Ohio River Monument

The Ohio River, called by the Iroquois for its beauty, was descended by Sieur Robert de la Salle, discovered by the French explorer LaSalle about 1670, and claimed by him for Louis XIV of France. The British seized it as a result of the French and Indian War of 1755-1762, and George Washington descended it in 1770. It became part of the territory of the United States as a result of the Revolutionary War and the Treaty of Paris of 1776-1783, and General William Henry Harrison saved it to the Union in the War of 1812. The first steamboat, New Orleans, piloted by Captain Nicholas J. Roosevelt, was launched at Pittsburg in A.D. 1811, and for more than 200 years the river was the great highway to the west of the American pioneer. The Ohio Valley Improvement Association was organized at the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce on October 8th, 1895, to foster the canalization and improvement of the Ohio River and provide a navigable channel for uninterrupted commerce. Forty nine locks and movable dams were erected by the United States government between Pittsburg and Cairo, a distance of nine hundred and eighty miles, giving a nine foot stage to river navigation, and by October 22nd, 1929, the canalization of the Ohio River to a depth of nine feet from Pittsburg to Cairo had been completed.

Cincinnati, Ohio · United States