General George Rogers Clark

In the spring of 1778, Lt. Col. George Rogers Clark led a small flotilla of boats carrying Virginia militiamen and adventurous settlers down the Ohio River on a mission to advance the Revolutionary War to the Illinois Territory and on to the Mississippi River. Needing a base on the Ohio River, he found an ideal site at the Falls of the Ohio and Corn Island, which was located above the entrance to the present canal and offered protection from Indian attack and a deterrent to desertions. The Falls of the Ohio later became the point of origin for the expedition to explore the Louisiana Purchase in 1804, led by Captain William Clark, George Rogers Clark’s youngest brother, with Meriwether Lewis; they returned in 1806 to display their trophies at Locust Grove, the home of the Clarks’ sister Lucy. In 1804, George Rogers Clark proposed building a canal to circumvent the Falls of the Ohio to facilitate trade and commerce, following efforts by civic leaders to finance a canal that had begun as early as 1781, and the Louisville & Portland Canal Company was chartered in 1825 before the canal opened in December 1830.

Louisville, Kentucky · United States