The Lackawaxen River, a 31.3-mile-long tributary of the Delaware River in northeastern Pennsylvania, takes its name from a Lenape word meaning “swift waters.” The Lenape inhabited eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and southern New York when Europeans arrived. Over time, the river served as an ever-changing economic engine for the region, supporting logging, coal, fishing, and recreation. In the 1820s, the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company built a gravity railroad to haul coal over the mountains from Lackawanna County to Wayne County, where it was loaded onto boats in Honesdale and sent down the D&H canal alongside the Lackawaxen River. Major floods struck the river several times during the 1900s, and in 1942 one flood killed 24 residents, damaged more than 1,200 homes, and destroyed six bridges. To prevent further catastrophic losses, the Jadwin and Prompton dams were built north and west of Honesdale in 1961.