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106-700: The second principal meridian , or Paoli Meridian , coincides with 86° 28′ of longitude west from Greenwich, starts from a point two and one half miles west of the confluence of the Little Blue and Ohio rivers, runs north to the northern boundary of Indiana , and, with the base line in latitude 38° 28′ 20″, governs the surveys in Indiana and part of those in Illinois . 38°28′10.02″N 86°27′21.17″W  /  38.4694500°N 86.4558806°W  / 38.4694500; -86.4558806 Ohio River The Ohio River

212-531: A 500% increase in mercury discharges between 2007 and 2013. For several decades beginning in the 1950s, the Ohio River was polluted with hundreds of thousands of pounds of PFOA , a fluoride-based chemical used in making teflon , among other things, by the DuPont chemical company from an outflow pipe at its Parkersburg, West Virginia , facility. The Ohio was listed among America's Most Endangered Rivers of 2023 on

318-744: A French architect and surveyor whose survey was the first mapping of the Ohio River, led an expedition of French troops from Fort Niagara down the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers as far as the mouth of the Great Miami River near Big Bone Lick and possibly the Falls of the Ohio (present-day Louisville ). Chaussegros de Lery mapped the Great Lakes in 1725, and engineered the Niagara fortifications in 1726. I am indebted for

424-535: A distinct culture region, with distinct ancestry, dialect, cuisine, and other characteristics. The heavily rhotacized Upland Southern dialect, still predominates in much of West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and portions of North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Missouri. Noticeable influence can even be found in parts of the Lower South, such as northern Georgia and northern Alabama. Cities as far north as Cincinnati carry noticeable dialect influence as well. As

530-639: A lesser extent the District of Columbia, Maryland, Delaware, and Missouri. The Upland South is defined by elevation above sea level; it is west of the population centers on the east coast. It has its own history and culture, originating in Appalachia . It includes West Virginia and Kentucky, most of Tennessee, and parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. It also includes parts of some Northern states , such as Southern Illinois (generally

636-471: A major role in establishing the political and social culture, such as the Black Laws of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Throughout the 19th century, the population percentage of Upland Southerners fell, especially as large numbers of native-born Midwesterners joined the population. The Deep South is generally associated historically with cotton production. By 1850, the term "Cotton States" was in common use, and

742-588: A point south of the Ohio River and north of the Falls: "Place where one found the ivory of Elephant in 1729" ( French : endroit ou on à trouvé des os d'Elephant en 1729 ). De Lery's men found teeth weighing ten pounds (4.5 kg) with a diameter of five to seven inches (130 to 180 mm), tusks 11 feet (3.4 m) long and 6–7 inches (150–180 mm) in diameter, and thigh bones 5 feet (1.5 m) long. The bones were collected and shipped to Paris, where they were identified as mastodon remains; they are on display at

848-575: A region called the Mid-South . It also doesn't include the coastal lowlands of North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland, located in the Tidewater region. Despite these differences, the two terms, Upland South and Upper South, refer to the same general region—the northern part of the American South—and are frequently used synonymously. The corresponding terms, Lower South and Deep South, similarly refer to

954-549: A result of the difference in the use of slaves, the boundary between the Upland South and Deep South can still be seen today on maps showing the population percentage of African-Americans. The term Black Belt originally referred to a region of black soil in Alabama that was especially fertile for cotton farming and has a high percentage of African-Americans. In contrast, the Upland South was less involved with large-scale slavery, and

1060-636: A result, though half the counties of the new state were still secessionist, and partisan warfare continued throughout the war. Kentucky and Missouri for the most part remained in the Union , though they were both claimed by the Confederacy and had dual competing Confederate governments in the form of the Confederate government of Kentucky and the Confederate government of Missouri , and were torn by internal strife. The Confederacy controlled more than half of Kentucky and

1166-620: A single instance only excepted." After the French and Indian War , Britain's trans-Appalachian Indian Reserve was divided by the river into colonial lands to the south and Native American lands to the north. In the late 18th century, the river became the southern boundary of the Northwest Territory . The river is sometimes considered as the western extension of the Mason–Dixon line that divided Pennsylvania from Maryland , and thus part of

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1272-653: A southern route to his home in Augusta County, Virginia , in May 1745. John Howard was extradited to France to stand trial. His ship was intercepted by the English and, as a free man, he reported his adventures after landing in London; however, his account has been lost. Salling's detailed account of Virginia's adjacent lands was used in Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson's 1751 map. In 1749,

1378-878: A whole is ranked as the most polluted river in the United States, based on 2009 and 2010 data. The more industrial and regional West Virginia/Pennsylvania tributary, the Monongahela River , ranked 17th for water pollution , behind 16 other American rivers. The Ohio again ranked as the most polluted in 2013, and has been the most polluted river since at least 2001, according to the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO). The Commission found that 92% of toxic discharges were nitrates , including farm runoff and waste water from industrial processes such as steel production. The Commission also noted mercury pollution as an ongoing concern, citing

