. The shipping of coal on West Virginia rivers began about 1803. Fort Nelson (Louisville
) and Fort Washington (Cincinnati, the population of which was about 950 at the time) were notable stops. The population of western Virginia was about 100,000 in 1810. The old river jetties
did not stop the usefulness of flatboat
s. Variations of these were built through the following decades. They were used on the Ohio into the 20th century. They all were difficult to maneuver through the early dam's locks and by that time, steamboat
s' barge
s had replaced them.
is more famous on the lower Mississippi River
. The earlier ones were carved from cypress
and sycamore
. Some of these were nearly 50 feet (15.2 m) long and 5 feet (1.5 m) wide. These French pirogues often had a small sail which could relieve them of their pole and paddle propulsion. As their carpenters came onto the frontier, they made them with planks and a flat bottom. Spanish
vessels on the Mississippi River system's shoal waters were similar.
On August 12, 1749, Celeron de Bienville
, a French
officer and his flotilla of canoes, "encountered two canoes, loaded with packs and guided by four Englishmen." On the August 13, he "encountered several pirogues, conducted by Iroquois
, who were hunting on the rivers which intersect the land," the rivers of the western Kanawha region along the Ohio River
. Of the Great Kanawha River he records: "The 18th, I departed at an early hour. I camped at noon, the rain preventing us continuing our route. I have this day placed a lead plate at the entrance of the river Chiniondaista and attached the arms of the king to a tree. This river carries canoes for forty leagues without encountering rapids, and has its source near Carolina. The English
of this government come by treaty to the Belle Rivière."
The West Virginia pioneers
along the river built a square-sided canoe
using boards butted together. The construction is similar to their building these waters' more common flat-bottomed rectangular rowboat used for fishing and river crossing of local goods. The smaller and lighter canoe shape was better suited for one person to cross over gentle rapids (portage) and paddle upstream on the Ohio River
.
was passed unanimously by the Congress of the Confederation of the United States on July 13, 1787. On August 7, 1789, the United States Congress
affirmed the ordinance with slight modifications under the Constitution
. In 1787, pirogues began use on the upper frontier river for carrying the mail. The new United States
government paid these boaters to relay mail along the Ohio River in two week intervals between Wheeling
, Marietta
, Maysville
and Cincinnati, with short stops along the West Virginia and Ohio settlements. To be hired as a pirogue mail carrier, a candidate had to demonstrate above-average boating and swimming skills and was required to be frontier savvy. The mail pouch was strapped securely to his body in case of a boating accident. Fort Henry at Wheeling was the Mail Master's collection point for the Pirogue mail carriers.
or the "Old War". The order was given to build a new frontier army and boats for logistics support. Keelboats, ranging from 50 to 100 tons
, can be considered to have started with the efforts of Major Craig of Fort Pitt. Craig wrote to General Knox on March 11, 1792 and again in a report dated May 11, 1792 about these better-built boats and their cost.
The next year, 1793, with the upper West Virginia rivers firmly under Major Craig's control, saw the first regular packet line on the Ohio River. It was a weekly keelboat trip between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh with short stops at other West Virginia and Ohio river settlements. Cincinnati merchant Jacob Meyers saw the need in this year. His vessel was built similar to Lewis and Clark's adventure galley, another variation of a keelboat
. Individual packets' round-trips had taken about a month during the hostile era and some did not survive. This inspired merchant Meyers to start his "Line".
, Gallipolis
, Marietta
and Wheeling
. The government mail carriers relayed between their two assigned towns on a one week turn-around. Each team stayed at their landing towns until the next relay team arrived. After the exchange, they soon made departure to ensure the one-week delivery. A passenger was to carry his own pouch of food, and a weapon was highly encouraged for his own personal protection.
schooner
, Amity and the 250 ton Pittsburgh in 1792. In 1793, these were loaded with flour; one was sent to St. Thomas
in the Virgin Islands and the other to Philadelphia. Coal
used as ballast was sold in Philadelphia at 37½ cents a bushel the next year on two of their brigantine
s, 200 ton
Nanina and 350 ton Louisianna. The largest was the 400 ton brigantine Western Trader. Before 1803, the 70 ton gaffed rigged schooner Dorcus & Sally was built at Wheeling
and fitted at Marietta, Ohio
. Also, the 130 ton Mary Avery was built at Marietta. The 100 ton schooner Nancy was launched on June 27, 1808 at Wheeling and among others to include Little Kanawha before the era of the paddlewheelers. The uncommonly long wild black walnut timber
used for hull
construction, written in a journal of a coastal purchaser's observer, were a little lighter yet as strong as the heavier oak
hull timber used at that time on the east coast
. Some shipwrights from Rhode Island
arrived about this time to join their neighboring regionals
who had already relocated along the river's old growth forest
shipyard
s. A few of these walnut-hulled schooners were sold with their freight, and a few were fitted as North American
gun cutters (escort/patrol) with others of the US privateers during the War of 1812
. One was also noted in the Caribbean
. In January, 1845, Liverpool
, England, not believing the marque home port and having to be shown the geography thereby not pirates, welcomed the Marietta-built 350 ton barque
Muskingum. This was a cheerful first for Ohio River crews. The largest built was the ship
Minnesota at Cincinnati of 850 tons
for a New Orleans owner. A steaming paddlewheeler delivered it.
A few locally built and crewed barque
s made passage to Africa
and back to the Kanawha region before the Civil War
. These larger vessels moved during spring flood waters, having a little more draft than our earlier more common schooner's berthy 11 feet (3.4 m) draft or less, which were more able. The early upper Ohio Valley vessels' cargo included flour
, smoked beef
, barreled salt pork
, glass-wares
, iron
, black walnut furniture
, wild cherry, yellow birch
and various beverages
. Much of the bulk cargo
were stored in flat-bottomed square-end "jonboats", as crate
s above the hold for some destinations required a davit
method of loading and unloading the freight. It was during this era that sorghum
and the Kentucky
variety of tobacco
were exported in greater volume from farmers in western Virginia's large bottomlands boat landings
.
built the valley's first commercial paddlewheel steamboat, New Orleans
, at Pittsburgh and Captain Nicholas Roosevelt
sailed it down the Ohio to New Orleans in 1811. But it was not able to navigate back up river from Natcheys
. It was side-wheel driven with a low pressure boiler driver compared to following plants. The machine powered river transportation industry was on its way with the Steam-engine works at Pittsburgh of Oliver Evans and managed by Mark Stackhouse which began operations in May 1812. A plant from this shop went into the early local stern-wheel steamboat, Comet, launched January 1813 (University of Pittsburgh's 'Historic Pittsburgh' ). Slowly replacing keel boats, the growing machine powered vessel industry arrived in the state. In 1816 Captain Henry Shreve built the George Washington at Wheeling. It set the pattern for future steamboats. He named the passenger cabins, calling them staterooms, after U.S. states. This vessel was stern-wheel driven. Valley Forge is reported to be the first large iron steamboat on the upper Ohio Valley (University of Pittsburgh's Historic Pittsburgh). Robinson and Minis launched it at Pittsburgh on September 1839.
According to Dr. Hale's Early History of the Kanawha River Valley, "The first steamboat to attempt the navigation of the river (Great Kanawha) in the early days of steamboating on the western waters was the Robert Thompson in 1819. She went as far as Red House Shoals, but lacking power to stem the swift currents in that place abandoned the effort and returned." This was at the continued skeptical amuzement of the local keelboat workers. Local tradition has team of horse was used to pull vessels over shoals. A team of large draft horse
would later be onboard some steamboats and jumped for hookup during the drought season. This unique 'horse handler', to use an old Army classification, was both blacksmith
and boat mechanic parallel the horse drawn machine machanic. This job position also worked along with the vessel's boiler engineer as coal tender (fuel loading), drive repair (paddlewheel system), and deck repair (Point Pleasant River Museum http://www.pprivermuseum.com/). Henry Shreve designed the first steam-powered snagboat in 1829, The Heliopolis. Quoting the 'Tom Bevill Visitor Center', USACE Mobile District, "This double-hull design remained the standard until the early twentieth century with the development of high-strength steel hulls."
Hale contunes, "In 1820 the Andrew Donnally, a steamer built by Messrs. Andrew Donnolly and Issac Noyes, salt makers of Charleston, made the first successful run to Charleston." Expanded later about the time Liverpool Salt Works at Hartford and other notable manufacture arrived along the logistic rivers, the salt industry barrel works was located at Crooked Creek at Kanawha Harbor. It provided containers for whisky used for lamp lighting and other considerations, West Columbia's
nail works, and local farmer's salt pork and cheese barrels. The fruit and chicken crate making firms were also scattered into the navigable tributaries. From the time of keelboat operators, river trade employee method progressed as new kinds of freight such as bricks and glass increased a few decades before the zenith of showboat
s and the railway matrix connected with Ohio River bridges after the Civil War.
During the American Civil War
, Fort Union at the mouth of the Little Kanawha River
at Parkersburg
was the Union Army's supply center to the western states. With no railroad bridge
s crossing the Ohio River, this depot connected the eastern factories' rail to steamboat packets continuing the supplies west under this Quartermaster
's command, the Upper Ohio Flotilla
. This Supply Center was under the command of Quartermaster Charles Conley (Matheny 1989). Parkersburg was also the recruiting center for the 9th West Virginia
Infantry
(April 1862, Co K), who were often detailed onboard to protect the packetboats and river crossings on the West Virginia rivers. Recruiter Col. Whaley and Lt. Col. William C. Starr, and Regimental Commander Gen. I. H. Duval were under Federal command at Wheeling, West Virginia
. Many of these recruits came from a river worker's family tradition. "The regiment was composed largely of refugees, who, having been driven from home, were fighting with a desperation that was not excelled by any troops in any army." from the writings of Theodore Lang. Livestock was commandeered to feed the assemblages on both sides (Matheny 1989). In 1862, Wheeling Command instructed the unit commanders to write receipts for local goods taken in the field. Also found in local older almanac-magazines, according to both Lang and Matheny, Richmond
neglected this practice in the western region of the Old Commonwealth.
Recruited river workers and the flotilla of barges and civilian packets evacuated the salt miners, residents and civilian government during the "Confederate Overrun of Charleston, West Virginia". General William W. Loring pushed back Colonel Joseph A. J. Lightburn, but, the General knew when to stop and hold his ground. Ohio Generals had provided a significant artillery and brigade for this strategic recall trap. He did not chase after the flottilla to take control of the Mouth of the Kanawha thereby stopping Union river logistics to the Kentucky-Tennessee Theatre as some figured. The Confederate were after Kanawha Salt, nothing more. Horse-pack trains for weeks moved the salt for meat processing to the south. The Union command had earlier removed a significant number troops from the state for southerly battles. This had much weeken Lightburn's command, but, not his ability to protect the public. Much of the 9th were stationed at Point Pleasant to January, 1863 to guard the packets and refugees. The 5th Infantry Regiment and 106th Cavalry also patrolled until the retaking of Charleston a couple of months later. A few detachment of river troops remained well into the following year. Confederate brigadier general Albert G. Jenkins
, son of a wealthy plantation in Cabell County, Virginia (W.Va.)
, from the area encampments of Roane County
area his cavalry using the dragoon tactics (rush in, dismount & attack targets, remount rush away- also later of gongho air) attacked along the Ohio to as far as northern Kentucky. His primary targets were the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and supply packets at the Union procurement landings. These river crossings sentry and Colonel RBJP Smith's 106th militia of Jackson and Mason counties Cavalry continued their patrols watching for routine river crossing raids of the state's persistent Jenkins' Confederate Cavalry to reappear, until Morgan and his raiders showed up in Meigs County, Ohio
.
Morgan's Raid
was what brought the US Navy to the state's shores. Those river workers with Major General Ambrose E. Burnside's "amphibious division" were involved in the Battle of Buffington Island
. These served on the Alleghany Belle. The Magnolia, Imperial, Alleghany Belle, and Union tinclads and armed packets were documented privateers along with other smaller private owned salt ham and ammunition vessels under Parkersburg Logistics' command. Lt Commander Leroy Fitch's fleet included the Brilliant, Fairplay, Moose, Reindeer, St. Clair, Silver Lake, Springfield, Victory, Naumkeag, Queen City which were tinclads and ironclads under the U.S. Navy Mississippi Fleet Command. Ironclad USS Naumkeag patrolled from the Kanawha Harbor of the Mouth of Kanawha area. Springfield guarded from Pomeroy towards Letart Islands. Victory's cannon balls have been found along Leading Creek, Ohio, behind the period's boat yards. Its patrol was from Middleport, Ohio
to Eight Mile Island
with its sentry guarded crossing. Twice, Confederate scouting units found skirmish here. The last were Cavalry scouts in retreet this time who saw armed vessels. The Ravenswood
crossing saw the heat of the maneuvering skirmishes during the Battle of Buffington Island
. The region's newspapers headline this routing as The Calico Raid for procuring personal goods from local stores and houses. Its position on the river and during the offensive phase before breakup, Pomeroy, Ohio
was the last county seat in a solidly held Union state to be raided by this Confedrate Column. It was reported horsemen carried away scarce luxary gifts for the anticipative return home beyond encampment food stuff.
