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57-612: Download coordinates as: Bonpas Creek is a tributary of the Wabash River in Illinois . It rises to the east of Olney in Richland County , Illinois. Flowing south, it forms the boundary between Edwards and Wabash counties. The creek is 58.4 miles (94.0 km) long. It joins the Wabash near Grayville, Illinois . In the last 2 miles (3 km) of its watercourse, it occupies part of

114-662: A Miami word meaning "water over white stones", as its bottom is white limestone, now obscured by mud. The Wabash is the state river of Indiana , and subject of the state song " On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away " by Paul Dresser . Two counties (in Indiana and Illinois ); eight townships in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio; one Illinois precinct , one city , one town , two colleges , one high school , one canal , one former class I railroad , several bridges and avenues are all named for

171-617: A dome over west-central Keewatin (Kivalliq). Two of the lobes abut the adjacent Labrador and Baffin ice sheets. The primary lobes flow (1) towards Manitoba and Saskatchewan ; (2) toward Hudson Bay ; (3) towards the Gulf of Boothia , and (4) towards the Beaufort Sea . The Labrador ice sheet flowed across all of Maine and into the Gulf of St. Lawrence , completely covering the Maritime Provinces . The Appalachian Ice Complex, flowed from

228-565: A former Wabash oxbow bend . As such, the creek now also forms part of the state boundary between White County, Illinois , and Gibson County, Indiana , as flows past Grayville in the former channel. The name is derived from the early French settlers of the Illinois Country . The name probably means "good steps" or "good path". The name is pronounced locally as "Bom Paw". Other locals such as those in nearby villages of Bone Gap , Browns , Bellmont and southern Illinois communities pronounce

285-601: A large portion of the Northern United States , multiple times during the Quaternary glaciation epochs, from 2.58 million years ago to the present. The last advance covered most of northern North America between c. 95,000 and c. 20,000 years before the present day and, among other geomorphological effects, gouged out the five Great Lakes and the hosts of smaller lakes of the Canadian Shield . These lakes extend from

342-462: A maze-like quality in the first seventeen-mile (27 km) stretch as it enters Indiana. At mile forty-five, the river becomes straighter with few sharp bends. An additional seventeen tributaries raise the depth of the river considerably, making it navigable for larger vessels. At mile fifty-nine, the river passes through Ouabache State Park , where it begins to widen and become more shallow. The white limestone river bottom can sometimes be seen in

399-406: A panhandle between the river and Posey County . From the tail southward there are several cut-offs from the river, resulting in several natural exclaves between Indiana and Illinois, the largest of which is at Grayville . A flood caused the river to change course, disconnecting a two-mile (3 km) long stretch of the river and creating a lake entirely on the Illinois side. Between these exclaves

456-471: A state boundary line with Indiana for the remainder of its course. At Darwin , a farmer's cooperative operates the Wabash's only ferry service. It is used to take heavy farm equipment across the river. South of Darwin, beginning at mile 410 a large bluff gradually rises, eventually towering two-hundred feet over the river. The area is one of the most remote of the river, and it generally gives onto open land. The area becomes more densely populated as it nears

513-549: Is believed that the Cordilleran ice melted rapidly, in less than 4000 years. The water created numerous Proglacial lakes along the margins such as Lake Missoula , often leading to catastrophic floods as with the Missoula Floods . Much of the topography of Eastern Washington and northern Montana and North Dakota was affected. The Keewatin ice sheet has had four or five primary lobes identified ice divides extending from

570-524: Is the historic town of New Harmony , a settlement created by Utopians during the 1810s. It is joined by the Black River on the Indiana side. At mile 460, the river again splits into several channels. The area features sandy beaches and the largest islands in the river, some a mile in length. The Little Wabash River , another major tributary, joins at mile 482 on the Illinois side, near New Haven . At mile 491

627-603: Is the largest topographical feature in Allen County, Indiana . When the ice melted completely from the region, new outlets for Lake Maumee's water opened up at elevations lower than the Wabash-Erie Channel. While the St. Joseph and St. Marys Rivers continued to flow through the channel, Lake Maumee no longer did. Now a low-lying, probably marshy bit of terrain lay in between. It is not known for certain when, but at some point in

