Allegheny River
Allegheny River | |
---|---|
Native name | Alikehane (Unami) |
Location | |
Country | United States |
State | Pennsylvania, New York |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | |
• location | Allegany Township, Pennsylvania, near Coudersport, Pennsylvania at the corner of Ben Green and Cobb Hill Roads |
• coordinates | 41°52′22″N 77°52′30″W / 41.87278°N 77.87500°W[1] |
• elevation | 2,450 ft (750 m)[2] |
Mouth | |
• location | Ohio River at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
• coordinates | 40°26′36″N 80°00′52″W / 40.44333°N 80.01444°W[1] |
• elevation | 712 ft (217 m)[1] |
Length | 325 mi (523 km) |
Basin size | 11,580 sq mi (30,000 km2) |
Discharge | |
• average | 19,750 cu ft/s (559 m3/s) at the village of Natrona, PA (river mile 24.3)[3] |
Basin features | |
Progression | Allegheny River → Pine Creek, Girtys Run, Pucketa Creek |
Type | Recreational |
Designated | April 20, 1992 |
The Allegheny River (
The Allegheny River is, by volume, the main
This shallow river has been made navigable upstream from Pittsburgh to East Brady by a series of locks and dams that were constructed during the early 20th century. A 24-mile-long portion of the upper river in Warren and McKean counties of Pennsylvania and Cattaraugus County in New York forms the Allegheny Reservoir, which was created by the erection of the Kinzua Dam in 1965 for flood control.
The name of the river is derived from one of a number of
Etymology
The name Allegheny probably comes from
The following account of the origin of the name Allegheny was given in 1780 by Moravian missionary
The Delaware Tribe of Indians gives the Lenape name as Alikehane, "river where footprints can be seen."[10]
Native Americans, including the Lenape and
Course
The Allegheny River rises in north central Pennsylvania, on Cobb Hill in Allegany Township in north central Potter County,[1][2] 8 miles (13 km) south of the New York–Pennsylvania border and a few miles northwest of the eastern triple divide. The stream flows south and passes under Pennsylvania Route 49 11 miles northeast of Coudersport where a historical marker that declares the start of the river is located. Cobb Hill is about a mile north. The stream flows southwest paralleling Route 49 to Coudersport.[2]
It continues west to
It flows in a broad zigzag course generally southwest across
The river enters both
Hydrography
The river is approximately 325 mi (523 km) long, running through the U.S. states of New York and Pennsylvania.[11] It drains a rural dissected plateau of 11,580 sq mi (30,000 km2) in the northern Allegheny Plateau, providing the northeasternmost drainage in the watershed of the Mississippi River. Its tributaries reach to within 8 mi (13 km) of Lake Erie in southwestern New York.
Water from the Allegheny River eventually flows into the Gulf of Mexico via the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
The Allegheny Valley has been one of the most productive areas of fossil fuel extraction in United States history, with its extensive deposits of coal, petroleum, and natural gas.
Tributaries
In its upper reaches, the Allegheny River is joined from the south by
After re-entering Pennsylvania, the river is joined from the east by
Locks, dams and bridges
Several locks were built in the early 20th century to make the Allegheny River navigable for 72 miles upstream from Pittsburgh to East Brady.
The Allegheny River has eight
The river is also impounded by the Kinzua Dam in northwestern Pennsylvania, resulting in the Allegheny Reservoir also known as Kinzua Lake and Lake Perfidy among the Seneca. The Seneca Pumped Storage Generating Station is associated with Kinzua Dam.
Numerous bridges and tunnels span the river throughout its course. The
History
In the latter half of the 17th century, control of the river valley passed back-and-forth between Algonquian-speaking Shawnee and the Iroquois. By the time of the arrival of French colonialists in the early 18th century, the Shawnee were once again in control and formed an alliance with France against attempts by colonists from British North America to settler across the Allegheny Mountains. The conflict over the expansion of Anglo-American settlement into the Allegheny Valley and the surrounding Ohio Country was a primary cause of the French and Indian War in the 1750s.[20] During the war, the village of Kittanning – the principal Shawnee settlement on the river – was completely destroyed during the Kittanning Expedition, which saw 300 provincial troops from the Province of Pennsylvania brutally attack the settlement.
After gaining control of the area in the 1763 Treaty of Paris, the British kept the area closed to Anglo-American colonists, in part to repair and maintain relations with the Native Americans. After the American Revolutionary War, the entire river valley became part of the new United States, and U.S. settlers forcibly displaced the region's indigenous population. During the 19th century, the river became a principal means of navigation in the upper Ohio valley, especially for the transport of coal. Although the building of the railroads lessened the importance of the river somewhat, the lower river (navigable as far as East Brady, Pennsylvania through locks) has continued to serve as a route of commercial transportation until the present day. In 1859, the first U.S. petroleum was drilled north of the river at Titusville. One of the underlying premises of the Genesee Valley Canal was its connection to the river, opening a trade route from Rochester, New York to the west. The advent of the railroads obviated any interest Pennsylvania might have had in participating to improve navigation on the river. The canal was closed in 1877 and the right-of-way sold to the Genesee Valley Canal Railroad.