After the war, the steamboat Mountain Boy transported government officials and documents to Charleston
from Wheeling after seven years there. The steamboats Emma Graham and Chesapeake moved the state's officials and documents back to Wheeling in 1875. After a citizens' vote in August 1887, the steamboats were again called on to move the state government and records back to Charleston. People of the day claimed West Virginians had a "Floating Capitol".
at the confluence of the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers. It had reached a stage of 39.2 feet (11.9 m) feet at the Point according to University of Pittsburgh
's 'Historic Pittsburgh.' Major George Washington on November 23, 1753 described the elevation of normal pool, "The Land at the Point is 20 or 25 feet (7.6 m) Feet above the common Surface of the Water". The next major recorded flood was on April 10, 1806 reaching 37.1 feet (11.3 m) feet above normal pool. It was followed by the 1810 flood of 35.2 feet (10.7 m) feet above normal pool. The flood of 1816 reached 36.2 feet (11 m). Not all floods developed in the Ohio Valley up-river the tributary rivers of the state.
The first recorded flood on the Ohio River along the West Virginia shores was in 1768. The Mingo survivors declared it was the highest known. It swept away their village near today's Steubenville, Ohio. The "Great Pumpkin Flood" occurred in 1811. After some days of drizzling rain, the storm increased causing a very rapid raise of the river. It washed away outhouses, out buildings and all sorts of ground drift. The bottom's pumpkin field's bumper crop was washed away.
The 1832 flood was exceptionally destructive campared to earlier floods do to increased individual capitol investing. Government encouraged Homesteader's development had not figured on that occasion of extra high water levels on the flood plain bottoms. The 1852 flood was one foot lower than the 1832. Although, the steamboats were able to navigate over islands with no problem of grounding. With more industrial growth along the river routes, this flood was the first to wreck wealthy industry investors.
The Spring flood of 1860 was average 40 feet (12.2 m) above pool. Team of horse and plow method, many muddied bottoms did not make vegetables nor grain before first frost. The following year in 1861 during the fall saw a few more feet higher. Many of these fields did not mature soon enough. These series of floods and harsh winter devastated the farm bottom crops and two season's income. Furthering early Civil War hardship, gathering civil groups commandeered remaining farmer's seed stock during this period. Decades ago an elderly steampacket engineer out of Kanawha Harbor declared, the Rebels not only took the egg, but the chicken-two. The local small packet's egg run found little local produce to deliver to the river town markets. Support from the Union supply depot at Parkersburg Logistics Center reestablished in 1862 their local produce procurement. This assistance encouraged local farmers to side with the Union and some river workers to recruit (Matheny, H. E. 1987).
, by connecting the waters of the James River
and the Greenbrier River
, and for improving the New, Greenbrier and Kanawha rivers which were referred to the Committee on Commerce." Mr. Ellihu B. Washburne made a motion on January 13, 1859, to the Committee on Commerce to discharge considerations of the James River and Kanawha Company concerning Mr. Ellett's plan for supplying water in the Ohio River
. On March 31, 1870, Mr. Willey submitted a resolution to Congress: The Committee of Commerce resolved to inquire a survey and examination be conducted under the US War Department. The purpose was twofold. A line of communication from the Chesapeake Bay
on the James and Kanawha rivers and their tributaries to the mouth of the Kanawha River was to be reported back to Congress with Liberty to be presented as a Bill
. It was to include a means of transporting military supplies west in case of war
. The commercial necessities of the Mississippi River
was to be included and considered in this prospect.
In 1873, citizens of West Virginia petitioned the U.S. Congress for aid in the Little Kanawha River
's improvement to Congress. Further improvement of the Kanawha River was requested to Congress in that session's Rivers and Harbors bills (8.No.1006) (H. R. No. 3168). Gradually, the continent
al railway system and the Great Lakes
connecting to the upper Mississippi River became Congress' main attention in much of the latter half of the 19th century.
The U. S. Government abandoned the Little Kanawha system of locks and dams in 1937. Eleven commercial boats traveled the river in 1912. Steam packet Louise made daily runs between Parkersburg and Creston. Along with log float operators, as many as ten commercial gasoline craft had operated on the river (Bibbee, F.R. 1928).
in the late 1880s. The ten French System roller dam
s, called Chanoine dams, were completed in 1898. These dams provided year-round commercial navigation
on the Kanawha River for 90 miles (144.8 km) from Boomer
to Point Pleasant
at the river's mouth. This allowed expansion of the shipyards to include contemporary ocean-going military vessels. In 1921, the General John McE. Hyde was built in Charleston on the Kanawha River by the Charles Ward Engineering Works. It saw action during World War II
at Manila Bay
, Philippines
. Its sister ship, the General Frank M. Coxe, was finished in 1922. It served as an Army transport vessel and was later converted to a cruise ship on San Francisco Bay
.
In the 1930s, the ten Chanoine dams were replaced with four High Lift German Roller System dams. This decade saw a considerable increase in military ship building. These dam locations begin at Gallipolis Ferry forming the pool on the lower Kanawha and Ohio rivers, the Winfield
Pool, the Marmet
Pool and the London Pool to Boomer. During drought, all ensure at least a 12 feet (3.7 m) deep navigation over old shoals, contrasting many of nature's other much deeper channels along the way. In 1989, the USACE began construction of larger and longer lock chambers. Today, most tows no longer need to break-tow to pass through to the next pool. This has allowed much less waiting for a lock through. Some tows can approach 800 feet (243.8 m), and some nautical authors claim 1000 feet (304.8 m) long tows have been made. Smaller pleasure craft
can navigate to as far as the Kanawha Falls
' public access picnic park and fishing boat ramp while watching for submerged boulder
s as one might fish above the upper London Pool. The Robert C. Byrd Locks and Dam
at Gallipolis Ferry
has a public museum with artifacts on display.
Satisfying eastern tannery
's growing demand for beaver
more often came to the "Point" by canoe and raft from the Kanawha region's tributary creeks
. Isaac Vanbibber and Daniel Boone's trading post
was established about 1790 at the mouth of Crooked Creek at Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Hudson's Trade Post and early landing appears on the 1807 Madison map opposite St Albans. By this decade, the steel trap had increased efficiency as beaver
became scarce within two decades. Fewer beaver dams brought drainage of many creek's "lakes". A shift to the state's other natural resources began in ever-increasing export quantity and a change to the riparian zone
. The next century brought farmsteads on these naturally "drained" wetland
creek bottoms. These settler
s saw a slightly different "Topography as the study of place".
A network of local produce exchange was carried between the farmers' landings and major town markets along the rivers. For example, one pair in the 1880s, the paddle wheelers Courier and Express, carried the mail between Wheeling and Parkersburg. These two steamboats passed each other daily, boating also with local produce and passengers.
Kanawha Harbor had a great amount of freight and passenger lay-over after the "Old War" of the 1790s. Kanawha salt production followed by coal
and timber
floats were moved from West Virginia
streams to the populace of other regions. A number of riverside locations were used for early Industrial Revolution
keelboat building in the Kanawha region, including at Leon
, Ravenswood
, Murraysville
and on the Little Kanawha River
. Earlier 19th century steamboat
building and machine repair were located at Wheeling
and Parkersburg
followed by Point Pleasant
and Mason City
. Wooden coal barges were built on the Monongahela River
near Morgantown
, on the Coal River
, and some on the Elk River
near Charleston
before metal
barge
s became the trend. As an example of how local water works
progressed, Kanawha Harbor's boat building increased after a horse-drawn
logging
"tram
" with special block and tackle
for the hillside harvesting was brought into use and some expansion of Crooked Creek. Later, this tram and other steam machinery were used for collecting timber
to be used as railroad tie
s in the railway
construction along the Kanawha River. It was finished about 1880. This brought the small steamboat
landings of the farmers along the rivers to use the railway. Many railroading spurs were built throughout West Virginia connecting mines to the riverboats' barge and coal-tipples.
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
waterway
Waterway
A waterway is any navigable body of water. Waterways can include rivers, lakes, seas, oceans, and canals. In order for a waterway to be navigable, it must meet several criteria:...
s find their highest sources in the highland watersheds of the Allegheny Mountains
Allegheny Mountains
The Allegheny Mountain Range , also spelled Alleghany, Allegany and, informally, the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the eastern United States and Canada...
. These watershed
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
s supply drainage to the creeks
Stream
A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...
often passing through deep and narrow hollows. From the hollows, rushing highland streams collect in bottom land brooks and river
River
A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...
s. People have lived along and boated on the waterways of what is now the Mountain State from the time of antiquity.
First European settlements and ferries
On July 13, 1709, Louis Michel, George Ritter, and Baron Christoph de Graffenried petitioned the King of England for a land grant in the Harpers FerryHarpers Ferry, West Virginia
Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County, West Virginia, United States. In many books the town is called "Harper's Ferry" with an apostrophe....
and Shepherdstown
Shepherdstown, West Virginia
Shepherdstown is a town in Jefferson County, West Virginia, United States, located along the Potomac River. It is the oldest town in the state, having been chartered in 1762 by Colonial Virginia's General Assembly. Since 1863, Shepherdstown has been in West Virginia, and is the oldest town in...
area in what is now Jefferson County
Jefferson County, West Virginia
Jefferson County is a county located in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of 2010, the population was 53,498. Its county seat is Charles Town...
, in order to establish a Swiss colony
Colony
In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....
. Neither the land grant nor the Swiss colony ever materialized. However, the early British fur trade
Fur trade
The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of world market for in the early modern period furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most valued...
outpost, Fort Conolloways (today Tonolloways) with the "Canallaway", "Cawnoyes" and "Conestogoes" tribes appeared near the mouth of the Conococheague
Conococheague Creek
Conococheague Creek, a tributary of the Potomac River, is a free-flowing stream that originates in Pennsylvania and empties into the Potomac River near Williamsport, Maryland. It is in length, with in Pennsylvania and in Maryland...
on the Potomac River
Potomac River
The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...
after 1695. The Treaty of Albany (1720) designated the Blue Ridge Mountains
Blue Ridge Mountains
The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. This province consists of northern and southern physiographic regions, which divide near the Roanoke River gap. The mountain range is located in the eastern United States, starting at its southern-most...
as the western boundary of white settlement. Orange County, Virginia
Orange County, Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 25,881 people, 10,150 households, and 7,470 families residing in the county. The population density was 76 people per square mile . There were 11,354 housing units at an average density of 33 per square mile...
was formed in 1734. It included all areas west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, constituting all of present West Virginia. By 1739, Thomas Shepherd had constructed a flour mill powered by water from the Town Run or the Falling Springs Branch of the Potomac River
Potomac River
The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...
. Shepherd, along with Isaac Garrison and John Welton, established the present town of Shepherdstown in today's Jefferson County. In October 1748 the Virginia General Assembly
Virginia General Assembly
The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the oldest legislative body in the Western Hemisphere, established on July 30, 1619. The General Assembly is a bicameral body consisting of a lower house, the Virginia House of Delegates, with 100 members,...
passed an act establishing a ferry across the Potomac River from the landing of Evan Watkin near the mouth of Conococheague Creek
Conococheague Creek
Conococheague Creek, a tributary of the Potomac River, is a free-flowing stream that originates in Pennsylvania and empties into the Potomac River near Williamsport, Maryland. It is in length, with in Pennsylvania and in Maryland...
in present-day Berkeley County
Berkeley County, West Virginia
Berkeley County is a county located in the Eastern Panhandle region of the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of 2010, the population is 104,169, making it the second-most populous county in West Virginia, behind Kanawha...
to the property of Edmund Wade in Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
. Robert Harper obtained a permit
License
The verb license or grant licence means to give permission. The noun license or licence refers to that permission as well as to the document recording that permission.A license may be granted by a party to another party as an element of an agreement...
to operate a ferry
Ferry
A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...
across the Shenandoah River
Shenandoah River
The Shenandoah River is a tributary of the Potomac River, long with two forks approximately long each, in the U.S. states of Virginia and West Virginia...
at present-day Harpers Ferry, Jefferson County in March 1761. Thus, these two ferry crossings became the earliest locations of government-authorized civilian commercial crafts on what would become West Virginia waterways.
Early river traffic
For nearly 15 years, missionaries and "coureurs de bois" confused ideas of a "beautiful River, large, wide, deep, and worthy of comparison . . . with our great river St. LawrenceSaint Lawrence River
The Saint Lawrence is a large river flowing approximately from southwest to northeast in the middle latitudes of North America, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. It is the primary drainage conveyor of the Great Lakes Basin...
" that in 1660 and 1662 they were able to described a river below the Great Lakes
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
to France. In 1670, Jesuit Dablon was able to write a good description of this river. Sulpician missionaries Dollier de Casson and Bréhant de Galinée, using their contacts with the natives, reported in 1671 the aboriginal names of the Ohio
Ohio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
or Mississippi
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
("Ohio", in the Iroquois language, and "Mississippi", in the Ottawa language
Ottawa language
Ottawa is a dialect of the Ojibwe language, spoken by the Ottawa people in southern Ontario in Canada, and northern Michigan in the United States. Descendants of migrant Ottawa speakers live in Kansas and Oklahoma...