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684-612: The Attack on Fort Recovery (1794), the Battle of Tippecanoe (1811), and the Siege of Fort Harrison (1812). Several different conflicts have been referred to as the " Battle of the Wabash ". A 329-acre (133 ha) remnant of the old-growth forests that once bordered the Wabash can be found at Beall Woods State Park , near Mount Carmel, Illinois . In the mid-19th century, the Wabash and Erie Canal , one of

741-734: The Gaspé Peninsula over New Brunswick , the Magdalen Shelf , and Nova Scotia . The Labrador flow extended across the mouth of the St. Lawrence River , reaching the Gaspé Peninsula and across Chaleur Bay . From the Escuminac center on the Magdalen Shelf , flowed onto the Acadian Peninsula of New Brunswick and southeastward, onto the Gaspe, burying the western end of Prince Edward Island and reached

798-542: The Gulf of Mexico via the Wabash; it served as a vital trade route for North American-French trade and was the river they knew best. In the 18th century, the profitable 8-mile portage between the Maumee River and the Wabash was controlled by the Miami people at Kekionga . The United States has fought five colonial and frontier-era battles on or near the river: the Battle of Vincennes (1779), St. Clair's Defeat (1791),

855-763: The Last Glacial Maximum . The eastern edge abutted the Laurentide ice sheet. The sheet was anchored in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia and Alberta , south into the Cascade Range of Washington . That is one and a half times the water held in the Antarctic . Anchored in the mountain backbone of the west coast, the ice sheet dissipated north of the Alaska Range where the air was too dry to form glaciers. It

912-694: The Northeastern United States , and cities such as Boston and New York City and Great Lakes coastal cities and towns as far south as Chicago and St. Louis, Missouri , and then followed the present course of the Missouri River up to the northern slopes of the Cypress Hills , beyond which it merged with the Cordilleran Ice Sheet . The ice coverage extended approximately as far south as 38 degrees latitude mid-continent. This ice sheet

969-525: The St. Joseph and St. Marys rivers. Their combined discharge was probably the primary source of water for the proglacial Wabash River system. As the Erie Lobe of the glacier continued to retreat, its meltwater was temporarily trapped between the ice front to the east and the Fort Wayne Moraine to the west, and formed pro glacial Lake Maumee , the ancestor of modern Lake Erie . Around 11,000 years ago

1026-597: The White River at Mount Carmel, Illinois , significantly increasing its size, to over 750 feet wide. Roughly a mile downstream, near the Gibson Generating Station , another large tributary, the Patoka River , also joins. During low water, there are rapids at the confluence, caused by an old canal lock that was abandoned after flooding. Further downstream, the river zig-zags, creating the "tail" of Gibson County,

1083-678: The enormous weight of the melted ice . The Baffin ice sheet was circular and centered over the Foxe Basin . A major divide across the basin, created a westward flow across the Melville Peninsula , from an eastward flow over Baffin Island and Southampton Island . Across southern Baffin Island, two divides created four additional lobes. The Penny Ice Divide split the Cumberland Peninsula , where Pangnirtung created flow toward Home Bay on

1140-557: The Atlantic Ocean. Its cycles of growth and melting were a decisive influence on global climate during its existence. This is because it served to divert the jet stream southward, which would otherwise flow from the relatively warm Pacific Ocean through Montana and Minnesota . That gave the Southwestern United States , otherwise a desert, abundant rainfall during ice ages, in extreme contrast to most other parts of

1197-631: The Fort Wayne Outlet into the Maumee River since it was at a lower elevation than that of the sluiceway. This meant that when the flood waters receded, the sluiceway was permanently abandoned by the two rivers. As a result of capturing them both, the Maumee was converted from a minor creek to a large river. Once again, river waters flowed through the Fort Wayne Outlet, but now they flowed eastward, toward Lake Erie, instead of westward. Following this event,

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1254-573: The Indiana-Ohio border. The water source is farmland drainage. A half mile downstream (i.e. east), at a roadside park on Ohio 49 at the Mercer County line, is a historical marker that announces the river's start. This land is also the portage for headwaters of the Mississinewa River , Stillwater River and West Fork of the White River , which lie just a few miles away. Between the start of