1484-731: A wide variety of craft then in use. In 1830, the Louisville and Portland Canal (now the McAlpine Locks and Dam ) bypassed the rapids, allowing even larger commercial and modern navigation from the Forks of the Ohio at Pittsburgh to the Port of New Orleans at the mouth of the Mississippi on the Gulf of Mexico. Since the "canalization" of the river in 1929, the Ohio has not been a natural free-flowing river; today, it

1590-530: Is 1,310 miles (2,110 km) long and carries the largest volume of water of any tributary of the Mississippi. The Indians and early European explorers and settlers of the region often considered the Allegheny to be part of the Ohio. The forks (the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers at what is now Pittsburgh) were considered a strategic military location by colonial French and British, and later independent American military authorities. The Ohio River

1696-566: Is a 981-mile-long (1,579 km) river in the United States . It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States , flowing in a southwesterly direction from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illinois . It is the third largest river by discharge volume in the United States and the largest tributary by volume of

1802-526: Is also described in the Encyclopædia Britannica as the "Yeoman South," in contrast to the "Plantation South." The Upland South, being defined by landforms, also includes parts of Lower South states, such as northwestern South Carolina (the Upstate ), North Georgia , North Alabama , and northeastern Mississippi . It also includes parts of some Northern states , such as Southern Illinois (generally

1908-539: Is credited with being the first European to travel and explore western Pennsylvania and the upper Ohio Valley. Viele made contact with Native American nations as far west as the Wabash River , in present-day Indiana. He and his company left Albany , traveling southbound and crossing portions of present-day New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. They apparently followed the west branch of the Susquehanna River into

2014-517: Is divided into 21 discrete pools or reservoirs by 20 locks and dams for navigation and power generation. The name "Ohio" comes from the Seneca , Ohi:yo' , lit.  "Good River". In his Notes on the State of Virginia published in 1781–82, Thomas Jefferson stated: "The Ohio is the most beautiful river on earth. Its current gentle, waters clear, and bosom smooth and unbroken by rocks and rapids,

2120-539: Is formed by the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers at what is now Point State Park in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania . From there, it flows northwest through Allegheny and Beaver counties, before making an abrupt turn to the south-southwest at the West Virginia –Ohio–Pennsylvania triple-state line (near East Liverpool, Ohio ; Chester, West Virginia ; and Ohioville, Pennsylvania ). From there, it forms

2226-599: The 1763 Treaty of Paris . The 1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix with several tribes opened Kentucky to colonial settlement and established the Ohio River as a southern boundary for American Indian territory. In 1774 the Quebec Act restored the land east of the Mississippi River and north of the Ohio River to Quebec , in effect making the Ohio the southern boundary of Canada . This appeased French Canadians in Quebec but angered

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2332-459: The American Civil War . One antebellum slave trader reported that they kept slaves chained two-by-two while navigating the Ohio, only when they reached the Mississippi could the slaves be unchained for a time, because "there was slavery on both sides of the boat." The expression "sold down the river" originated as a lament of Upper South slaves, especially from Kentucky, who were shipped via

2438-884: The Appalachian Regional Commission ), the Ozarks and Ouachita Mountains . Also included in the Upland South are the plateaus, hills, and basins between the Appalachians and Ozarks, such as the Cumberland Plateau , part of the Allegheny Plateau , the Nashville Basin , the Shawnee Hills , and the Bluegrass Basin , among others. The southern Piedmont region is often considered part of the Upland South, while

2544-594: The Atlantic Coastal Plain (the Chesapeake region and South Carolina's Lowcountry ) are not. In contrast, the term "Upper South" tends to be defined politically by state boundaries. The term dates to the early 19th century and the rise of the Lower South, which became noted for its differences from the more northerly parts of the American South. In antebellum times, the term Upper South generally referred to

2650-634: The Batts and Fallam expedition of 1671, and the Needham and Arthur expedition of 1673–74. In early autumn 1692, loyal English-speaking Dutchman Arnout Viele and a party of eleven companions from Esopus —Europeans, Shawnee , and a few loyal Delaware guides—were sent by the governor of New York to trade with the Shawnee and bring them into the English sphere of influence. Viele understood several Native American languages, which made him valuable as an interpreter. He

2756-619: The French National Natural History Museum . Charles III Le Moyne , second Baron de Longueuil (later the governor of Montreal and interim governor of New France ), commanded Fort Niagara from 1726 to 1733. He led an expedition of 442 men, including Native Americans, from Montreal to war against the Chickasaw who occupied territory on the lower part of the Mississippi River in the area claimed as La Louisiane . According to Gaston Pierre de Lévis , Duke de Mirepoix,

2862-705: The Great Wagon Road west and south into the Appalachian Highlands, via the Great Appalachian Valley . These migration streams from Virginia and Pennsylvania resulted in the Shenandoah Valley becoming well-settled as early as 1750. The early settlers of the Ohio Valley were mainly Upland Southerners. Much of the culture of the Upland South originated in southeastern Pennsylvania and spread down