, both mean "beautiful river"—belle rivière). The French Canadian
French Canadian
French Canadian or Francophone Canadian, , generally refers to the descendents of French colonists who arrived in New France in the 17th and 18th centuries...
Sulpicians had replaced the Jesuit Fathers, who had replaced the original Récollets
Recollets
The Récollets were a French branch of the Roman Catholic order, the Franciscans , which developed out of a reform movement that began in the 15th century in Spain and established itself in France in Tulle in 1585, at Nevers in 1592, at Limoges in 1596 and in Paris in 1603...
. Confused European cartographers' ideas about the Ohio Country
Ohio Country
The Ohio Country was the name used in the 18th century for the regions of North America west of the Appalachian Mountains and in the region of the upper Ohio River south of Lake Erie...
continued somewhat beyond the first decade of the 18th century.
In 1691–1692 the British sent an envoy to the Shawnoe, who were called the "further Indians" (Broshar, 1920:232) by some at this time. Dutchman
Dutch Golden Age
The Golden Age was a period in Dutch history, roughly spanning the 17th century, in which Dutch trade, science, military and art were among the most acclaimed in the world. The first half is characterised by the Eighty Years' War till 1648...
Arnoult Vielle commanded this float down the Ohio River
Ohio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
to as far as the "Falls of Ohio". Captain Arent Schuyler returned to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
from the Minisink
Minisink Archeological Site
Minisink Archeological Site, also known as Minisink Historic District, is an archeological site located in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Hundreds of early stone tools along with remains of fish and fruit indicated a more diverse diet than previously expected...
Indians of New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
in February, 1694. He was told by them that, "six days agoe three Christians
Mohawk Dutch
Mohawk Dutch is a now extinct Dutch-based creole language mainly spoken during the 17th century west of Albany, New York, by the Dutch colonists who traded with or to a lesser extent mixed with the local population from the Mohawk nation....
and two Shanwans Indians who went about fifteen months agoe with Arnout Vielle into the Shanwans Country were passed by the Minnissinek going for Albany to fech powder for Arnout and his Company.” On September 11, 1694, Henri de Tonti made his report to France saying, "We have even been advised that one named Annas (Arias?), of the English nation, accompanied by the Loup savages has had some speech with the Miami
Miami tribe
The Miami are a Native American nation originally found in what is now Indiana, southwest Michigan, and western Ohio. The Miami Tribe of Oklahoma is the only federally recognized tribe of Miami Indians in the United States...
in order to draw them to them, which will give them a strong foothold for the success of their enterprise, if he corrupts them." With the help of a large number of Shawnee
Shawnee
The Shawnee, Shaawanwaki, Shaawanooki and Shaawanowi lenaweeki, are an Algonquian-speaking people native to North America. Historically they inhabited the areas of Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Western Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana, and Pennsylvania...
, and some from seven other "nations", portering beaver furs with Arnoult Vielle, they arrived in Albany, New York
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
, at the end of a very lucrative two-year hunt in the Ohio River Valley. "A band of Shawnee left their hunting grounds on the Cumberland (River, Ky)
Cumberland River
The Cumberland River is a waterway in the Southern United States. It is long. It starts in Harlan County in far southeastern Kentucky between Pine and Cumberland mountains, flows through southern Kentucky, crosses into northern Tennessee, and then curves back up into western Kentucky before...
to follow Viele east to the Delaware river
Delaware River
The Delaware River is a major river on the Atlantic coast of the United States.A Dutch expedition led by Henry Hudson in 1609 first mapped the river. The river was christened the South River in the New Netherland colony that followed, in contrast to the North River, as the Hudson River was then...
where they established a settlement." In August 1699, Iberville reported to France saying, "some men, twelve in number, and some Maheingans who are savages whom we call Loups started seven years ago from New York in order to go up the river Andaste
Susquehanna River
The Susquehanna River is a river located in the northeastern United States. At long, it is the longest river on the American east coast that drains into the Atlantic Ocean, and with its watershed it is the 16th largest river in the United States, and the longest river in the continental United...
which is in the province of Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, as far as the River Ohio which is said to join the Wabash
Wabash River
The Wabash River is a river in the Midwestern United States that flows southwest from northwest Ohio near Fort Recovery across northern Indiana to southern Illinois, where it forms the Illinois-Indiana border before draining into the Ohio River, of which it is the largest northern tributary...
, flowing together into the Mississippi
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
." Perhaps not the first white man to go boating on the Ohio River, but, Arnoult Vielle was the first well documented as such.
Buffalo skin canoes
There have been hints in the old tellings within circles about skin-covered canoes in the Kanawha region. In mixed company, these were met with scoff. Trapper James (Jacob) Le Tort, Sr. moved his Penn permitThomas Penn
Thomas Penn was a son of William Penn, founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony that became the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Thomas Penn was born in Bristol, England after his father returned there in 1701 because of financial difficulties...
(1720s~30s) trading house near Letart Falls (namesake at the Jackson and Mason
Mason County, West Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 25,957 people, 10,587 households, and 7,569 families residing in the county. The population density was 60 people per square mile . There were 12,056 housing units at an average density of 28 per square mile...
county line) from the Allegheny's Beaver Creek area fur trade by 1740, where his son married a Shawnee
Shawnee
The Shawnee, Shaawanwaki, Shaawanooki and Shaawanowi lenaweeki, are an Algonquian-speaking people native to North America. Historically they inhabited the areas of Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Western Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana, and Pennsylvania...
maiden. Along with them, much of his trade was coming from Little Kanawha River
Little Kanawha River
The Little Kanawha River is a tributary of the Ohio River, 169 mi long, in western West Virginia in the United States. Via the Ohio, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River, draining an area of 2,320 mi² on the unglaciated portion of the Allegheny Plateau...
tributaries and Mill Creek
Mill Creek (western West Virginia)
Mill Creek is a tributary of the Ohio River, long, in western West Virginia in the United States. Via the Ohio, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River, draining an area of on the unglaciated portion of the Allegheny Plateau...
, which reaches into Roane County
Roane County, West Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 15,446 people, 6,161 households, and 4,479 families residing in the county. The population density was 32 people per square mile . There were 7,360 housing units at an average density of 15 per square mile...
to the Elk River
Elk River (West Virginia)
The Elk River is a tributary of the Kanawha River, long, in central West Virginia in the United States. Via the Kanawha and Ohio Rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River.-Course:...
watershed
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
. Western Virginia "Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
" were reported at Cherokee Falls (today's Valley Falls
Valley Falls State Park
Valley Falls State Park is a 1,145 acre day use facility sited along both banks of the Tygart Valley River. The park is located about 7 miles south of exit 137 of I-79, near Fairmont, West Virginia....
) in 1705 and continued the many Kanawhan old fields
Meadow
A meadow is a field vegetated primarily by grass and other non-woody plants . The term is from Old English mædwe. In agriculture a meadow is grassland which is not grazed by domestic livestock but rather allowed to grow unchecked in order to make hay...
. Soon, these evolved into a fireside cabin culture with the pioneer, too. They had not been quite like Keetoowah
Keetoowah
The Cherokee believe the ancient settlement of Kituwa or giduwa , on the Tuckasegee River is their original settlement and is one of the "seven mother towns" in the Southeast...
, seldom called to counsel by the Ahniyvwiya. Some migrated north of Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone was an American pioneer, explorer, and frontiersman whose frontier exploits mad']'e him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now the Commonwealth of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western borders of...
's Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
settlement before he arrived, but not all for the assimilation with local Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
colonizers. There were several different historical tribes in the Kanawhan region during the 18th century, including the Bulltown
Bulltown, West Virginia
Bulltown is a former settlement in Braxton County, West Virginia, United States.-Geography:Bulltown is located at . It is a part of the Little Kanawha River Valley watershed. Bulltown Historical District contains the Burnsville Lake Wildlife Management Area in which Bulltown sets...
Delaware. A Mingo
Mingo
The Mingo are an Iroquoian group of Native Americans made up of peoples who migrated west to the Ohio Country in the mid-eighteenth century. Anglo-Americans called these migrants mingos, a corruption of mingwe, an Eastern Algonquian name for Iroquoian-language groups in general. Mingos have also...
Indian statue commemorates the first inhabitants of the tributaries of the Monongahela
Monongahela River
The Monongahela River is a river on the Allegheny Plateau in north-central West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania in the United States...
, Potomac
Potomac River
The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...
, Greenbrier
Greenbrier River
The Greenbrier River is a tributary of the New River, long, in southeastern West Virginia, USA. Via the New, Kanawha and Ohio Rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River, draining an area of...
, Elk
Elk River (West Virginia)
The Elk River is a tributary of the Kanawha River, long, in central West Virginia in the United States. Via the Kanawha and Ohio Rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River.-Course:...
, Tygart
Tygart Valley River
The Tygart Valley River — also known as the Tygart River — is a principal tributary of the Monongahela River, approximately long, in east-central West Virginia, USA...
, and Gauley
Gauley River
The Gauley River is a river in West Virginia. It merges with the New River to form the Kanawha River, a tributary of the Ohio River. It is one of the most popular advanced whitewater runs in the Eastern United States and is the chief feature of the Gauley River National Recreation Area.-Headwaters...
highland watershed's divide, near the village of Mingo Flats. Simply, none were villaging at that particular year on any Old Fields
Indian old field
Indian Old Field, or simply Old Field, was a common term used in Colonial American times and up until the early 19th century United States, by white explorers, surveyors, cartographers and settlers, in reference to land formerly cleared and utilized by Indians for farming or occupation...
on the Kanawha River
Kanawha River
The Kanawha River is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately 97 mi long, in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The largest inland waterway in West Virginia, it has formed a significant industrial region of the state since the middle of the 19th century.It is formed at the town of Gauley...
during Salley's expedition, nor did he report any people on the lower Ohio, only describing the "Ohio Falls" area as a "Spanish Manor".
There is a gap between the Mill Creek lowlands and the large Great Kanawha bottoms that was an eastern black buffalo (Eastern Forest Buffalo) migration route. Wonderful West Virginia magazine, in July 1976, Pp. 27 & 28, "W.Va. Wildlife 1776", by Maurice Brooks mentions these extinct buffalo achieved two hundred years ago along the Pennsylvania border (omitting person's name). Similarly, "The last buffalo seen here was killed on Little Coal river, in what is now Boone county, about half a century ago (~1826), and the last elk was killed (omitting person's name), on the waters of Indian creek of Elk river, about the same time."
Salley did not bother to visit Le Tort and his clientele on the east branches of the Kanawha River. Salley explored and named the Coal River
Coal River (West Virginia)
The Coal River is a tributary of the Kanawha River in southern West Virginia. It is formed near the community of Alum Creek by the confluence of the Big and Little Coal Rivers, and flows generally northward through western Kanawha County, past the community of Upper Falls and into the Kanawha...
as we call it today which was Huntington
Huntington, West Virginia
Huntington is a city in Cabell and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia, along the Ohio River. Most of the city is in Cabell County, for which it is the county seat. A small portion of the city, mainly the neighborhood of Westmoreland, is in Wayne County. Its population was 49,138 at...
's Guyandot namesake Guyandotte River
Guyandotte River
The Guyandotte River is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately 166 mi long, in southwestern West Virginia in the United States. It was named after the French term for the Wendat Native Americans...
and southern Ohio's Shawnee
Shawnee
The Shawnee, Shaawanwaki, Shaawanooki and Shaawanowi lenaweeki, are an Algonquian-speaking people native to North America. Historically they inhabited the areas of Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Western Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana, and Pennsylvania...
farthest reach of hunting land at that time. These folk's period peaked with the Treaty of Fort Meigs
Treaty of Fort Meigs
The Treaty of Fort Meigs, also called the Treaty of the Foot of the Rapids, was signed September 29, 1817 between the chiefs and warriors of the Wyandot, Seneca, Delaware, Shawnee, Potawatomi, Ottawa and Chippewa, tribes of native Americans and the United States of America, represented by Lewis...
. Exposing the buffalo skin boat present in West Virginia is braved in this section with the use of the following quote:
(sic) "In 1742, John Peter Salley
John Peter Salley
John Peter Salley was born in Germany and traveled to America in the early 18th century. He was an explorer who led expeditions of discovery from Canada to Florida. He discovered coal in Boone County in western Virginia near the Coal River and the current day city of Racine. He was born in the...
and four or five others crossed the entire state of West Virginia without seeing a human being who made the region his home. They descended the New River from near the point where Batts saw it, and passed down the Kanawha to the Ohio, traveling in a boat made of buffalo skins." See Christopher Gist
Christopher Gist
Christopher Gist was an accomplished American explorer, surveyor and frontiersman. He was one of the first white explorers of the Ohio Country . He is credited with providing the first detailed description of the Ohio Country to Great Britain and her colonists...
’s Journals, and accompanying papers, published by William M. Dunnington, Pittsburgh, pages 253 and 254.