1311-831: The Laurentide Ice Sheet. Central North America has evidence of the numerous lobes and sublobes. The Keewatin covered the western interior plains of North America from the Mackenzie River to the Missouri River and the upper reaches of the Mississippi River . The Labrador covered spread over eastern Canada and the northeastern part of the United States abutting the Keewatin lobe in the western Great Lakes and Mississippi valley . The Cordilleran ice sheet covered up to 2,500,000 square kilometres (970,000 sq mi) at

1368-812: The Laurentide ice sheet reached from the Rocky Mountains eastward through the Great Lakes , into New England , covering nearly all of Canada east of the Rocky Mountains. Three major ice centers formed in North America: the Labrador , Keewatin , and Cordilleran . The Cordilleran covered the region from the Pacific Ocean to the eastern front of the Rocky Mountains and the Labrador and Keewatin fields are referred to as

1425-532: The Wabash at this point. Because of the dams on the Wabash, the Little River often carries more water than the Wabash. Additional minor tributaries raise the water level between Huntington and the city of Wabash . As the river passes Wabash and moves toward Peru , it splits, creating a series of islands; sandbars are common in the stretch. The river returns to a single channel at Peru, and flows through one of its most gentle stretches until reaching Logansport . Here

1482-592: The Wabash flows into the Ohio River near Hovey Lake . The Wabash is the 24th largest by discharge volume and 38th longest river in the United States. The major tributaries of the Wabash River include: right tributaries left tributaries The Wabash River supports an abundant and diverse wildlife population. At least 150 species of birds have been sighted around the river. The waterfowl are most dependent on

1539-451: The area, whereas it is not visible due to pollution elsewhere downstream. As the river exits the park and flows toward the city of Bluffton near mile sixty-six, it widens further, becoming more shallow; only a narrow channel is navigable by larger vessels. The river remains shallow and somewhat rocky with minor rapids until mile seventy-one near the community of Murray . There the river becomes calm and deeper until mile eighty-one, due to

1596-480: The branch of the Wabash River that originates along the Wabash Moraine near Bluffton became the system's main course and source. For part of its course, the Wabash follows the path of the pre-glacial Teays River . The river has shifted course several times along the Indiana and Illinois border, creating cutoffs where parts of the river are entirely in either Indiana or Illinois. However, both states generally regard

1653-472: The city of Covington , the river begins flowing due south. The river is deep at this point, but there are several gravel bars between Covington and Terre Haute . Terre Haute, beginning at mile 300, is among the largest cities in Indiana. Although navigable by large ships in the past, the remainder of the river becomes shallow in places due to erosion and silt . The river gradually widens moving south. It borders Illinois beginning at mile 316, and serves as

1710-596: The city of Vincennes at mile 441. Founded by the French about 1720, Vincennes is the oldest European settlement in Indiana, and among the oldest in the American Midwest . The city is sited on a strategic bend in the river that allowed it to control river traffic. Four miles west, as the river turns southward, another major tributary, the Embarras River joins. Past Vincennes, the Wabash is joined by its largest tributary,

1767-607: The clarity of the river in Huntington County, Indiana , where the river bottom is limestone . As the Laurentide Ice Sheet began to retreat from present-day Northern Indiana and Northwest Ohio between 14,000 and 15,000 years ago, it receded into three distinct lobes. The eastern or Erie Lobe sat atop and behind the Fort Wayne Moraine . Meltwater from the glacier fed into two ice-marginal streams, which became

Bonpas Creek - Misplaced Pages Continue

1824-684: The creek. As he wades into the water it is said the young son is saying, "Bum-paw, Bum-paw" as the father pulls the team of horses and wagon across the creek. Wabash River It is the largest northern tributary of the Ohio River and third largest overall, behind the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers. From the dam near Huntington, Indiana , to its terminus at the Ohio River, the Wabash flows freely for 411 miles (661 km) The Tippecanoe River , White River , Embarras River and Little Wabash River are major tributaries. The river's name comes from

1881-401: The dam and levee at the town of Markle . The lock that was formerly at the site is abandoned and a narrow washout is the only means to bypass the dam. In the rocky washout the river level drops four feet, making it one of the most dangerous points on the river. Boaters are advised to exit the river and reembark on the other side of the dam rather than traverse the washout. At mile eighty-nine,