2968-700: The Kanawha River , they entered the Ohio River 444 miles (715 km) above the falls. The Virginia pioneers traced the northern boundary of Kentucky for five hundred miles (800 km), reaching the Mississippi River on June 7. They descended just below the mouth of the Arkansas River , where they were ambushed by a large company of Native Americans, Blacks and Frenchmen on July 2, 1742; one or two of Howard's men were killed. The rest were brought to New Orleans and imprisoned as spies. After two years in prison, Salling escaped on October 25, 1744, and returned on

3074-620: The Lenape and Iroquois , considered the Ohio and Allegheny rivers as the same, as is suggested by a New York State road sign on Interstate 86 that refers to the Allegheny River also as Ohi:yo' . Similarly, the Geographic Names Information System lists O-hee-yo and O-hi-o as variant names for the Allegheny. An earlier Miami-Illinois language name was also applied to the Ohio River, Mosopeleacipi ("river of

3180-607: The Midwestern Great Lakes states from the Upper South states, which were historically border states in the Civil War. The Ohio River is a left (east) and the largest tributary by volume of the Mississippi River in the United States . At the confluence , the Ohio is considerably bigger than the Mississippi, measured by long-term mean discharge. The Ohio River at Cairo is 281,500 cu ft/s (7,960 m /s); and

3286-492: The Mississippi River at the city of Cairo, Illinois . Where the Ohio joins the Mississippi is the lowest elevation in the state of Illinois, at 315 feet (96 m). The Mississippi River flows to the Gulf of Mexico on the Atlantic Ocean . Among rivers wholly or mostly in the United States, the Ohio is the second largest by discharge volume and the tenth longest and has the eighth largest drainage basin. It serves to separate

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3392-536: The Mosopelea " tribe). Shortened in the Shawnee language to pelewa thiipi , spelewathiipi or peleewa thiipiiki , the name evolved through variant forms such as "Polesipi", "Peleson", "Pele Sipi" and "Pere Sipi", and eventually stabilized to the variant spellings "Pelisipi", "Pelisippi" and "Pellissippi". Originally applied just to the Ohio River, the "Pelisipi" name later was variously applied back and forth between

3498-521: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 's Ohio River Forecast Center. The water depth predictions are relative to each local flood plain based upon predicted rainfall in the Ohio River basin in five reports as follows: The water levels for the Ohio River from Smithland Lock and Dam to Cairo, Illinois, are predicted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 's Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center. The largest tributaries of

3604-625: The Ohio Company was established in Virginia Colony to settle and trade in the Ohio River region. Exploration of the territory and trade with the Indians in the region near the Forks brought white colonists from both Pennsylvania and Virginia across the mountains, and both colonies claimed the territory. The movement across the Allegheny Mountains of Anglo-American settlers and the claims of

3710-466: The Potomac River to the Ohio River. The Wheeling Suspension Bridge was built over the river at Wheeling from 1847 to 1849, making the trip west easier. For a brief time, until 1851, it was the world's largest suspension bridge. The bridge survived the American Civil War , after having been improved in 1859. It was renovated again in 1872, and remains in use as the oldest vehicular suspension bridge in

3816-544: The Shawnee Hills region), Southern Indiana , Southern Ohio , and extreme southwestern Pennsylvania. Eastern Oklahoma , North Texas , and Western Maryland are generally included as well. In the same way, the Upland South usually doesn't include parts of some Upper South states. This includes areas such as eastern Arkansas , the Missouri Bootheel , the Purchase area of Kentucky, and West Tennessee , which are part of

3922-478: The Shawnee Hills region), Southern Indiana , and Southern Ohio . Upland South outposts were settled along the shores of the Ohio River . There is a slight difference in usage between the two terms "Upland South" and "Upper South." The "Upland South" is usually defined based on landforms. This generally refers to the southern Appalachian Mountains or Appalachia region (although not the full region as defined by

4028-416: The humid subtropical and humid continental climate areas. It is inhabited by fauna and flora of both climates. Today, the Ohio River is one of the most polluted rivers in the United States. In winter, it regularly freezes over at Pittsburgh but rarely farther south towards Cincinnati and Louisville . Further down the river in places like Paducah and Owensboro , Kentucky, closer to its confluence with

4134-503: The keelboats used for commerce in the early days of American settlement. The Ohio River boatmen inspired performer Dan Emmett , who in 1843 wrote the song " The Boatman's Dance ". Trading boats and ships traveled south on the Mississippi to New Orleans , and sometimes beyond to the Gulf of Mexico and other ports in the Americas and Europe. This provided a much-needed export route for goods from

4240-406: The slave states north of the Lower or Deep South. During the American Civil War era, the term Upper South was often used to refer specifically to the Confederate states that did not secede until after the attack on Fort Sumter —Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas as well as the Confederate government of Kentucky and the Confederate government of Missouri . This can also include