Birch bark canoes
Before the ever-increasing demands of the European fur market, the rivers carried more mundane Native American goods. Corn and a "Kentucky Wonder" like string beans within the broad scope of adjoining regions' natural resources included oceanic marine shells. Various were the ancient waterway's freight.Frontier freight included highland spice, such as Highland "ginger
Ginger
Ginger is the rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale, consumed as a delicacy, medicine, or spice. It lends its name to its genus and family . Other notable members of this plant family are turmeric, cardamom, and galangal....
", creek
Stream
A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...
-bank "Spearmint
Spearmint
Mentha spicata syn. M. cordifolia is a species of mint native to much of Europe and southwest Asia, though its exact natural range is uncertain due to extensive early cultivation. It grows in wet soils...
" (Mint julep
Mint Julep
The mint julep is a mixed alcoholic drink, or cocktail, associated with the cuisine of the Southern United States.- Preparation :A mint julep is traditionally made with four ingredients: mint leaf, bourbon, sugar, and water. Traditionally, spearmint is the mint of choiceused in Southern states, and...
), "Peppermint
Peppermint
Peppermint is a hybrid mint, a cross between the watermint and spearmint . The plant, indigenous to Europe, is now widespread in cultivation throughout all regions of the world...
" (Mentha canadensis
Mentha canadensis
Mentha canadensis is a species of mint. The flowers are bluish or a slight violet tint. The plant is upright about to tall. Leaves grow opposite from each other, and flower bunches appear at the upper leaf axil. The mint grows in wet areas but not directly in water, so it will be found near...
) still used today, yellow root, ginseng
Ginseng
Ginseng is any one of eleven species of slow-growing perennial plants with fleshy roots, belonging to the genus Panax of the family Araliaceae....
, hollar
Valley
In geology, a valley or dale is a depression with predominant extent in one direction. A very deep river valley may be called a canyon or gorge.The terms U-shaped and V-shaped are descriptive terms of geography to characterize the form of valleys...
Slippery Elm
Slippery Elm
Ulmus rubra, the Slippery Elm, is a species of elm native to eastern North America...
aspirin
Aspirin
Aspirin , also known as acetylsalicylic acid , is a salicylate drug, often used as an analgesic to relieve minor aches and pains, as an antipyretic to reduce fever, and as an anti-inflammatory medication. It was discovered by Arthur Eichengrun, a chemist with the German company Bayer...
-like and Yellow Birch
Yellow Birch
Betula alleghaniensis , is a species of birch native to eastern North America, from Newfoundland to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, southern Quebec and Ontario, and the southeast corner of Manitoba in Canada, west to Minnesota, and south in the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia.It is a...
medicinals. Other freight consisted of various dye
Dye
A dye is a colored substance that has an affinity to the substrate to which it is being applied. The dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution, and requires a mordant to improve the fastness of the dye on the fiber....
s and mineral
Mineral
A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical substance formed through biogeochemical processes, having characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not...
s such as Kanawha red salt
Salt
In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...
, Elizabeth
Elizabeth, West Virginia
Elizabeth is a town in Wirt County, West Virginia along the Little Kanawha River. The population was 994 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Wirt County. The townsite of Elizabeth was settled by William Beauchamp in 1796, and was known as "Beauchamp's Mills" until 1817, when it was named...
surface crude oil or the "snake oil" springs and New River sulphurs and saltpeter
Potassium nitrate
Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with the formula KNO3. It is an ionic salt of potassium ions K+ and nitrate ions NO3−.It occurs as a mineral niter and is a natural solid source of nitrogen. Its common names include saltpetre , from medieval Latin sal petræ: "stone salt" or possibly "Salt...
, which were illegal to process for black powder in the Colony by English guild
Guild
A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...
demands. At the time, black powder was often hard to re-supply locally to the Native
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
gatherers and pioneer Trappers. Goods were canoed down major streams in the state to the few trading posts. After the local trade was made, horse-trains
Packhorse
.A packhorse or pack horse refers generally to an equid such as a horse, mule, donkey or pony used for carrying goods on their backs, usually carried in sidebags or panniers. Typically packhorses are used to cross difficult terrain, where the absence of roads prevents the use of wheeled vehicles. ...
continued the pack across the gaps eastward and off-loaded onto boats to continue the trek down larger rivers to waiting ships at the bay.
The mountain streams of the eastern side of the state from Pendleton
Pendleton County, West Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 8,196 people, 3,350 households, and 2,355 families residing in the county. The population density was 12 people per square mile . There were 5,102 housing units at an average density of 7 per square mile...
, Grant
Grant County, West Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 11,299 people, 4,591 households, and 3,273 families residing in the county. The population density was 24 people per square mile . There were 6,105 housing units at an average density of 13 per square mile...
, Hampshire
Hampshire County, West Virginia
Hampshire County is a county located in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of 2010, the population was 23,964. Its county seat is Romney, West Virginia's oldest town . Hampshire County was created by the Virginia General Assembly on December 13, 1753, from parts of Frederick and Augusta counties ...
and Hardy
Hardy County, West Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 12,669 people, 5,204 households, and 3,564 families residing in the county. The population density was 22 people per square mile . There were 7,115 housing units at an average density of 12 per square mile...
counties include the Cacapon River
Cacapon River
The Cacapon River , located in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle region, is an river known for its fishing, boating, wildlife, and scenery...
, Patterson Creek
Patterson Creek
Patterson Creek is a tributary of the North Branch Potomac River in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle, in the United States. It enters the North Branch east of Cumberland, Maryland, with its headwaters located in Grant County, West Virginia...
, Sleepy Creek
Sleepy Creek
Sleepy Creek is a tributary of the Potomac River in the United States, belonging to the Chesapeake Bay's watershed. Sleepy Creek's source lies near the Hampshire County, West Virginia border at Good, north of State Route 127 in Frederick County, Virginia...
, Back Creek
Back Creek (Potomac River)
Back Creek is a tributary of the Potomac River that flows north from Frederick County, Virginia, to Berkeley County in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle. Back Creek originates along Frederick County's border with Hampshire County, West Virginia, at Farmer's Gap in the Great North Mountain. Its...
, Opequon Creek
Opequon Creek
Opequon Creek is a tributary stream of the Potomac River. It flows into the Potomac northeast of Martinsburg in Berkeley County, West Virginia, and its source lies northwest of the community of Opequon at the foot of Great North Mountain in Frederick County, Virginia...
and the South Branch Potomac River. "As early as 1721 a trader had built a cabin at the confluence of the Conococheague Creek
Conococheague Creek
Conococheague Creek, a tributary of the Potomac River, is a free-flowing stream that originates in Pennsylvania and empties into the Potomac River near Williamsport, Maryland. It is in length, with in Pennsylvania and in Maryland...
and the Potomac River
Potomac River
The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...
at what is now Williamsport
Williamsport, Maryland
Williamsport is a town in Washington County, Maryland, United States. The population was 1,868 at the 2000 census and 2,278 as of July 2008.-Geography: Williamsport is located at ....
, Md., about a dozen miles north of Martinsburg
Martinsburg, West Virginia
Martinsburg is a city in the Eastern Panhandle region of West Virginia, United States. The city's population was 14,972 at the 2000 census; according to a 2009 Census Bureau estimate, Martinsburg's population was 17,117, making it the largest city in the Eastern Panhandle and the eighth largest...
, W.Va. He was on friendly terms with the Indians (particularly the "Canawest Treaty") and so the most important inroad to the wilderness was opened, the Potomac River ("Co-hon-go-ru-ta")." Charles Poke's trading post dates from 1731 at Cherokee Falls and sending upland forest goods and trade ware across this inroad. This ancient east-west mountain trail, crossing the Seneca Trail, generally follows today's U.S. Route 50
U.S. Route 50
U.S. Route 50 is a major east–west route of the U.S. Highway system, stretching just over from Ocean City, Maryland on the Atlantic Ocean to West Sacramento, California. Until 1972, when it was replaced by Interstate Highways west of the Sacramento area, it extended to San Francisco, near...
to the Potomac River
Potomac River
The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...
. Local trails and waterways in northern West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
tributaries of the Monongahela River
Monongahela River
The Monongahela River is a river on the Allegheny Plateau in north-central West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania in the United States...
connected with Nemacolin's Trail
Nemacolin's Path
thumb|450px|[[Braddock's Road|General Braddock's March]] follows or parallel's Chief Nemacolin's Trail from the Potomac River to the Monogahela. The wagon negotiable route from the summit to [[Redstone Creek]] was bypassed by Braddock...
, beginning at Redstone Old Fort
Redstone Old Fort
Redstone Old Fort or Redstone Fort or Fort Burd on The Nemacolin Trail was the name of the French and Indian War era wooden fort built in 1759 by Pennsylvania Militia Colonel James Burd to guard the ancient Indian trail's river ford on a mound overlooking the eastern shore of the Monongahela River...
as it was called in the 18th century.
French Quebec canal engineer Chaussegros de Léry boated down the Allegheny and Ohio rivers in 1729. He was a noted fortifications engineer. A group of canoes under the direction of Charles Le Moyne reconnoitered down the Ohio River in 1739. The curiously found "elephant-like bones" (mastodon
Mastodon
Mastodons were large tusked mammal species of the extinct genus Mammut which inhabited Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and Central America from the Oligocene through Pleistocene, 33.9 mya to 11,000 years ago. The American mastodon is the most recent and best known species of the group...
) became the talk of the colonies. The official colonial surveyors traveled the river in large styled birchbark canoes. It has been reported by many historians that much more than a dozen men would paddle these. The frontier clinic doctors often came along to make their "treaty" stops at fur collection
Fur trade
The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of world market for in the early modern period furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most valued...
villages. The reports and letters were transported by these boaters to Fort Henry (present-day Wheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling is a city in Ohio and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia; it is the county seat of Ohio County. Wheeling is the principal city of the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area...
), and Fort Pitt
Fort Pitt (Pennsylvania)
Fort Pitt was a fort built at the location of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.-French and Indian War:The fort was built from 1759 to 1761 during the French and Indian War , next to the site of former Fort Duquesne, at the confluence the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River...
(present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). According to the "Draper Papers" and a few earlier historians, Simon Kenton
Simon Kenton
Simon Kenton was a famous United States frontiersman and friend of Daniel Boone, Simon Girty, Spencer Records and Isaac Shelby.-Family and early life:Simon Kenton was alive even before Ohio was a state...
had his first trading house at the mouth of the Elk River
Elk River (West Virginia)
The Elk River is a tributary of the Kanawha River, long, in central West Virginia in the United States. Via the Kanawha and Ohio Rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River.-Course:...
at today's state capitol city
Charleston, West Virginia
Charleston is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is located at the confluence of the Elk and Kanawha Rivers in Kanawha County. As of the 2010 census, it has a population of 51,400, and its metropolitan area 304,214. It is the county seat of Kanawha County.Early...
on the Kanawha from 1771 and went by the name of Butler. There are local tales of canoeing up to his landing to trade about the year colonial surveyors such as Mr. Taylor, Captain Crawford
William Crawford (soldier)
William Crawford was an American soldier and surveyor who worked as a western land agent for George Washington. Crawford fought in the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War...
and George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
proceeded on the first surveys here from 1770. Native American canoe porters were seldom mentioned in these journals. A considerable amount of goods were being moved to the east and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
during the earlier decades on the region's waterways.
Another colonial surveyor, gone boating on the Kanawha and Ohio rivers, was Captain Hanson in April 1774. While on the Kanawha River and quoting from his journal: "16th. We proceeded to Elk River, 6 miles (9.7 km) & found the canoe on the opposite shore of New River. Mr Floyd and a stranger went out to hunt; whilst we finished the canoe, which was done when he returned, after shooting a Deer & a Pike 43 inches (1,092.2 mm) long." "17th. We called our canoe the Good-Hope, imbarked on board of her, sailed 9 miles (14.5 km) down the river, there saw two canoes ashore, which caused us to land, We found Majr Fields in company...The People informed us, that the Indians had placed themselves on both sides of the Ohio, and that they intended war. The Delaware Indians told them that the Shawnese intended to rob the Pensylvainans & kill the Virginians where ever they could meet with them, We parted with them & proceeded to Crab River 3 miles (4.8 km)." "18th. We surveyed 2000 acres (8.1 km²) of Land for Col. Washington, bordered by Coal River & the Canawagh..." "19th. We passed on from hence, passing Pokatalico River at 6 miles (9.7 km), to a bottom Mr. Hogg is improving in all 14 miles (22.5 km), Mr. Hogg confirmed the news we had of the Indians, He says there were 13 People who intended to settle on the Ohio, and the Indians came upon them and a battle ensued..." "20th. We proceeded to the mouth of the Kanawha, 26 miles (41.8 km). At our arrival we found 26 People there on different designs - Some to cultivate land, others to attend the surveyors, They confirm the same story of the Indians. One of them could speak Indian language, therefore Mr. Floyd & the other Surveyors offered him 3 per month to go with them, which he refused, and told us to take care of our scalps..."