1938-408: The distant past the St. Joseph and St. Marys Rivers jumped their banks and flooded the marshy ground of the Fort Wayne Outlet. The discharge of this unusual flood was enough to cut across the outlet and come into contact with the headwaters of the Maumee River. Once this happened, the flood waters rushed to the east into the Maumee River, and their erosive force was enough that the new channel cut across

1995-481: The eastern Northwest Territories , through most of northern Canada, and the upper Midwestern United States ( Minnesota , Wisconsin , and Michigan ) to the Finger Lakes , through Lake Champlain and Lake George areas of New York , across the northern Appalachians into and through all of New England and Nova Scotia . At times, the ice sheet's southern margin included the present-day sites of coastal towns of

2052-512: The formation of North Atlantic Deep Water , the very saline, cold, deep water that flows from the Greenland Sea . That interrupted the thermohaline circulation , creating the brief Younger Dryas cold epoch and a temporary re-advance of the ice sheet, which did not retreat from Nunavik until 6,500 years ago. After the end of the Younger Dryas, the Laurentide Ice Sheet retreated rapidly to

2109-552: The head of Bay of Fundy . From the Gaspereau center, on the divide crossing New Brunswick flowed into the Bay of Fundy and Chaleur Bay. In New York, the ice that covered Manhattan was about 2,000 feet high before it began to melt in about 16,000 BC. The ice in the area disappeared around 10,000 BC. The ground in the New York area has since risen by more than 150 ft because of the removal of

2166-517: The large Huntington Dam blocks the river. Built by the Army Corps of Engineers to make a reservoir, the dam creates the J. Edward Roush Lake . The lake is surrounded by park land and recreation areas and is about five miles (8 km) in length and a mile wide at its widest point. The mile-long stretch after the Huntington Dam is rarely navigable. No lock connects the two sections of the river, and

2223-503: The late 19th century, erosion due to farming and runoff made the Wabash impassable to such ships. Dredging could have resolved the problem, but was not undertaken because railroads had become the preferred form of transport. The 200-mile stretch south of Terre Haute includes several inoperable swing bridges . The Wabash River rises 4 miles south of Fort Recovery, Ohio , very near the Darke-Mercer County line about 1.5 miles east of

2280-421: The longest canals in the world, was built along much of the river. Portions are still accessible in modern times, but most of the abandoned canal no longer exists. Its contribution to transportation was surpassed by construction of competing railroads. The Wabash River between Terre Haute and the Ohio River was navigable by large ships during much of the 19th century, and was a regular stop for steamships. By

2337-514: The middle of the river as the state border. The Wabash was first mapped by French explorers to the Mississippi in the latter half of the 17th century, including the sections now known as the Ohio River . The Wabash is considered a tributary of the Ohio River. Until the mid-18th century, however, the Ohio was considered a tributary of the Wabash. French traders had traveled north and south from Canada to

Bonpas Creek - Misplaced Pages Continue

2394-464: The name as Bum-paw, with the emphasis on the Bum. This pronunciation, though not completely true to the original French, is still much closer to the correct way to say the name. A legend about how Bum-paw got its name tells of an early pioneer father traveling in his wagon across the creek with his young son from their cabin to a nearby settlement. The father it is told gets his wagon and team of horses stuck in

2451-513: The north and Cumberland Sound on the south. The Amadjuak Ice Divide on the Hall Peninsula , where Iqaluit sits created a north flow into Cumberland Sound and a south flow into the Hudson Strait . A secondary Hall Ice Divide formed a link to a local ice cap on the Hall Peninsula . The current ice caps on Baffin Island are thought to be a remnant from this time period, but it was not a part of

2508-589: The north, becoming limited to only the Canadian Shield until even it became deglaciated. The ultimate collapse of the Laurentide Ice Sheet is also suspected to have influenced European agriculture indirectly through the rise of global sea levels. Canada's oldest ice is a 20,000-year-old remnant of the Laurentide Ice Sheet called the Barnes Ice Cap , on central Baffin Island . During the Late Pleistocene ,

2565-411: The river again splits into multiple channels, divided by islands. Some of the channels are narrow and rocky, while the larger channels are navigable. Between Logansport and Delphi , at mile 176, is one of the few remaining stretches of the Wabash and Erie canal. It can be accessed at Delphi. Just past Delphi, the Wabash's second major tributary, the Tippecanoe River , joins the river. The confluence of

