When he arrived, however, he got a firsthand look at what happens during heavy spring rainfalls. Trailering Club member Jeff Nicholas brought his boat to Louisville to get a first-hand look at the Thunder Over Louisville weekend (every April) featuring boat races, fireworks on the river, and the Blue Angels in the air. In Clarksville, Indiana, just across the river, Ohio Falls State Park is home to 300-million-year-old fossils that are visible in the limestone. As the Ohio became all the more valuable for shipping goods, the first canal (1830) was built on the river to accommodate safe passage of goods by boat. This is the point in the Ohio River story where boats had a lot of problems because a series of falls destroyed numerous hulls. Leavenworth Boat Ramp: At the foot of West Street in the former Lock and Dam 44. Within a year, town officials were at work rebuilding Leavenworth, at the top of a cliff, rather than in its original location near the shoreline. The Ohio River flooded in 1937, wiping out the residents of Leavenworth. The local United States Power Squadrons, of which Riecken is a charter member, has a burgee featuring "the bend."Įvansville Boat Ramps: Angel Mounds, Mile Marker 786, City Front, Mile Marker 792, Dog Town, Mile Marker 797 Mile Marker 665: Leavenworth, Indiana The ship, part of the 1944 D-Day invasion, makes a few journeys up and down the Ohio every year for events marking chapters of World War II history.Įvansville Bend is considered the sharpest turn along the entire river. LSTs were built in Evansville and designed to transport troops, tanks, and supplies onto enemy shores. Inland Marina is home for LST 325, the only operating World War II Landing Ship Tank still in existence (there's a second one in Muskegon, Michigan, that remains moored). "Since they started in Pittsburgh, that's where they started the numbering, but most mile markers begin at the mouth of the river, in this case Cairo, Illinois, and work upstream." Riecken is correct Mile Marker 0 on the Mississippi is at Head of Passes, Louisiana, 95 miles south of New Orleans where it empties into the Gulf of Mexico. "People may not be aware of this, but they numbered the mile markers backward on the Ohio River," he says. Paducah Boat Ramp: Broadway at the Ohio River, free. Kentucky Lake is about 70 miles from Paducah on the Tennessee River and part of the 4,500-mile Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway (the Tenn-Tom). Paducah is where the Tennessee River empties into the Ohio. Because Paducah was literally swept away during a record 1937 flood, construction began two years later on a flood wall that exceeds the water levels reached in 1937 by three feet. Not only is this considered the "Quilting Capital of the World" (April's "Quilt Week" brings in more than 30,000 visitors every year), but Paducah is known for the Lowertown Art District where artists from across the country were given a break on rent to set up shop and produce paintings, sculptures, crafts, and pottery. The men quickly decide to search elsewhere.Ĭairo Boat Ramp: Fort Defiance State Park Mile Marker 935: Paducah, Kentucky Huck is able to ward off bounty hunters by saying the other guy in their tent (Jim) has smallpox. Cairo is mentioned in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn when the two boys try to get to the side of the river where Jim won't be sought after as a runaway slave. It was in Cairo where all boats passing Fort Defiance were stopped and searched for goods that were being shipped to Confederate troops. Cairo is the most southern point of Illinois and the site of Fort Defiance during the Civil War. Here, the Ohio River is wider than the Mississippi. We begin at the river's end, in Cairo, Illinois, following its flow 981 miles back to Pittsburgh. ![]() This long water trek includes a number of colorful stops along the way with some history, a few observations, personal experiences, and tried-and-true advice from our Trailering Club members, who'll also give us a brief look at the character of people who've seen the Ohio when it's been beautiful and when it's been anything but. In this story, we're going to trace the Ohio River, with the help of some friends. ![]() In 2011, however, the river was anything but "beautiful." Heavy rains and melting snow in the spring resulted in the Ohio almost exceeding the 1937 record flood stages in many riverfront towns (and major cities). Jefferson described that third river, the Ohio, as "the most beautiful river on Earth." As Lewis and Clark flowed along this water highway, they agreed the President was on to something. It was a place called Fort Pitt, with mountains on either side, and where two rivers meet to form a third. When Thomas Jefferson was about to assign Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to head west in search of a water route to the Pacific Ocean in the early 1800s, he was familiar with their starting point.
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