Before the dams began to be built in 1885, Wheeling
Wheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling is a city in Ohio and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia; it is the county seat of Ohio County. Wheeling is the principal city of the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area...
was known as the "head of dry navigation" during drought. The path between the two locations was used for dispatch, at the time an overnight trip. The officials accompanied by a few friendly scouts
Acculturation
Acculturation explains the process of cultural and psychological change that results following meeting between cultures. The effects of acculturation can be seen at multiple levels in both interacting cultures. At the group level, acculturation often results in changes to culture, customs, and...
of employ could otherwise canoe them and material more quickly to Fort Henry and down river to as far as Fort Kaskaskia
Fort Kaskaskia State Historic Site
Fort Kaskaskia State Historic Site is a 200-acre park near Chester, Illinois, on a blufftop overlooking the Mississippi River. It commemorates the vanished frontier town of Old Kaskaskia and the support it gave to George Rogers Clark in the American Revolution.-An earthen redoubt:The village of...
, a small garrison trading post associated with Colonel George Croghan
George Croghan
George Croghan was an Irish-born Pennsylvania fur trader, Onondaga Council sachem, land speculator, British Indian agent in colonial America and, until accused of treason in 1777, Pittsburgh's president judge and Committee of Safety Chairman keeping the Ohio Indians neutral...
et al. The block house (small forts) construction material were more often moved on rafts called flatboat
Flatboat
Fil1800flatboat.jpgA flatboat is a rectangular flat-bottomed boat with Fil1800flatboat.jpgA flatboat is a rectangular flat-bottomed boat with Fil1800flatboat.jpgA flatboat is a rectangular flat-bottomed boat with (mostlyNOTE: "(parenthesized)" wordings in the quote below are notes added to...
s.
Chief Cornstalk
Cornstalk
Cornstalk was a prominent leader of the Shawnee nation just prior to the American Revolution. His name, Hokoleskwa, translates loosely into "stalk of corn" in English, and is spelled Colesqua in some accounts...
's Shawnese (Chalahgawtha
Chalahgawtha
Chalahgawtha was the name of one of the five divisions of the Shawnee, a Native American people, during the 18th century, as well as the name of the principal village of the division. The other four divisions were the Mekoche, Kispoko, Pekowi, and Hathawekela...
) word for canoe was "Olagashe". Again locally, the Ohio River was also called "Spaylaywitheepi" in Shawnese at the Lower Shawnee Town
Lower Shawnee Town
Lower Shawneetown , also known as the Bentley Site, Shannoah and Sonnontio, is a Late Fort Ancient culture Madisonville horizon archaeological site overlain by an 18th century Shawnee village located near South Portsmouth in Greenup County, Kentucky...
. Shawano, Hulagî’si punhanwi, the boat is landing. Iroquois (Tuscarora, Mingoe & Canawagh) call the Kanawha River "Kahnawáʼkye" meaning "waterway" (transport-way), and "kye" is an augmentive suffix. In this context, it renders "Much Transport Way", or "Big Waterway". "Kaháwa'" is a noun phrase meaning "boat" (canoe). It varies with "kahôwö'". "Uhíyu'" is a verbal nominal meaning the Ohio River
Ohio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
or the state of Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
. It belongs to the semantic field places. Etymology [u]- NsP/I prefix, -(i)h- /river/, -íyu- /be good, beautiful/, -' Noun suffix. Literal translation is "the beautiful river". The phrase "Kentucky" is also from "Ken-ta-ke", a Mohawk (Iroquois or Six Nations) word signifying "among the meadows". (List of names of places given to Dr. Hough, by an intelligent Indian of the Cahnawagas, or French Mohawks, of the tribe near Montreal. Hough's "History of St. Lawrence County," New York. 1858.)
Flat boats
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
and Christopher Gist
Christopher Gist
Christopher Gist was an accomplished American explorer, surveyor and frontiersman. He was one of the first white explorers of the Ohio Country . He is credited with providing the first detailed description of the Ohio Country to Great Britain and her colonists...
's raft was destroyed by floating ice, stranding them on the Allegheny River
Allegheny River
The Allegheny River is a principal tributary of the Ohio River; it is located in the Eastern United States. The Allegheny River joins with the Monongahela River to form the Ohio River at the "Point" of Point State Park in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
's Garrison Island on December 29, 1753. A frigid night allowed them to walk from the island the next morning. Washington also wrote of the coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
outcrop
Outcrop
An outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth. -Features:Outcrops do not cover the majority of the Earth's land surface because in most places the bedrock or superficial deposits are covered by a mantle of soil and vegetation and cannot be...
burning on the ridge above West Columbia in Mason County
Mason County, West Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 25,957 people, 10,587 households, and 7,569 families residing in the county. The population density was 60 people per square mile . There were 12,056 housing units at an average density of 28 per square mile...
, as university scholars identify. The civilian Ohio River flatboat era began about the time Colonel Brodhead had command at Fort Pitt, 1778–1781. His reports and letters became public in the early 1850s. With the assistance of friendly Kanawha and Monongahela Indians his army retaliated hostiles coming down the Allegheny River
Allegheny River
The Allegheny River is a principal tributary of the Ohio River; it is located in the Eastern United States. The Allegheny River joins with the Monongahela River to form the Ohio River at the "Point" of Point State Park in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
. His campaigns continued which defeated the war chiefs from Ohio in 1781 who came to power after "White Eyes
White Eyes
White Eyes, named Koquethagechton , was a leader of the Lenape people in the Ohio Country during the era of the American Revolution. Sometimes known as George White Eyes, his given name in Lenape was rendered in many spelling variations in colonial records...
" died. This clearing of hostiles on the upper Ohio River system aided arrivals from Europe to build flatboats to take them to their new pioneer homes. Some French and Indian War
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
veterans sold their patent surveyed land for cash to frontier settlement arrivals, not wishing to uproot from their already established easterly homesteads. Many settlers came down the Ohio from the Forks of Ohio and the young town of Wheeling
Wheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling is a city in Ohio and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia; it is the county seat of Ohio County. Wheeling is the principal city of the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, located at the end of the Cumberland Road, building their flatboats there. By 1800, a variation as a houseboat
Houseboat
A houseboat is a boat that has been designed or modified to be used primarily as a human dwelling. Some houseboats are not motorized, because they are usually moored, kept stationary at a fixed point and often tethered to land to provide utilities...
was called an arc. It included a "fireplace" (Franklin stove
Franklin stove
The Franklin stove is a metal-lined fireplace named after its inventor, Benjamin Franklin. It was invented in 1741.L.W. Labaree, W. Bell, W.B. Willcox, et al., eds., The Papers of Benjamin Franklin , vol. 2, page 419...
?) within the cabin. One of these is recorded being anchored within the Crooked Creek embayment near the Boone trading post at Kanawha Harbor.
Kanawha salt was moved downriver on flatboats in greater quantity than earlier occasional sacks aboard canoes. In 1782, Jacob Yoder launched from the Monongahela at Redstone with a cargo of produce, according to his friend Joseph Pierce of Cincinnati, another flatboat captain. This first commercial attempt reached New Orleans having drifted through the dangerous Spanish region. These crews walked back to their home on the Ohio River, passing through the deep South's Spanish lands. The shipping of coal on West Virginia rivers began about 1803. Fort Nelson (Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
) and Fort Washington (Cincinnati, the population of which was about 950 at the time) were notable stops. The population of western Virginia was about 100,000 in 1810. The old river jetties
Jetty
A jetty is any of a variety of structures used in river, dock, and maritime works that are generally carried out in pairs from river banks, or in continuation of river channels at their outlets into deep water; or out into docks, and outside their entrances; or for forming basins along the...
did not stop the usefulness of flatboat
Flatboat
Fil1800flatboat.jpgA flatboat is a rectangular flat-bottomed boat with Fil1800flatboat.jpgA flatboat is a rectangular flat-bottomed boat with Fil1800flatboat.jpgA flatboat is a rectangular flat-bottomed boat with (mostlyNOTE: "(parenthesized)" wordings in the quote below are notes added to...
s. Variations of these were built through the following decades. They were used on the Ohio into the 20th century. They all were difficult to maneuver through the early dam's locks and by that time, steamboat
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
s' barge
Barge
A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and need to be towed by tugboats or pushed by towboats...
s had replaced them.
Mississippi River pirogue
The larger piroguePirogue
A pirogue is a small, flat-bottomed boat of a design associated particularly with the Cajuns of the Louisiana marsh. In West Africa they were used as traditional fishing boats. These boats are not usually intended for overnight travel but are light and small enough to be easily taken onto land...
is more famous on the lower Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
. The earlier ones were carved from cypress
Cypress
Cypress is the name applied to many plants in the cypress family Cupressaceae, which is a conifer of northern temperate regions. Most cypress species are trees, while a few are shrubs...
and sycamore
Sycamore
Sycamore is a name which is applied at various times and places to three very different types of trees, but with somewhat similar leaf forms....
. Some of these were nearly 50 feet (15.2 m) long and 5 feet (1.5 m) wide. These French pirogues often had a small sail which could relieve them of their pole and paddle propulsion. As their carpenters came onto the frontier, they made them with planks and a flat bottom. Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
vessels on the Mississippi River system's shoal waters were similar.
On August 12, 1749, Celeron de Bienville
Celeron de Bienville
Pierre-Joseph Céloron de Blainville was aFrench Canadian Officer of Marine. In 1739-1740 he led a detachment to Louisiana to fight the Chickasaw in the abortive Chickasaw Campaign of 1739...
, a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
officer and his flotilla of canoes, "encountered two canoes, loaded with packs and guided by four Englishmen." On the August 13, he "encountered several pirogues, conducted by Iroquois
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
, who were hunting on the rivers which intersect the land," the rivers of the western Kanawha region along the Ohio River
Ohio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
. Of the Great Kanawha River he records: "The 18th, I departed at an early hour. I camped at noon, the rain preventing us continuing our route. I have this day placed a lead plate at the entrance of the river Chiniondaista and attached the arms of the king to a tree. This river carries canoes for forty leagues without encountering rapids, and has its source near Carolina. The English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
of this government come by treaty to the Belle Rivière."
The West Virginia pioneers
Settler
A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. Settlers are generally people who take up residence on land and cultivate it, as opposed to nomads...
along the river built a square-sided canoe
Canoe
A canoe or Canadian canoe is a small narrow boat, typically human-powered, though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors. Canoes are usually pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be decked over A canoe (North American English) or Canadian...
using boards butted together. The construction is similar to their building these waters' more common flat-bottomed rectangular rowboat used for fishing and river crossing of local goods. The smaller and lighter canoe shape was better suited for one person to cross over gentle rapids (portage) and paddle upstream on the Ohio River
Ohio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
.
Pirogue mail carrier
The Northwest OrdinanceNorthwest Ordinance
The Northwest Ordinance was an act of the Congress of the Confederation of the United States, passed July 13, 1787...
was passed unanimously by the Congress of the Confederation of the United States on July 13, 1787. On August 7, 1789, the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
affirmed the ordinance with slight modifications under the Constitution
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
. In 1787, pirogues began use on the upper frontier river for carrying the mail. The new United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
government paid these boaters to relay mail along the Ohio River in two week intervals between Wheeling
Wheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling is a city in Ohio and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia; it is the county seat of Ohio County. Wheeling is the principal city of the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, Marietta
Marietta, Ohio
Marietta is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Ohio, United States. During 1788, pioneers to the Ohio Country established Marietta as the first permanent American settlement of the new United States in the Northwest Territory. Marietta is located in southeastern Ohio at the mouth...
, Maysville
Maysville, Kentucky
Maysville is a city in and the county seat of Mason County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 8,993 at the 2000 census, making it the fiftieth largest city in Kentucky by population. Maysville is on the Ohio River, northeast of Lexington. It is the principal city of the Maysville...
and Cincinnati, with short stops along the West Virginia and Ohio settlements. To be hired as a pirogue mail carrier, a candidate had to demonstrate above-average boating and swimming skills and was required to be frontier savvy. The mail pouch was strapped securely to his body in case of a boating accident. Fort Henry at Wheeling was the Mail Master's collection point for the Pirogue mail carriers.
Military craft and first packet trade
Between the hostile "Old Frontier" Indians and river pirates, the outrage by eastern investors to the frontier reached a point that something had to be done. The resulting action was known as the Northwest Indian WarNorthwest Indian War
The Northwest Indian War , also known as Little Turtle's War and by various other names, was a war fought between the United States and a confederation of numerous American Indian tribes for control of the Northwest Territory...
or the "Old War". The order was given to build a new frontier army and boats for logistics support. Keelboats, ranging from 50 to 100 tons
Tonnage
Tonnage is a measure of the size or cargo carrying capacity of a ship. The term derives from the taxation paid on tuns or casks of wine, and was later used in reference to the weight of a ship's cargo; however, in modern maritime usage, "tonnage" specifically refers to a calculation of the volume...
, can be considered to have started with the efforts of Major Craig of Fort Pitt. Craig wrote to General Knox on March 11, 1792 and again in a report dated May 11, 1792 about these better-built boats and their cost.