2622-422: The river and Fort Recovery, the current is swift and the water remains very shallow and follows a poorly defined channel. The shallow depth and low bridge clearances make the section nearly impassable by boat except in the most ideal conditions. At mile seven and mile nine, two tributaries give the river a significant boost in volume, and at mile eleven the river flows past Fort Recovery. Two more tributaries add to

2679-497: The river itself while four US Navy warships are either named for the river or the numerous battles that took place on or near it. The name Wabash is an English transliteration spelling of the French name for the river, Ouabache . French traders had adopted the Miami-Illinois word for the river, waapaahšiiki , meaning 'it shines white', 'pure white', or 'water over white stones', and attempted to spell it according to their own phonetic system. The Miami name expressed

2736-404: The river's volume between Fort Recovery and Macedon at mile eighteen, making the river navigable for the remainder of its course. The river continues to flow northward passing the community of Wabash at mile twenty-three and then cutting sharply west, crossing into Indiana at mile twenty-eight. Upon entering Indiana, the river has many sharp turns; these regularly lead to log jams that can block

2793-426: The river's watershed including the American bullfrog and the eastern newt . Crayfish are also common throughout the river. Notes Bibliography 37°47′53″N 88°1′38″W  /  37.79806°N 88.02722°W  / 37.79806; -88.02722 Laurentide Ice Sheet The Laurentide ice sheet was a massive sheet of ice that covered millions of square miles, including most of Canada and

2850-402: The river. Black-crowned and Yellow-crowned night heron , and merlin inhabit the area. Several species of shorebirds build nest on or near the banks of the river. The river is home to many species of fish including species of bass , sunfish , crappie , catfish , carp , and others. Aquatic reptiles including snakes and turtles also occur in the river. A number of amphibians occur throughout

2907-429: The river. Because of the many turns in the river, during the 1830s, the state created several separate canal channels to shorten the journey between the state line and Fort Wayne as part of the Wabash and Erie Canal project. The canals were abandoned after competing railroads took over; this allowed the river to shift courses several times, resulting in the formation of many cut-offs and coves with no outlet. The river has

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2964-419: The surface geology of southern Canada and the northern United States, leaving behind glacially scoured valleys, moraines , eskers and glacial till . It also caused many changes to the shape, size, and drainage of the Great Lakes. As but one of many examples, near the end of the last ice age, Lake Iroquois extended well beyond the boundaries of present-day Lake Ontario , and drained down the Hudson River into

3021-413: The two rivers is part of Prophetstown State Park , the site of the 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe . The flow of the Tippecanoe into the Wabash raises its level dramatically. At this point, most large power boats can easily navigate the river at cruising speed. The river passes the city of Lafayette at mile 210 and gradually begins to end its westward flow, beginning a wide turn to the south. At mile 241, at

3078-405: The water is often very shallow. A second smaller dam at mile ninety-one presents a dangerous hazard, and the section between it and the Huntington Dam has been closed to boaters. At mile ninety-three the river is joined by its first major tributary, the Little River . The city of Huntington developed at the confluence of the two rivers. The tributary dramatically increases the volume of water in

3135-409: The waters of Lake Maumee became deep enough that it breached a " sag " or weak spot in the Fort Wayne Moraine. This caused a catastrophic draining of the lake, which in turn scoured a 1 to 2 mi (1.6 to 3.2 km) wide valley known as the Wabash-Erie Channel or "sluiceway". The Little (Wabash) River flows through this channel. U.S. 24 traverses it between Fort Wayne and Huntington. The valley

3192-426: The world which became exceedingly dry, though the effect of ice sheets in Europe had an analogous effect on the rainfall in Afghanistan , parts of Iran , possibly western Pakistan in winter, as well as North Africa . Its melting also caused major disruptions to the global climate cycle, because the huge influx of low- salinity water into the Arctic Ocean via the Mackenzie River is believed to have disrupted

3249-404: Was the primary feature of the Pleistocene epoch in North America, commonly referred to as the ice age . During the Pre-Illinoian Stage , the Laurentide Ice Sheet extended as far south as the Missouri and Ohio River valleys. It was up to 2 mi (3.2 km) thick in Nunavik , Quebec , Canada , but much thinner at its edges, where nunataks were common in hilly areas. It created much of

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