4346-417: The American Civil War, with the exception of the Midwestern states of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio; these three Midwestern states had abolished slavery before the American Civil War. The Upland South voted for Democratic presidents into the 1990s, being won by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 , Jimmy Carter in 1976 , and Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996 . However, the Upland South has rapidly swung towards

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4452-421: The Appalachian foothills was continued and extended through the mountains and highlands to the west and across the Mississippi River into the Ozark highland region. Where there was the danger of Indian attacks, people settled at first in clustered "stations," but as danger lessened, settlement tended to be in a rural, dispersed, kin-structured pattern, with relatively few cities and towns. These early settlers of

4558-422: The Deep South was controlled by Indians (mainly the Five Civilized Tribes of the Cherokee , Creek (Muscogee) , Chickasaw , Choctaw , and Seminole ) who were powerful enough to keep pioneering settlers from moving into the region. The Deep South's cotton boom did not occur until after the Indians were forced west in the early 19th century. In contrast, the Upland South, Kentucky, and Tennessee especially, were

4664-566: The Midwest and Deep South. These areas are often associated with national forests. For example Mark Twain National Forest in southern Missouri, Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois, Hoosier National Forest in southern Indiana, Wayne National Forest in southeast Ohio, William B. Bankhead National Forest in northern Alabama, Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest in northern Georgia, Sumter National Forest in South Carolina, and Ouachita National Forest in Arkansas and Oklahoma. Textile mills and industry served as an important factor in

4770-464: The Mississippi River at Thebes, Illinois , which is upstream of the confluence, is 208,200 cu ft/s (5,897 m /s). The Ohio River flow is greater than that of the Mississippi River, so hydrologically the Ohio River is the main stream of the river system. The Ohio River is a naturally shallow river that was artificially deepened by a series of dams . The natural depth of the river varied from about 3 to 20 feet (1 to 6 m). The dams raise

4876-434: The Mississippi, the Ohio is ice-free year-round. The name "Ohio" comes from the Seneca language (an Iroquoian language ), Ohi:yo' (roughly pronounced oh-hee-yoh, with the vowel in "hee" held longer ), a proper name derived from ohiːyoːh ("good river"), therefore literally translating to "Good River". "Great river" and "large creek" have also been given as translations. Native Americans , including

4982-408: The Natural Bridge), crossing Greenbrier River and landing at the New River . At New River, the Virginia explorers built a large bull boat frame and covered it with five buffalo skins. The first Englishmen to explore the region then followed the New River for 250 miles (400 km), until it became too dangerous to navigate. At a large waterfall, they traveled overland to the Coal River . Following

5088-515: The Ohio River and the Clinch River in Virginia and Tennessee . In his original draft of the Land Ordinance of 1784 , Thomas Jefferson proposed a new state called "Pelisipia", to the south of the Ohio River, which would have included parts of present-day Eastern Kentucky , Virginia and West Virginia . The river had great significance in the history of the Native Americans , as numerous prehistoric and historic civilizations formed along its valley. For thousands of years, Native Americans used

5194-514: The Ohio River opened about the same time. Although such boats cruised on the Ohio River in an oval pattern up and down, the state of Kentucky soon protested. Other states had to limit their cruises to going forward, then reversing and going backward on the Indiana shore only. Both Illinois and Indiana have long since changed their laws to allow riverboat casinos to be permanently docked, with Illinois changing in 1999 and Indiana in 2002. The Silver Bridge at Point Pleasant, West Virginia , collapsed into

5300-406: The Ohio River was called the " River Jordan " by slaves crossing it to escape to freedom in the North via the Underground Railroad . More escaping slaves, estimated in the thousands, made their perilous journey north to freedom across the Ohio River than anywhere else across the north-south frontier. Harriet Beecher Stowe 's Uncle Tom's Cabin , the bestselling novel that fueled abolitionist work,

5406-461: The Ohio River's rapids and tributaries in that area. However, the 1783 Treaty of Paris gave the entire Ohio Valley to the United States , and numerous white settlers entered the region. The economic connection of the Ohio Country to the East was significantly increased in 1818 when the National Road being built westward from Cumberland, Maryland , reached Wheeling, Virginia , (now West Virginia ), providing an easier overland connection from

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5512-401: The Ohio and Mississippi to cotton and sugar plantations in the Deep South . Changes in crops cultivated in the Upper South resulted in slaves available to be sold to the South, where the expansion of cotton plantations was doing very well. Invention of the cotton gin made cultivation of short-staple cotton profitable throughout the Black Belt of this region. Before and during the Civil War,

5618-441: The Ohio by discharge volume are: By drainage basin area, the largest tributaries are: The largest tributaries by length are: Major tributaries, in order from the headwaters, include: Upper South The term Upper South is a geographic term: the Southern states that are geographically north of the Lower or Deep South, primarily Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, and to