The next year, 1793, with the upper West Virginia rivers firmly under Major Craig's control, saw the first regular packet line on the Ohio River. It was a weekly keelboat trip between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh with short stops at other West Virginia and Ohio river settlements. Cincinnati merchant Jacob Meyers saw the need in this year. His vessel was built similar to Lewis and Clark's adventure galley, another variation of a keelboat
Keelboat
Keelboat has two distinct meanings related to two different types of boats: one a riverine cargo-capable working boat, and the other a classification for small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yachts.-Historical keel-boats:...
. Individual packets' round-trips had taken about a month during the hostile era and some did not survive. This inspired merchant Meyers to start his "Line".
Keelboat mail carriers
An advanced route was scheduled with a relay system in June 1794. Six rowers and maybe a passenger or two paddled between MaysvilleMaysville, Kentucky
Maysville is a city in and the county seat of Mason County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 8,993 at the 2000 census, making it the fiftieth largest city in Kentucky by population. Maysville is on the Ohio River, northeast of Lexington. It is the principal city of the Maysville...
, Gallipolis
Gallipolis, Ohio
As of the census of 2000, there were 4,180 people, 1,847 households, and 1,004 families residing in the village. The population density was 1,156.2 people per square mile . There were 2,056 housing units at an average density of 568.7 per square mile...
, Marietta
Marietta, Ohio
Marietta is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Ohio, United States. During 1788, pioneers to the Ohio Country established Marietta as the first permanent American settlement of the new United States in the Northwest Territory. Marietta is located in southeastern Ohio at the mouth...
and Wheeling
Wheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling is a city in Ohio and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia; it is the county seat of Ohio County. Wheeling is the principal city of the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area...
. The government mail carriers relayed between their two assigned towns on a one week turn-around. Each team stayed at their landing towns until the next relay team arrived. After the exchange, they soon made departure to ensure the one-week delivery. A passenger was to carry his own pouch of food, and a weapon was highly encouraged for his own personal protection.
Schooners and brigantines
The keelboat builders Tarascan, Berthoud & Company of Pittsburgh built the 120 tonTonnage
Tonnage is a measure of the size or cargo carrying capacity of a ship. The term derives from the taxation paid on tuns or casks of wine, and was later used in reference to the weight of a ship's cargo; however, in modern maritime usage, "tonnage" specifically refers to a calculation of the volume...
schooner
Schooner
A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....
, Amity and the 250 ton Pittsburgh in 1792. In 1793, these were loaded with flour; one was sent to St. Thomas
Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
Saint Thomas is an island in the Caribbean Sea and with the islands of Saint John, Saint Croix, and Water Island a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands , an unincorporated territory of the United States. Located on the island is the territorial capital and port of...
in the Virgin Islands and the other to Philadelphia. Coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
used as ballast was sold in Philadelphia at 37½ cents a bushel the next year on two of their brigantine
Brigantine
In sailing, a brigantine or hermaphrodite brig is a vessel with two masts, only the forward of which is square rigged.-Origins of the term:...
s, 200 ton
Tonnage
Tonnage is a measure of the size or cargo carrying capacity of a ship. The term derives from the taxation paid on tuns or casks of wine, and was later used in reference to the weight of a ship's cargo; however, in modern maritime usage, "tonnage" specifically refers to a calculation of the volume...
Nanina and 350 ton Louisianna. The largest was the 400 ton brigantine Western Trader. Before 1803, the 70 ton gaffed rigged schooner Dorcus & Sally was built at Wheeling
Wheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling is a city in Ohio and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia; it is the county seat of Ohio County. Wheeling is the principal city of the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area...
and fitted at Marietta, Ohio
Marietta, Ohio
Marietta is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Ohio, United States. During 1788, pioneers to the Ohio Country established Marietta as the first permanent American settlement of the new United States in the Northwest Territory. Marietta is located in southeastern Ohio at the mouth...
. Also, the 130 ton Mary Avery was built at Marietta. The 100 ton schooner Nancy was launched on June 27, 1808 at Wheeling and among others to include Little Kanawha before the era of the paddlewheelers. The uncommonly long wild black walnut timber
Lumber
Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....
used for hull
Hull (watercraft)
A hull is the watertight body of a ship or boat. Above the hull is the superstructure and/or deckhouse, where present. The line where the hull meets the water surface is called the waterline.The structure of the hull varies depending on the vessel type...
construction, written in a journal of a coastal purchaser's observer, were a little lighter yet as strong as the heavier oak
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
hull timber used at that time on the east coast
Mid-Atlantic States
The Mid-Atlantic states, also called middle Atlantic states or simply the mid Atlantic, form a region of the United States generally located between New England and the South...
. Some shipwrights from Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
arrived about this time to join their neighboring regionals
Mid-Atlantic States
The Mid-Atlantic states, also called middle Atlantic states or simply the mid Atlantic, form a region of the United States generally located between New England and the South...
who had already relocated along the river's old growth forest
Old growth forest
An old-growth forest is a forest that has attained great age , and thereby exhibits unique ecological features. An old growth forest has also usually reached a climax community...
shipyard
Shipyard
Shipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance and basing activities than shipyards, which are sometimes associated more with initial...
s. A few of these walnut-hulled schooners were sold with their freight, and a few were fitted as North American
North American
North American generally refers to an entity, people, group, or attribute of North America, especially of the United States and Canada together.-Culture:*North American English, a collective term used to describe American English and Canadian English...
gun cutters (escort/patrol) with others of the US privateers during the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
. One was also noted in the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
. In January, 1845, Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, England, not believing the marque home port and having to be shown the geography thereby not pirates, welcomed the Marietta-built 350 ton barque
Barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...
Muskingum. This was a cheerful first for Ohio River crews. The largest built was the ship
Full rigged ship
A full rigged ship or fully rigged ship is a sailing vessel with three or more masts, all of them square rigged. A full rigged ship is said to have a ship rig....
Minnesota at Cincinnati of 850 tons
Tonnage
Tonnage is a measure of the size or cargo carrying capacity of a ship. The term derives from the taxation paid on tuns or casks of wine, and was later used in reference to the weight of a ship's cargo; however, in modern maritime usage, "tonnage" specifically refers to a calculation of the volume...
for a New Orleans owner. A steaming paddlewheeler delivered it.
A few locally built and crewed barque
Barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...
s made passage to Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and back to the Kanawha region before the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. These larger vessels moved during spring flood waters, having a little more draft than our earlier more common schooner's berthy 11 feet (3.4 m) draft or less, which were more able. The early upper Ohio Valley vessels' cargo included flour
Flour
Flour is a powder which is made by grinding cereal grains, other seeds or roots . It is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many cultures, making the availability of adequate supplies of flour a major economic and political issue at various times throughout history...
, smoked beef
Smoked meat
Smoked meat is a method of preparing red meat which originates in prehistory. Its purpose is to preserve these protein-rich foods, which would otherwise spoil quickly, for long periods. There are two mechanisms for this preservation: dehydration and the antibacterial properties of absorbed smoke...
, barreled salt pork
Salt pork
Salt pork or white bacon is salt-cured pork. It is prepared from one of three primal cuts: pork side, pork belly, or fatback. Depending on the cut, respectively, salt pork may be lean, streaky or entirely fatty. Made from the same cuts as bacon, salt pork resembles uncut slab bacon, but is...
, glass-wares
Glass production
Glass production involves two main methods - the float glass process, which produces sheet glass, and glassblowing which produces bottles and other containers.-Glass container factories:...
, iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
, black walnut furniture
Virginia furniture
Virginia furniture has a long tradition, from the colonial period to today.-Colonial period:In colonial days, when cabinetmaker Anthony Hay made furniture in Colonial Williamsburg, at least six shops catered to local tastes. As the colony grew in taste and sophistication, shops developed in other...
, wild cherry, yellow birch
Yellow Birch
Betula alleghaniensis , is a species of birch native to eastern North America, from Newfoundland to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, southern Quebec and Ontario, and the southeast corner of Manitoba in Canada, west to Minnesota, and south in the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia.It is a...
and various beverages
Alcoholic beverage
An alcoholic beverage is a drink containing ethanol, commonly known as alcohol. Alcoholic beverages are divided into three general classes: beers, wines, and spirits. They are legally consumed in most countries, and over 100 countries have laws regulating their production, sale, and consumption...
. Much of the bulk cargo
Bulk cargo
Bulk cargo is commodity cargo that is transported unpackaged in large quantities. This cargo is usually dropped or poured, with a spout or shovel bucket, as a liquid or as a mass of relatively small solids , into a bulk carrier ship's hold, railroad car, or tanker truck/trailer/semi-trailer body...
were stored in flat-bottomed square-end "jonboats", as crate
Crate
A crate is a large shipping container, often made of wood, typically used to transport large, heavy or awkward items. A crate has a self-supporting structure, with or without sheathing. For a wooden container to be a crate, all six of its sides must be put in place to result in the rated strength...
s above the hold for some destinations required a davit
Davit
A davit is a structure, usually made of steel, which is used to lower things over an edge of a long drop off such as lowering a maintenance trapeze down a building or launching a lifeboat over the side of a ship....
method of loading and unloading the freight. It was during this era that sorghum
Sweet sorghum
Sweet sorghum is any of the many varieties of sorghum which have a high sugar content. Sweet sorghum will thrive better under drier and warmer conditions than many other crops and is grown primarily for forage, silage, and syrup production....
and the Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
variety of tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
were exported in greater volume from farmers in western Virginia's large bottomlands boat landings
Landing (water transport)
A landing is a water terminal which may receive ferry passenger or cargo traffic from marine vessels. They may characterized by long wharves if they handle a large volume of cargo....
.
Early steamboats and Civil War fleet
Robert FultonRobert Fulton
Robert Fulton was an American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing the first commercially successful steamboat...
built the valley's first commercial paddlewheel steamboat, New Orleans
New Orleans (steamboat)
The New Orleans was the first steamboat on the western waters of the United States. Its 1811-1812 voyage from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to New Orleans, Louisiana on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers ushered in the era of commercial steamboat navigation on the western rivers.-Background:The New...
, at Pittsburgh and Captain Nicholas Roosevelt
Nicholas Roosevelt (inventor)
Nicholas Isaac Roosevelt was an American inventor, a major investor in Upstate New York land, and a member of the Roosevelt family. His primary invention was to introduce vertical paddle wheels for steamboats.-Inventor:Nicholas Roosevelt was carefully educated...
sailed it down the Ohio to New Orleans in 1811. But it was not able to navigate back up river from Natcheys
Natchez, Mississippi
Natchez is the county seat of Adams County, Mississippi, United States. With a total population of 18,464 , it is the largest community and the only incorporated municipality within Adams County...
. It was side-wheel driven with a low pressure boiler driver compared to following plants. The machine powered river transportation industry was on its way with the Steam-engine works at Pittsburgh of Oliver Evans and managed by Mark Stackhouse which began operations in May 1812. A plant from this shop went into the early local stern-wheel steamboat, Comet, launched January 1813 (University of Pittsburgh's 'Historic Pittsburgh' ). Slowly replacing keel boats, the growing machine powered vessel industry arrived in the state. In 1816 Captain Henry Shreve built the George Washington at Wheeling. It set the pattern for future steamboats. He named the passenger cabins, calling them staterooms, after U.S. states. This vessel was stern-wheel driven. Valley Forge is reported to be the first large iron steamboat on the upper Ohio Valley (University of Pittsburgh's Historic Pittsburgh). Robinson and Minis launched it at Pittsburgh on September 1839.
According to Dr. Hale's Early History of the Kanawha River Valley, "The first steamboat to attempt the navigation of the river (Great Kanawha) in the early days of steamboating on the western waters was the Robert Thompson in 1819. She went as far as Red House Shoals, but lacking power to stem the swift currents in that place abandoned the effort and returned." This was at the continued skeptical amuzement of the local keelboat workers. Local tradition has team of horse was used to pull vessels over shoals. A team of large draft horse
Draft horse
A draft horse , draught horse or dray horse , less often called a work horse or heavy horse, is a large horse bred for hard, heavy tasks such as ploughing and farm labour...
would later be onboard some steamboats and jumped for hookup during the drought season. This unique 'horse handler', to use an old Army classification, was both blacksmith
Blacksmith
A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...
and boat mechanic parallel the horse drawn machine machanic. This job position also worked along with the vessel's boiler engineer as coal tender (fuel loading), drive repair (paddlewheel system), and deck repair (Point Pleasant River Museum http://www.pprivermuseum.com/). Henry Shreve designed the first steam-powered snagboat in 1829, The Heliopolis. Quoting the 'Tom Bevill Visitor Center', USACE Mobile District, "This double-hull design remained the standard until the early twentieth century with the development of high-strength steel hulls."