In 1965, the completion of the federally sponsored
The construction of the dam and the filling of the Allegheny Reservoir also necessitated the elimination of the small village of
Many prominent individuals opposed the construction of the dam at that time because of the damage it would do to Seneca lands, including Pennsylvania Congressman John P. Saylor of Johnstown, and Howard Zahniser, executive director of The Wilderness Society and native of Tionesta—a small settlement located along the Allegheny River several miles downstream from Warren. During the campaign for the 1960 United States presidential election, John F. Kennedy assured the Seneca Nation that he would oppose the dam if elected. However, he failed to follow through on his pledge upon becoming president.
In 1992, 86.6 mi (139.4 km) of the Allegheny River was designated
In 2008, Katie Spotz became the first person to swim the entire 325 mi (523 km) of the Allegheny River; she was accompanied by safety kayaker, James Hendershott.[22] The team began at the river's source in Warren, Pennsylvania on July 22 and finished at the "Point" in Downtown Pittsburgh on August 21.[23]
Settlements
New York
- Allegany
- Carrollton
- Jimerson Town
- Olean
- Portville
- St. Bonaventure
- Salamanca
- Weston Mills
Pennsylvania
- Applewold
- Arnold
- Aspinwall
- Blawnox
- Brackenridge
- Cheswick
- Coudersport
- Creighton
- East Brady
- East Hickory
- Eldred
- Emlenton
- Etna
- Ford City
- Foxburg
- Franklin
- Freeport
- Harmarville
- Kennerdell
- Kittanning
- Lower Burrell
- Manorville
- Millvale
- Natrona
- New Kensington
- Oakmont
- Oil City
- Parker
- Penn Hills
- Pittsburgh
- Plum
- Port Allegany
- Roulette
- Schenley
- Sharpsburg
- Springdale
- Starbrick
- Tarentum
- Templeton
- Tidioute
- Tionesta
- Verona
- Warren
- West Hickory
- West Kittanning
- Woodland Heights
- Youngsville
See also
- Allegheny Islands State Park
- Allegheny Riverfront Park
- List of rivers of New York
- List of rivers of Pennsylvania
- Pittsburgh Flood of 1936
- Pittsburgh Three Rivers Regatta
References
- ^ a b c d "Allegheny River". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
- ^ a b c Sweden Valley, PA, 7.5 Minute Topographic Quadrangle, USGS, 1969 (1972 rev.)
- ^ USGS Data Report 2009 Archived February 14, 2021, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved June 16, 2018.
- ^ "welhik". Lenape Talking Dictionary. Archived from the original on October 4, 2011. Retrieved December 14, 2011.
- ^ "Heckewelder here does not give the strict meaning of hanne. The word in common use among Algonkin [i.e., Algonquian] tribes for river is sipu, and this includes the idea of 'a stream of flowing water'. But in the mountainous parts of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia sipu did not sufficiently convey the idea of a rapid stream, roaring down mountain gorges, and hanne takes its place to designate not a mere sipu, or flowing river, but a rapid mountain stream." Russell, Erret (1885). "Indian Geographical Names". Magazine of Western History. 2 (1): 53–59.
- ^ Trumbull, J. Hammond (1870). The Composition of Indian Geographical Names. Hartford, Conn. pp. 13–14.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ ISBN 0-938530-02-X.
- ^ Hodge, Frederick Webb, ed. (1907). Handbook of American Indians north of Mexico. Washington: Government Printing Office. pp. 245-249.
- ISBN 1-889037-17-6.
- ^ "Allegheny River (River where footprints can be seen)". Lenape Talking Dictionary. 2023. Retrieved December 13, 2023.
- ^ a b "Allegheny River". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. Retrieved May 13, 2010.
- ^ "Glossary of Seneca Words". Internet Sacred Text Archive.
- ^ Bradford, PA, 1:100,000 Scale Topographic Map, USGS, 1980
- ^ Olean, NY, 1:100,000 Scale Topographic Map, USGS, 1986
- ^ Warren, PA, 1:100,000 Scale Topographic Map, USGS, 1983
- ^ Oil City, PA, 1:100,000 Scale Topographic Map, USGS, 1983
- ^ Indiana, PA, 1:100,000 Scale Topographic Map, USGS, 1983
- ^ Pittsburg East and Pittsburg West 1:100,000 Scale Topographic Maps, USGS, 1986
- ^ "Know the Rivers!" (PDF). fishandboat.com.
All dams on the Allegheny River are Fixed Crest
- ^ MacCorkle, William Alexander. "The historical and other relations of Pittsburgh and the Virginias". Historic Pittsburgh General Text Collection. University of Pittsburgh. Retrieved September 12, 2013.
- ^ Allegheny Wild and Scenic River Archived June 16, 2018, at the Wayback Machine – Allegheny National Forest. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
- ^ Shuster, Patrick; Garrone, Francine (August 18, 2008). "Ohio woman swimming length of Allegheny River". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Tribune-Review Publishing Company. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
- ^ Nephin, Dan (August 22, 2008). "Ohio swimmer completes 325-mile swim of Allegheny". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Tribune-Review Publishing Company. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
Further reading
- Schafer, Jim; Mike Sajna (1992). The Allegheny River: Watershed of the Nation. University Park, Pennsylvania, US: ISBN 978-0-271-00836-3.