5724-452: The Shenandoah Valley. These migration streams eventually spread through Appalachia and westward through the Appalachian Plateau region into the Ozarks and Ouachitas, and ultimately contributed to the settlement of the Texas Hill Country . The main ethnicities of these early settlers included English , Scots-Irish , Scottish , and German . The early culture of the Upland South was influenced by other European ethnicities. For example,

5830-441: The Swedes and Finns of New Sweden —relatively few in number but pioneers in Pennsylvania before the Germans and Irish arrived—contributed techniques of forest pioneering such as the log cabin , the "zig-zag" split-rail fence , and frontier methods of shifting cultivation , such as girdling trees and using slash and burn methods to convert forest into temporary crop and pasture land. The pattern of settlement that had begun in

5936-429: The U.S. Louisville was founded in 1778 as a military encampment on Corn Island (now submerged) by General George Rogers Clark at the only major natural navigational barrier on the river, the Falls of the Ohio . The Falls were a series of rapids where the river dropped 26 feet (7.9 m) in a stretch of about 2 miles (3.2 km). In this area, the river flowed over hard, fossil-rich beds of limestone . The outpost

6042-422: The United States in South Carolina and Louisiana, from where it spread throughout the Deep South, although there were local exceptions wherever conditions did not support the system. The sharp division between town and country, the intensive use of a few cash crops, and the high proportion of slaves, all differed from the Upland South. Virginia and the surrounding Tidewater region stand out as different from both

6148-414: The Upland South and the Deep South. Its history of slavery predates the West Indian plantation model, relying on tobacco as a cash crop from the start. Tidewater had few urban centers, instead establishing multiple markets along tributaries. Cotton and rice operations were large and factory-like, while tobacco profits hinged on skilled, careful, and efficient labor units. In addition, the Cotton Belt of

6254-450: The Upland South tended to practice small-scale farming, stock raising, and hunting. This settlement pattern of the Upland South was markedly different from that of the Deep South and the Midwest . A significant portion of 19th-century settlers of the Midwest was from the Upland South. The southern Midwest was most heavily settled by Upland Southerners, especially in Missouri, southern Indiana, and southern Illinois. This early migration to

6360-491: The Upland South was one of the nation's early industrial regions and continues to be today. Mining of coal , iron, copper, and other minerals has been part of the region's economy since the 18th century. As early as 1750, lead and zinc were mined in Wythe County, Virginia , and copper was mined and smelted in Polk County, Tennessee . Two major Appalachian goldfields were developed, the first in western North Carolina beginning in 1799. By 1825, Rutherford County, North Carolina

6466-417: The Upland South's economy from the late through the mid-20th century. Today the Upland South contains a diversity of people and economies. Some parts, like the Shenandoah Valley , are famous for their rural qualities, while other parts, like the Tennessee Valley , are heavily industrialized. Knoxville and Huntsville both serve as centers of industry and scientific research. The Upper South today remains

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6572-639: The Upland South. Logging has also been an important part of the Upland South's economy. The region became the United States' primary source of timber after railroads allowed large-scale industrial logging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Today, the historic importance of the Upland South's forests can be seen in its many national forests, such as Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee, Nantahala National Forest in North Carolina, and Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky, among many others. The Upland South's terrain and forests, as well as history and culture, occur in parts of states usually associated with

6678-407: The Upper South is generally closely related to the south as a whole, excluding southern low-country coastal areas in which the cuisine tends to involve seafood and rice dishes, which are not common in the Upper South. During the American Civil War some areas of the Upland South were noted for their resistance to the Confederacy . The uplands of western Virginia became the state of West Virginia as

6784-460: The Virginia mountains to the Mississippi River. The elder Howard had a promised reward of 10,000 acres (4,000 ha) of land for a successful expedition from the Virginia Royal Governor's Council to reinforce British claims in the west. Howard offered equal shares of the 10,000 acres to the four other members of his expedition. The party of five left John Peter Salling's house in August County on March 16, 1742, and traveled west to Cedar Creek (near

6890-407: The area near modern-day Pittsburgh led to conflict with the French, who had forts in the Ohio River Valley . This conflict was called the French and Indian War , and would merge into the global Anglo-French struggle, the Seven Years' War . In 1763, following its defeat in the war, France ceded its area east of the Mississippi River to Britain and its area west of the Mississippi River to Spain in

6996-406: The border between free and slave territory, and between the Northern and Southern United States or Upper South . Where the river was narrow, it was crossed by thousands of slaves escaping to the North for freedom; many were helped by free blacks and whites of the Underground Railroad resistance movement. The Ohio River is a climatic transition area, as its water runs along the periphery of

7102-401: The border between West Virginia and Ohio, upstream of Wheeling, West Virginia . The river follows a roughly southwest and then west-northwest course until Cincinnati, before bending to a west-southwest course for most of the remainder of its length. The course forms the northern borders of West Virginia and Kentucky ; and the southern borders of Ohio , Indiana and Illinois , until it joins