Hale contunes, "In 1820 the Andrew Donnally, a steamer built by Messrs. Andrew Donnolly and Issac Noyes, salt makers of Charleston, made the first successful run to Charleston." Expanded later about the time Liverpool Salt Works at Hartford and other notable manufacture arrived along the logistic rivers, the salt industry barrel works was located at Crooked Creek at Kanawha Harbor. It provided containers for whisky used for lamp lighting and other considerations, West Columbia's
West Columbia, West Virginia
West Columbia is an unincorporated community in Mason County, West Virginia, United States. West Columbia is located on the Ohio River and West Virginia Route 62 southwest of Mason. West Columbia has a post office with ZIP code 25287....
nail works, and local farmer's salt pork and cheese barrels. The fruit and chicken crate making firms were also scattered into the navigable tributaries. From the time of keelboat operators, river trade employee method progressed as new kinds of freight such as bricks and glass increased a few decades before the zenith of showboat
Showboat
A showboat, or show boat, was a form of theater that traveled along the waterways of the United States, especially along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers . A showboat was basically a barge that resembled a long, flat-roofed house, and in order to move down the river, it was pushed by a small tugboat...
s and the railway matrix connected with Ohio River bridges after the Civil War.
During the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, Fort Union at the mouth of the Little Kanawha River
Little Kanawha River
The Little Kanawha River is a tributary of the Ohio River, 169 mi long, in western West Virginia in the United States. Via the Ohio, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River, draining an area of 2,320 mi² on the unglaciated portion of the Allegheny Plateau...
at Parkersburg
Parkersburg, West Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 33,099 people, 14,467 households, and 8,767 families residing in the city. In 2006 the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that Parkersburg's population had decreased 4.4% to 31,755. The population density was 2,800.5 people per square mile . There were 16,100 housing...
was the Union Army's supply center to the western states. With no railroad bridge
Bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle...
s crossing the Ohio River, this depot connected the eastern factories' rail to steamboat packets continuing the supplies west under this Quartermaster
Quartermaster
Quartermaster refers to two different military occupations depending on if the assigned unit is land based or naval.In land armies, especially US units, it is a term referring to either an individual soldier or a unit who specializes in distributing supplies and provisions to troops. The senior...
's command, the Upper Ohio Flotilla
Paddle steamer
A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans...
. This Supply Center was under the command of Quartermaster Charles Conley (Matheny 1989). Parkersburg was also the recruiting center for the 9th West Virginia
9th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment
The 9th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.-Organization:...
Infantry
Infantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
(April 1862, Co K), who were often detailed onboard to protect the packetboats and river crossings on the West Virginia rivers. Recruiter Col. Whaley and Lt. Col. William C. Starr, and Regimental Commander Gen. I. H. Duval were under Federal command at Wheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling is a city in Ohio and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia; it is the county seat of Ohio County. Wheeling is the principal city of the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area...
. Many of these recruits came from a river worker's family tradition. "The regiment was composed largely of refugees, who, having been driven from home, were fighting with a desperation that was not excelled by any troops in any army." from the writings of Theodore Lang. Livestock was commandeered to feed the assemblages on both sides (Matheny 1989). In 1862, Wheeling Command instructed the unit commanders to write receipts for local goods taken in the field. Also found in local older almanac-magazines, according to both Lang and Matheny, Richmond
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
neglected this practice in the western region of the Old Commonwealth.
Recruited river workers and the flotilla of barges and civilian packets evacuated the salt miners, residents and civilian government during the "Confederate Overrun of Charleston, West Virginia". General William W. Loring pushed back Colonel Joseph A. J. Lightburn, but, the General knew when to stop and hold his ground. Ohio Generals had provided a significant artillery and brigade for this strategic recall trap. He did not chase after the flottilla to take control of the Mouth of the Kanawha thereby stopping Union river logistics to the Kentucky-Tennessee Theatre as some figured. The Confederate were after Kanawha Salt, nothing more. Horse-pack trains for weeks moved the salt for meat processing to the south. The Union command had earlier removed a significant number troops from the state for southerly battles. This had much weeken Lightburn's command, but, not his ability to protect the public. Much of the 9th were stationed at Point Pleasant to January, 1863 to guard the packets and refugees. The 5th Infantry Regiment and 106th Cavalry also patrolled until the retaking of Charleston a couple of months later. A few detachment of river troops remained well into the following year. Confederate brigadier general Albert G. Jenkins
Albert G. Jenkins
Albert Gallatin Jenkins was an attorney, planter, representative to the United States Congress and First Confederate Congress, and a Confederate brigadier general during the American Civil War...
, son of a wealthy plantation in Cabell County, Virginia (W.Va.)
Cabell County, West Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 96,784 people, 41,180 households, and 25,490 families residing in the county. The population density was 344 people per square mile . There were 45,615 housing units at an average density of 162 per square mile...
, from the area encampments of Roane County
Roane County, West Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 15,446 people, 6,161 households, and 4,479 families residing in the county. The population density was 32 people per square mile . There were 7,360 housing units at an average density of 15 per square mile...
area his cavalry using the dragoon tactics (rush in, dismount & attack targets, remount rush away- also later of gongho air) attacked along the Ohio to as far as northern Kentucky. His primary targets were the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and supply packets at the Union procurement landings. These river crossings sentry and Colonel RBJP Smith's 106th militia of Jackson and Mason counties Cavalry continued their patrols watching for routine river crossing raids of the state's persistent Jenkins' Confederate Cavalry to reappear, until Morgan and his raiders showed up in Meigs County, Ohio
Meigs County, Ohio
Meigs County is a county located in the state of Ohio, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 23,770. Its county seat is Pomeroy, and it is named for Return J. Meigs, Jr., the 4th Governor of Ohio.-Geography:...
.
Morgan's Raid
Morgan's Raid was a highly publicized incursion by Confederate cavalry into the Northern states of Indiana and Ohio during the American Civil War. The raid took place from June 11–July 26, 1863, and is named for the commander of the Confederates, Brig. Gen...
was what brought the US Navy to the state's shores. Those river workers with Major General Ambrose E. Burnside's "amphibious division" were involved in the Battle of Buffington Island
Battle of Buffington Island
The Battle of Buffington Island, also known as the St. Georges Creek Skirmish, was an American Civil War engagement in Meigs County, Ohio, and Jackson County, West Virginia, on July 19, 1863, during Morgan's Raid. The largest battle in Ohio during the war, Buffington Island contributed to the...
. These served on the Alleghany Belle. The Magnolia, Imperial, Alleghany Belle, and Union tinclads and armed packets were documented privateers along with other smaller private owned salt ham and ammunition vessels under Parkersburg Logistics' command. Lt Commander Leroy Fitch's fleet included the Brilliant, Fairplay, Moose, Reindeer, St. Clair, Silver Lake, Springfield, Victory, Naumkeag, Queen City which were tinclads and ironclads under the U.S. Navy Mississippi Fleet Command. Ironclad USS Naumkeag patrolled from the Kanawha Harbor of the Mouth of Kanawha area. Springfield guarded from Pomeroy towards Letart Islands. Victory's cannon balls have been found along Leading Creek, Ohio, behind the period's boat yards. Its patrol was from Middleport, Ohio
Middleport, Ohio
Middleport is a village in Meigs County, Ohio, United States, along the Ohio River. The population was 2,525 at the 2000 census.Middleport was the home of Walter "Mother" Watson, a Major League Baseball pitcher.-Geography:...
to Eight Mile Island
Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge
The Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge is a National Wildlife Refuge in non-contiguous sites consisting of islands along of the Ohio River, primarily in the U.S. state of West Virginia. There are also a couple of islands upstream in Beaver County, Pennsylvania and a couple downstream...
with its sentry guarded crossing. Twice, Confederate scouting units found skirmish here. The last were Cavalry scouts in retreet this time who saw armed vessels. The Ravenswood
Ravenswood, West Virginia
Ravenswood is a city in Jackson County, West Virginia, United States, along the Ohio River. The population was 4,031 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Ravenswood is located at , along the Ohio River at the mouth of Sandy Creek....
crossing saw the heat of the maneuvering skirmishes during the Battle of Buffington Island
Battle of Buffington Island
The Battle of Buffington Island, also known as the St. Georges Creek Skirmish, was an American Civil War engagement in Meigs County, Ohio, and Jackson County, West Virginia, on July 19, 1863, during Morgan's Raid. The largest battle in Ohio during the war, Buffington Island contributed to the...
. The region's newspapers headline this routing as The Calico Raid for procuring personal goods from local stores and houses. Its position on the river and during the offensive phase before breakup, Pomeroy, Ohio
Pomeroy, Ohio
Pomeroy is a village in and the county seat of Meigs County, Ohio, United States, along the Ohio River. The population was 1,966 at the 2000 census. During the late 19th century, Pomeroy was an important producer of coal and salt...
was the last county seat in a solidly held Union state to be raided by this Confedrate Column. It was reported horsemen carried away scarce luxary gifts for the anticipative return home beyond encampment food stuff.
After the war, the steamboat Mountain Boy transported government officials and documents to Charleston
Charleston, West Virginia
Charleston is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is located at the confluence of the Elk and Kanawha Rivers in Kanawha County. As of the 2010 census, it has a population of 51,400, and its metropolitan area 304,214. It is the county seat of Kanawha County.Early...
from Wheeling after seven years there. The steamboats Emma Graham and Chesapeake moved the state's officials and documents back to Wheeling in 1875. After a citizens' vote in August 1887, the steamboats were again called on to move the state government and records back to Charleston. People of the day claimed West Virginians had a "Floating Capitol".
Early Floods
The flood of January 9, 1762 destroyed much of Fort PittFort Pitt (Pennsylvania)
Fort Pitt was a fort built at the location of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.-French and Indian War:The fort was built from 1759 to 1761 during the French and Indian War , next to the site of former Fort Duquesne, at the confluence the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River...
at the confluence of the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers. It had reached a stage of 39.2 feet (11.9 m) feet at the Point according to University of Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
's 'Historic Pittsburgh.' Major George Washington on November 23, 1753 described the elevation of normal pool, "The Land at the Point is 20 or 25 feet (7.6 m) Feet above the common Surface of the Water". The next major recorded flood was on April 10, 1806 reaching 37.1 feet (11.3 m) feet above normal pool. It was followed by the 1810 flood of 35.2 feet (10.7 m) feet above normal pool. The flood of 1816 reached 36.2 feet (11 m). Not all floods developed in the Ohio Valley up-river the tributary rivers of the state.
The first recorded flood on the Ohio River along the West Virginia shores was in 1768. The Mingo survivors declared it was the highest known. It swept away their village near today's Steubenville, Ohio. The "Great Pumpkin Flood" occurred in 1811. After some days of drizzling rain, the storm increased causing a very rapid raise of the river. It washed away outhouses, out buildings and all sorts of ground drift. The bottom's pumpkin field's bumper crop was washed away.
The 1832 flood was exceptionally destructive campared to earlier floods do to increased individual capitol investing. Government encouraged Homesteader's development had not figured on that occasion of extra high water levels on the flood plain bottoms. The 1852 flood was one foot lower than the 1832. Although, the steamboats were able to navigate over islands with no problem of grounding. With more industrial growth along the river routes, this flood was the first to wreck wealthy industry investors.
The Spring flood of 1860 was average 40 feet (12.2 m) above pool. Team of horse and plow method, many muddied bottoms did not make vegetables nor grain before first frost. The following year in 1861 during the fall saw a few more feet higher. Many of these fields did not mature soon enough. These series of floods and harsh winter devastated the farm bottom crops and two season's income. Furthering early Civil War hardship, gathering civil groups commandeered remaining farmer's seed stock during this period. Decades ago an elderly steampacket engineer out of Kanawha Harbor declared, the Rebels not only took the egg, but the chicken-two. The local small packet's egg run found little local produce to deliver to the river town markets. Support from the Union supply depot at Parkersburg Logistics Center reestablished in 1862 their local produce procurement. This assistance encouraged local farmers to side with the Union and some river workers to recruit (Matheny, H. E. 1987).
Waterway considerations of US Congress
The US Congress has many records on waterways with a few here to example. "Monday, December 22, 1834, Mr. McComas presented a petition of inhabitants of the county of Kanawha, in the State of Virginia, praying that a law may be passed directing the judge of the United States district court for the western district of Virginia to hold annually two sessions at Charleston, in the county of Kanawha, instead of Lewisburg; which petition was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary." "The Vice-President laid before the Senate resolutions of the legislature of Virginia, in favor of an appropriation to secure the early completion of the line of water communication between the valley of the Mississippi and the Atlantic OceanAtlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
, by connecting the waters of the James River
James River (Virginia)
The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is long, extending to if one includes the Jackson River, the longer of its two source tributaries. The James River drains a catchment comprising . The watershed includes about 4% open water and an area with a population of 2.5 million...
and the Greenbrier River
Greenbrier River
The Greenbrier River is a tributary of the New River, long, in southeastern West Virginia, USA. Via the New, Kanawha and Ohio Rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River, draining an area of...
, and for improving the New, Greenbrier and Kanawha rivers which were referred to the Committee on Commerce." Mr. Ellihu B. Washburne made a motion on January 13, 1859, to the Committee on Commerce to discharge considerations of the James River and Kanawha Company concerning Mr. Ellett's plan for supplying water in the Ohio River
Ohio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
. On March 31, 1870, Mr. Willey submitted a resolution to Congress: The Committee of Commerce resolved to inquire a survey and examination be conducted under the US War Department. The purpose was twofold. A line of communication from the Chesapeake Bay
Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...
on the James and Kanawha rivers and their tributaries to the mouth of the Kanawha River was to be reported back to Congress with Liberty to be presented as a Bill
Bill (proposed law)
A bill is a proposed law under consideration by a legislature. A bill does not become law until it is passed by the legislature and, in most cases, approved by the executive. Once a bill has been enacted into law, it is called an act or a statute....
. It was to include a means of transporting military supplies west in case of war
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...
. The commercial necessities of the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
was to be included and considered in this prospect.
In 1873, citizens of West Virginia petitioned the U.S. Congress for aid in the Little Kanawha River
Little Kanawha River
The Little Kanawha River is a tributary of the Ohio River, 169 mi long, in western West Virginia in the United States. Via the Ohio, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River, draining an area of 2,320 mi² on the unglaciated portion of the Allegheny Plateau...
's improvement to Congress. Further improvement of the Kanawha River was requested to Congress in that session's Rivers and Harbors bills (8.No.1006) (H. R. No. 3168). Gradually, the continent
Continent
A continent is one of several very large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, with seven regions commonly regarded as continents—they are : Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.Plate tectonics is...
al railway system and the Great Lakes
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
connecting to the upper Mississippi River became Congress' main attention in much of the latter half of the 19th century.
The U. S. Government abandoned the Little Kanawha system of locks and dams in 1937. Eleven commercial boats traveled the river in 1912. Steam packet Louise made daily runs between Parkersburg and Creston. Along with log float operators, as many as ten commercial gasoline craft had operated on the river (Bibbee, F.R. 1928).
Kanawha River dams
The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) began construction of modern dams on the Kanawha RiverKanawha River
The Kanawha River is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately 97 mi long, in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The largest inland waterway in West Virginia, it has formed a significant industrial region of the state since the middle of the 19th century.It is formed at the town of Gauley...
in the late 1880s. The ten French System roller dam
Roller dam
A Roller dam is a type of hydro-control device specially designed to mitigate erosion. They are most often used to divert water for irrigation but the largest and most notable examples are used to ease river navigation.- Use :...
s, called Chanoine dams, were completed in 1898. These dams provided year-round commercial navigation
Navigation
Navigation is the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another. It is also the term of art used for the specialized knowledge used by navigators to perform navigation tasks...
on the Kanawha River for 90 miles (144.8 km) from Boomer
Fayette County, West Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 47,579 people, 18,945 households, and 13,128 families residing in the county. The population density was 72 people per square mile . There were 21,616 housing units at an average density of 33 per square mile...
to Point Pleasant
Point Pleasant, West Virginia
Point Pleasant is a city in Mason County, West Virginia, United States, at the confluence of the Ohio and Kanawha rivers. The population was 4,637 at the 2000 census...
at the river's mouth. This allowed expansion of the shipyards to include contemporary ocean-going military vessels. In 1921, the General John McE. Hyde was built in Charleston on the Kanawha River by the Charles Ward Engineering Works. It saw action during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
at Manila Bay
Manila Bay
Manila Bay is a natural harbor which serves the Port of Manila , in the Philippines.The bay is considered to be one of the best natural harbors in Southeast Asia and one of the finest in the world...
, Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. Its sister ship, the General Frank M. Coxe, was finished in 1922. It served as an Army transport vessel and was later converted to a cruise ship on San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
.
In the 1930s, the ten Chanoine dams were replaced with four High Lift German Roller System dams. This decade saw a considerable increase in military ship building. These dam locations begin at Gallipolis Ferry forming the pool on the lower Kanawha and Ohio rivers, the Winfield
Winfield, West Virginia
Winfield is a town in Putnam County, West Virginia, along the Kanawha River. The population was 2,301 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Putnam County....
Pool, the Marmet
Marmet, West Virginia
Marmet is a city in Kanawha County, West Virginia, USA, along the Kanawha River.-Geography:Marmet is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.5 square miles , of which, 1.4 square miles of it is land and 0.1 square miles of it is...
Pool and the London Pool to Boomer. During drought, all ensure at least a 12 feet (3.7 m) deep navigation over old shoals, contrasting many of nature's other much deeper channels along the way. In 1989, the USACE began construction of larger and longer lock chambers. Today, most tows no longer need to break-tow to pass through to the next pool. This has allowed much less waiting for a lock through. Some tows can approach 800 feet (243.8 m), and some nautical authors claim 1000 feet (304.8 m) long tows have been made. Smaller pleasure craft
Pleasure craft
A pleasure craft is a boat used for personal, family, and sometimes sportsmanlike recreation. Typically such watercraft are motorized and are used for holidays, for example on a river, lake, canal or waterway. Pleasure craft are normally kept at a marina...
can navigate to as far as the Kanawha Falls
Glen Ferris, West Virginia
Glen Ferris is an unincorporated census-designated place on the western bank of the Kanawha River in Fayette County, West Virginia. It is situated approximately one mile south of the town of Gauley Bridge. The sole highway linking Glen Ferris to the area is U.S. Route 60, known also as the Midland...
' public access picnic park and fishing boat ramp while watching for submerged boulder
Boulder
In geology, a boulder is a rock with grain size of usually no less than 256 mm diameter. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive....
s as one might fish above the upper London Pool. The Robert C. Byrd Locks and Dam
Lock (water transport)
A lock is a device for raising and lowering boats between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a fixed chamber in which the water level can be varied; whereas in a caisson lock, a boat lift, or on a canal inclined plane, it is...
at Gallipolis Ferry
Gallipolis Ferry, West Virginia
Gallipolis Ferry is an unincorporated census-designated place in Mason County, West Virginia, United States, on the Ohio River located along WV 2. As of the 2010 census, its population was 817. It is the site of the Robert C. Byrd Locks & Dam on the Ohio...
has a public museum with artifacts on display.
Summary
Tanning
Tanning is the making of leather from the skins of animals which does not easily decompose. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name . Coloring may occur during tanning...
's growing demand for beaver
Beaver
The beaver is a primarily nocturnal, large, semi-aquatic rodent. Castor includes two extant species, North American Beaver and Eurasian Beaver . Beavers are known for building dams, canals, and lodges . They are the second-largest rodent in the world...
more often came to the "Point" by canoe and raft from the Kanawha region's tributary creeks
Stream
A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...
. Isaac Vanbibber and Daniel Boone's trading post
Trading post
A trading post was a place or establishment in historic Northern America where the trading of goods took place. The preferred travel route to a trading post or between trading posts, was known as a trade route....
was established about 1790 at the mouth of Crooked Creek at Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Hudson's Trade Post and early landing appears on the 1807 Madison map opposite St Albans. By this decade, the steel trap had increased efficiency as beaver
Beaver
The beaver is a primarily nocturnal, large, semi-aquatic rodent. Castor includes two extant species, North American Beaver and Eurasian Beaver . Beavers are known for building dams, canals, and lodges . They are the second-largest rodent in the world...
became scarce within two decades. Fewer beaver dams brought drainage of many creek's "lakes". A shift to the state's other natural resources began in ever-increasing export quantity and a change to the riparian zone
Riparian zone
A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the fifteen terrestrial biomes of the earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks are called riparian vegetation, characterized by...
. The next century brought farmsteads on these naturally "drained" wetland
Wetland
A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....
creek bottoms. These settler
Settler
A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. Settlers are generally people who take up residence on land and cultivate it, as opposed to nomads...
s saw a slightly different "Topography as the study of place".
A network of local produce exchange was carried between the farmers' landings and major town markets along the rivers. For example, one pair in the 1880s, the paddle wheelers Courier and Express, carried the mail between Wheeling and Parkersburg. These two steamboats passed each other daily, boating also with local produce and passengers.
Kanawha Harbor had a great amount of freight and passenger lay-over after the "Old War" of the 1790s. Kanawha salt production followed by coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
and timber
Timber
Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...
floats were moved from West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
streams to the populace of other regions. A number of riverside locations were used for early Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
keelboat building in the Kanawha region, including at Leon
Leon, West Virginia
Leon is a town in Mason County, West Virginia, United States, along the Kanawha River. The population was 132 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Point Pleasant, WV–OH Micropolitan Statistical Area.-History:The Gen...
, Ravenswood
Ravenswood, West Virginia
Ravenswood is a city in Jackson County, West Virginia, United States, along the Ohio River. The population was 4,031 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Ravenswood is located at , along the Ohio River at the mouth of Sandy Creek....
, Murraysville
Murraysville, West Virginia
Murraysville is an unincorporated community in northern Jackson County, West Virginia, United States, along the Ohio River across from Long Bottom, Ohio. It lies along Murraysville Road north of the city of Ripley, the county seat of Jackson County. Its elevation is 591 feet ....
and on the Little Kanawha River
Little Kanawha River
The Little Kanawha River is a tributary of the Ohio River, 169 mi long, in western West Virginia in the United States. Via the Ohio, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River, draining an area of 2,320 mi² on the unglaciated portion of the Allegheny Plateau...
. Earlier 19th century steamboat
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
building and machine repair were located at Wheeling
Wheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling is a city in Ohio and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia; it is the county seat of Ohio County. Wheeling is the principal city of the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area...
and Parkersburg
Parkersburg, West Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 33,099 people, 14,467 households, and 8,767 families residing in the city. In 2006 the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that Parkersburg's population had decreased 4.4% to 31,755. The population density was 2,800.5 people per square mile . There were 16,100 housing...
followed by Point Pleasant
Point Pleasant, West Virginia
Point Pleasant is a city in Mason County, West Virginia, United States, at the confluence of the Ohio and Kanawha rivers. The population was 4,637 at the 2000 census...
and Mason City
Mason, West Virginia
Mason, also known as Mason City is a town in Mason County, West Virginia, in the United States. The population was 1,064 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Point Pleasant, WV–OH Micropolitan Statistical Area....
. Wooden coal barges were built on the Monongahela River
Monongahela River
The Monongahela River is a river on the Allegheny Plateau in north-central West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania in the United States...
near Morgantown
Morgantown, West Virginia
Morgantown is a city in Monongalia County, West Virginia. It is the county seat of Monongalia County. Placed along the banks of the Monongahela River, Morgantown is the largest city in North-Central West Virginia, and the base of the Morgantown metropolitan area...
, on the Coal River
Coal River (West Virginia)
The Coal River is a tributary of the Kanawha River in southern West Virginia. It is formed near the community of Alum Creek by the confluence of the Big and Little Coal Rivers, and flows generally northward through western Kanawha County, past the community of Upper Falls and into the Kanawha...
, and some on the Elk River
Elk River (West Virginia)
The Elk River is a tributary of the Kanawha River, long, in central West Virginia in the United States. Via the Kanawha and Ohio Rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River.-Course:...
near Charleston
Charleston, West Virginia
Charleston is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is located at the confluence of the Elk and Kanawha Rivers in Kanawha County. As of the 2010 census, it has a population of 51,400, and its metropolitan area 304,214. It is the county seat of Kanawha County.Early...
before metal
Metal
A metal , is an element, compound, or alloy that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat. Metals are usually malleable and shiny, that is they reflect most of incident light...
barge
Barge
A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and need to be towed by tugboats or pushed by towboats...
s became the trend. As an example of how local water works
Hydraulic engineering
This article is about civil engineering. For the mechanical engineering discipline see Hydraulic machineryHydraulic engineering as a sub-discipline of civil engineering is concerned with the flow and conveyance of fluids, principally water and sewage. One feature of these systems is the extensive...
progressed, Kanawha Harbor's boat building increased after a horse-drawn
Horse-drawn vehicle
A horse-drawn vehicle is a mechanized piece of equipment pulled by one horse or by a team of horses. These vehicles typically had two or four wheels and were used to carry passengers and/or a load...
logging
Logging
Logging is the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks.In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard...
"tram
Trolley (horse-drawn)
Among horse-drawn vehicles, a trolley was a goods vehicle with a platform body with four small wheels of equal size, mounted underneath it, the front two on a turntable undercarriage. The wheels were rather larger and the deck proportionately higher than those of a lorry...
" with special block and tackle
Pulley
A pulley, also called a sheave or a drum, is a mechanism composed of a wheel on an axle or shaft that may have a groove between two flanges around its circumference. A rope, cable, belt, or chain usually runs over the wheel and inside the groove, if present...
for the hillside harvesting was brought into use and some expansion of Crooked Creek. Later, this tram and other steam machinery were used for collecting timber
Lumber
Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....
to be used as railroad tie
Railroad tie
A railroad tie/railway tie , or railway sleeper is a rectangular item used to support the rails in railroad tracks...
s in the railway
Rail transport
Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...
construction along the Kanawha River. It was finished about 1880. This brought the small steamboat
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
landings of the farmers along the rivers to use the railway. Many railroading spurs were built throughout West Virginia connecting mines to the riverboats' barge and coal-tipples.