7208-432: The city a tough blue collar culture of hardened iron workers, miners, and steel workers as well as a cosmopolitan class of bankers, lawyers, educators and politicians. Similar examples of early urban-industrial areas include Embree's Iron Works in East Tennessee (1808), the Red River iron region of Estill County, Kentucky (1806–1808), and the Jackson Iron Works near Morgantown, West Virginia (1830). Wheeling, West Virginia

7314-490: The coastal plain. The Upland South contains its own sub-regions. The fertile lowlands of the Nashville Basin and the Bluegrass Basin gave rise to the cities of Nashville , Lexington , and Louisville , which grew into banking and mercantile centers during the late 19th century, home to an elite class of Upland Southerners, including bankers, lawyers, educators, and politicians. Most of the Upland South, however, remained rural in character. Although historically very rural,

7420-411: The colonists of the Thirteen Colonies . Lord Dunmore's War south of the Ohio river also contributed to cession of land north to Quebec to prevent colonial expansion onto Native American territory. During the Revolutionary War . in 1776 the British military engineer John Montrésor created a map of the river showing the strategic location of Fort Pitt , including specific navigational information about

7526-412: The differences between the Deep South (lower) and Upland South (upper) were recognized. A key difference was the Deep South's plantation -style cash crop agriculture (mainly cotton, rice and sugar), using African American slaves working large farms while plantation owners tended to live in towns and cities. This system of plantation farming was originally developed in the West Indies and introduced to

7632-412: The expedition used the Ohio River as a corridor to the Mississippi. Among the officers who accompanied this party were Major de Lignery; Lieutenants, de Vassan, Aubert de Gaspe, Du Vivier, de Verrier, Le Gardeur de St. Pierre, Chevalier de Villiers, de Portneuf, de Sabrevious; Father Vernet, chaplain; Cadets, Joncaire de Closonne , Le Gai de Joncaire, Drouet de Richarville the younger, Chaussegros de Lery

7738-509: The first reported eyewitness accounts of Shannoah , a Shawnee town, was by le Moyne III in July 1739. On their journey down the Ohio River toward the Mississippi, they met with local chiefs in a village on the Scioto River . John Howard, a pioneer from Virginia, led a party of five— John Peter Salling (a Pennsylvania German), Josiah Howard (John's son), Charles Sinclair, and John Poteet (Vizt)—from

7844-591: The fur trade from the Iroquois nations to the northeast, they migrated west of the Mississippi River in the 17th century to the territory now defined as Missouri , Arkansas , and Oklahoma . Several accounts exist of the discovery and traversal of the Ohio River by Europeans in the latter half of the 17th century: Virginian colonist Abraham Wood 's trans-Appalachian expeditions between 1654 and 1664; Frenchman Robert de La Salle 's putative Ohio expedition of 1669; and two expeditions of Virginians sponsored by Colonel Wood:

7950-531: The heels of contamination from a high-profile train derailment , and following years as one of the most polluted watersheds in the United States. The Ohio River is extensively industrialized and populated. Regular barge traffic carries cargoes of oil, steel and other industrial goods produced in the region. Major cities located along the northern and southern banks of the river include Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ; Louisville, Kentucky ; Evansville, Indiana ; and Cincinnati, Ohio . The combined Allegheny-Ohio river

8056-468: The increasing size of steamships and barges on the river meant that the outdated locks could serve only the smallest vessels until well after the Civil War when improvements were made. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers improvements were expanded again in the 1960s, forming the present-day McAlpine Locks and Dam . During the nineteenth century, emigrants from Virginia, North Carolina and Kentucky traveled by

8162-596: The largest inhabited island in the Ohio River, belongs to West Virginia, although it is closer to the Ohio shore than to the West Virginia shore. Kentucky sued the state of Indiana in the early 1980s because of their construction of the never-completed Marble Hill Nuclear Power Plant in Indiana, which would have discharged its waste water into the river. This would have adversely affected Kentucky's water supplies. The U.S. Supreme Court held that Kentucky's jurisdiction (and, implicitly, that of West Virginia) extended only to

8268-601: The late 18th century and early 19th century. Migration and settlement patterns from colonial coastal regions into the interior had been established for many decades, but the scale grew dramatically toward the end of the 18th century. The general pattern was a westward migration from the Lowcountry and Piedmont regions of Virginia, North Carolina, and Maryland, as well as a southwestern migration from Pennsylvania. Large numbers of European immigrants arrived in Philadelphia and followed

8374-594: The late 18th century, the upland "backcountry" of North Carolina grew in population until the Upland Southerners there outnumbered the older, well-established, wealthier coastal populations. In some cases, the conflict between the two resulted in warfare, such as War of the Regulation in North Carolina. Later, similar processes resulted in divergent populations in states to the west. Northern Alabama , for example,

8480-511: The low-water mark of 1793 (important because the river has been extensively dammed for navigation so that the present river bank is north of the old low-water mark). Similarly, in the 1990s, Kentucky challenged Illinois's right to collect taxes on a riverboat casino docked in Metropolis , citing its own control of the entire river. A private casino riverboat that docked in Evansville, Indiana , on

8586-578: The mountains and hills of the Birmingham District transformed a gritty boom town, into the iron and steel city of Birmingham . Birmingham would soon be known as the Pittsburgh of the South, as it became the leading industrial and transportation hub of the south during the early 20th century. Some of these early furnaces and forges were fueled with nearby deposits of bituminous coal . This robust economy gave

8692-716: The mountains, traversing the Tioga River and reaching a tributary of the Allegheny River before floating down to the Shawnee towns along the Ohio River. Viele and his expedition spent most of 1693 exploring the Ohio River and its tributaries in northern Kentucky with their Shawnee hosts. Gerit Luykasse, two of Viele's Dutch traders, and two Shawnee reappeared in Albany in February 1694 "to fetch powder for Arnout [Viele] and his Company"; their party had been gone for fifteen months, but Viele

8798-539: The mouth of the Ohio, settlers would travel north on the Mississippi River to St. Louis, Missouri . There, some continued on up the Missouri River , some up the Mississippi, and some farther west over land routes. In the early 19th century, river pirates such as Samuel Mason , operating out of Cave-In-Rock, Illinois , waylaid travelers on their way down the river. They killed travelers, stealing their goods and scuttling their boats. The folktales about Mike Fink recall

8904-514: The north-south flowing Mississippi River, which divides the eastern from western United States. It is also the sixth oldest river on the North American continent. The river flows through or along the border of six states , and its drainage basin includes parts of 14 states. Through its largest tributary, the Tennessee River , the basin includes several states of the southeastern U.S. It is

9010-493: The river and settled along its northern bank. Known as butternuts , they formed the dominant culture in the southern portions of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois with a society that was primarily Southern in culture. Largely devoted to agricultural pursuits, they shipped much of their produce along the river to ports such as Cincinnati. Because the Ohio River flowed westward, it became a convenient means of westward movement by pioneers traveling from western Pennsylvania. After reaching

9116-709: The river as a major transportation and trading route. In the five centuries before European colonization, the Mississippian culture built numerous regional chiefdoms and major earthwork mounds in the Ohio Valley like the Angel Mounds near Evansville, Indiana as well as in the Mississippi Valley and the Southeast. The historic Osage , Omaha , Ponca , and Kaw peoples lived in the Ohio Valley. Under pressure over

9222-645: The river on December 15, 1967. The collapse killed 46 people who had been crossing when the bridge failed. The bridge had been built in 1929, and by 1967 was carrying too heavy a load for its design. The bridge was rebuilt about one mile downstream and in service as the Silver Memorial Bridge in 1969. In the early 1980s, the Falls of the Ohio National Wildlife Conservation Area was established at Clarksville, Indiana . The Ohio River as

9328-479: The river. The colonial charter for Virginia defined its territory as extending to the north shore of the Ohio, so that the riverbed was "owned" by Virginia. Where the river serves as a boundary between states today, Congress designated the entire river to belong to the states on the east and south, i.e., West Virginia and Kentucky at the time of admission to the Union, that were divided from Virginia. Thus Wheeling Island ,

9434-505: The same general region that is south of and lower in elevation, than the Upland or Upper South. Likewise, the terms Lower South and Deep South are often used interchangeably. The Upland South differs from the Lowland South in several significant ways. These include terrain, history and politics, economics, demographics, and settlement patterns. The Upland South emerged as a distinct region in

9540-564: The scene of Indian resistance and pioneering settlement during the late 18th century. Thus the Upland South colonized earlier and had established its particular settlement patterns before most of the Deep South was opened to general colonization. The differences between the Upland South and lowlands of the Southern Atlantic Seaboard and Cotton Belt , often resulted in regional tension and conflict within states. For example, during

9646-475: The source of drinking water for five million people. The river became a primary transportation route for pioneers during the westward expansion of the early U.S. The lower Ohio River just below Louisville was obstructed by rapids known as the Falls of the Ohio where the elevation falls 26 feet (7.9 m) in 2 miles (3.2 km) restricting larger commercial navigation, although in the 18th and early 19th century its three deepest channels could be traversed by

9752-495: The southern border states of Kentucky, Missouri, West Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware as Upper South. Today, although many definitions are still based on Civil War-era politics, the term Upper South is often used for all of the American South north of the Deep South region. The Encyclopædia Britannica defines the Upper South as the states of North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, and West Virginia. The Upper/Upland South

9858-563: The southern Midwest included many African Americans. They were mainly freed slaves, but slavery was permitted in some places such as St. Louis , under the Missouri Compromise of 1820. In the mid-19th century, there were concentrations of African Americans in east-central Indiana, southwest Michigan, and elsewhere. Due to their early settlement of the Midwest, Upland Southerners initially controlled territorial and state governments, and played

9964-464: The southern portion of Missouri early in the war but largely lost control of both states after 1862. The southern Appalachian regions of East Tennessee , Western North Carolina , Northern Alabama , and Northern Georgia , were widely noted for their pro-Union sentiments. Most of the states with territory in the Upland South became part of the Solid South and enacted racial segregation laws after

10070-506: The topographical details of the course of this River to M. de Lery, Engineer, who surveyed it with the compass at the time that he descended it with a detachment of French troops in 1729. A map of the Ohio River valley, drawn by Bellin from observations by de Lery, is in Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix 's History of New France . The 1744 Bellin map, "Map of Louisiana" ( French : Carte de La Louisiane ), has an inscription at

10176-459: The water level and have turned the river largely into a series of reservoirs , eliminating shallow stretches and allowing for commercial navigation. From its origin to Cincinnati, the average depth is approximately 15 feet (5 m). The largest immediate drop in water level is below the McAlpine Locks and Dam at the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville, Kentucky , where flood stage is reached when

10282-443: The water reaches 23 feet (7 m) on the lower gauge. However, the river's deepest point is 168 feet (51 m) on the western side of Louisville, Kentucky. From Louisville, the river loses depth very gradually until its confluence with the Mississippi at Cairo, Illinois , where it has an approximate depth of 19 feet (6 m). Water levels for the Ohio River from Smithland Lock and Dam upstream to Pittsburgh are predicted daily by

10388-467: The west since the trek east over the Appalachian Mountains was long and arduous. The need for access to the port of New Orleans by settlers in the Ohio Valley is one of the factors that led to the United States' Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Because the river is the southern border of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, it was part of the border between free states and slave states in the years before

10494-566: The younger, de Gannes, Chev. Benoist, de Morville, de Selles, and seventeen others. The rank and file consisted of three sergeants, six corporals, six lance corporals, twenty-four soldiers, forty-five habitants , one hundred and eighty-six Iroquois from the Sault, forty-one from the Lake of Two Mountains , thirty-two Algonquin and Nipissing , fifty Abenaqui from St. Francois and Bécancour, Quebec; Father La Bretonnier, Jesuit; Queret, missionary. One of

10600-588: Was away for about two years. He and his companions returned from the Pennsylvania wilderness in August 1694, accompanied by diplomats from "seven Nations of Indians" who sought trade with the English (or peace with the powerful Iroquois nations of New York and Pennsylvania), and hundreds of Shawnee who intended to relocate in the Minisink country on the upper Delaware River . In 1729, Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry ,

10706-425: Was known as "Nail City" in the 1840s and 1850s. By 1860, Tennessee was the third-largest iron-producing state in the nation, after Pennsylvania and New York. The scale of mining, especially coal mining, increased dramatically after 1870. The importance of mining and metallurgy can be seen in the many towns with names such as Pigeon Forge and Bloomery (a bloomery being a type of smelting furnace), scattered across

10812-478: Was moved that same year to the south shore where Fort-on-Shore was constructed. It proved insufficient within 3 years, and the mighty Fort Nelson was constructed upriver. The town of Louisville was chartered in 1780, in honor of King Louis XVI of France. The first locks on the river – the Louisville and Portland Canal – were built between 1825 and 1830 to circumnavigate the falls. Fears that Louisville's transshipment industry would collapse proved ill-founded: but

10918-512: Was settled by Northern English , Scots lowlanders and Ulster-Scots (later called the Scotch-Irish ) who initially settled in Appalachia and later the entire Upland South in the mid to late 18th century. Similar to the Deep South, the region is part of the Bible Belt and heavily evangelical Protestant , with Baptists making up a plurality in the vast majority of counties. The cuisine of

11024-403: Was settled by Upland Southerners from Tennessee, while southern Alabama was one of the core regions of the Deep South cotton boom. The two regions also differ physically. The Upland South is dominated by deciduous hardwood forest , in contrast to the Deep South's predominantly evergreen pine forests. The Upland South is often much hillier than the Deep South, due to the Deep South being part of

11130-480: Was the best known of the anti-slavery novels that portrayed such escapes across the Ohio. The times have been expressed by 20th-century novelists as well, such as the Nobel Prize -winning Toni Morrison , whose novel Beloved was adapted as a film of the same name. She also composed the libretto for the opera Margaret Garner (2005), based on the life and trial of an enslaved woman who escaped with her family across

11236-593: Was the center of the nation's most extensive gold mining . In 1828, a much richer Gold Strike was made in North Georgia , mostly within what was then the territory of the Cherokee Nation . The mining camp of Dahlonega boomed during the ensuing Georgia Gold Rush . Iron foundries in Virginia and early coal mining operations in central Appalachia date to before 1850. The abundance of iron ore, coal, and limestone in

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