Ohio river

Back in time

sbradford — Tue, 27 May 2025 14:56:12 +0000

Back in time

June 1, 2025

“No colony in America was ever settled under such favorable auspices as that which has just commenced at the Muskingum. If I was a young man, just preparing to begin the world, or if advanced in life and had a family to make provision for, I know of no country where I should rather fix my habitation…” — George Washington, 1788

George Washington, in the above quote, was speaking of the Northwest Territory, which he had begun to explore as a surveyor well before he became the hero of the Revolutionary War. The territory, bounded to the east and south by the Ohio River, was instrumental in the growth of the new nation. Its first permanent settlement, Marietta, was established on the Ohio at the mouth of the Muskingum River.

The Muskingum begins at the confluence of the Walhonding and Tuscarawas rivers at Coshocton and flows 112 river miles to the south before emptying into the Ohio at Marietta. It’s the largest river totally within the Buckeye State’s boundaries, and the watershed drains more than 8,000 square miles. Much of that land today still looks as it did during Washington’s time: rugged, rolling, forested hills.

When Ohio gained statehood in 1803, leadership recognized the potential of the Muskingum to facilitate the opening of Ohio and the entire Midwest for increased trade and development. As a result, in 1837, the legislature began funding construction of a series of 11 locks and dams on the river, spending $1.6 million over the next four years (roughly the equivalent of $1.4 billion today) for what was one of the most extensive — and expensive — public works projects of its kind in America at the time.

Amazingly, those locks and dams are still in operation. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it’s the only system of hand-operated locks left in the nation. Collectively, those various locks and dams make up the Muskingum River Parkway State Park.

Today, most of the water traffic on the Muskingum is recreational rather than commercial — cruisers, pontoon boats, fishing boats, water-skiers, personal watercraft, and the like — and for those boaters, the locks are operated free of charge.

Those without their own boats have a way to enjoy the river as well. The Valley Gem sternwheeler is a 158-foot, diesel-powered, double-decked excursion boat owned and operated by Jason Sands and his wife, Heather. They offer various river trips on both the Ohio and the Muskingum beginning in the spring and running through fall from the Valley Gem’s Marietta dock.

“We have sightseeing tours, dinner cruises, dinner theaters, music cruises, lock cruises, and private charters available,” Jason says. “There’s something for everyone, with trips lasting anywhere from a couple of hours to all day.”

On a perfect day last summer, my wife and I boarded the Valley Gem along with 71 passengers and a crew of about half a dozen for the seven-hour “Lockapalooza” cruise, which traverses locks on both the Muskingum and the Ohio.

River locking systems raise and lower boats from one pool of a river to another. Before the Muskingum system was built, larger craft could only use the river during high-water periods of the year, because the river was naturally shallow.

On our cruise, the pilot, Don Sandford, nudged the Valley Gem up the Muskingum toward historic Devola Lock, narrating our adventure as we went. He expertly jockeyed the boat into the narrow open lock, and a pair of lock workers manually closed the twin gates behind us, just as was done nearly 200 years ago. We then slowly, magically rose the 13 feet to the next pool before being released to continue our journey upstream.

After a while, we turned around and headed back downstream, and after locking back through the Devola Lock, we turned upstream on the Ohio River to the Willow Island Lock and Dam. The contrast between the two locking systems — historic versus modern — couldn’t have been more dramatic.

Constructed to accommodate powerful, modern-day commercial tow boats pushing multiple barges, the Willow Island locks (there are two) are fully automated and dauntingly immense, especially if you are inside one of them as the water gradually rises or falls. The larger of the two locks measures 110 feet wide by 1,200 feet long — the length of four football fields!

If you’d like to schedule a trip on the Valley Gem or its sister boat, the Major/Riviera, call 740-373-7862 or visit www.valleygemsternwheeler.com. For more information about Muskingum River Parkway State Park, see the Ohio Department of Natural Resources website: www.ohiodnr.gov.

W.H. “Chip” Gross is Ohio Cooperative Living’s outdoors editor. Email him with your outdoors questions at whchipgross@gmail.com. Be sure to include “Ask Chip” in the subject of the email. Your question may be answered on www.ohiocoopliving.com!

Raccoons and rivers

ahowat — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 20:52:31 +0000

Raccoons and rivers

River crossing

sbradford — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 16:59:32 +0000

River crossing

September 1, 2024

W.H. Chip Gross

Woods, Waters & Wildlife

The Shawnees called it Spaylaywitheepi. When French traders and trappers arrived during the 18th century, they described it as the Iroquois had: La Belle Rivière — the beautiful river. Of course, the name we most closely associate with it today derives from the Seneca word Ohiyo: “good river.”

The Ohio River flows northeast to southwest for 981 river miles — 451 miles of which delineate the state of Ohio’s borders with West Virginia and Kentucky. It begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, formed by the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, and ends by emptying into the Mississippi at Cairo, Illinois. (By the way, the locals pronounce Cairo as KAY-row, not KI-row.)

Seeing the Ohio today, it’s difficult to believe that, in its original state, the river was a naturally shallow stream, varying in depth from only about 3 to 20 feet. And during annual periods of low water, such as late summer and early fall, a person could literally walk across the Ohio River on the stream’s bottom at many spots. You’d certainly get wet, possibly up to your waist or so, but the feat could be accomplished.

Of course, during other seasons of the year, the Ohio could turn into a raging torrent with flood waters easily doubling or even tripling the river’s size and depth. Scoured from its banks during such times were giant boulders, whole trees, even settlers’ log cabins ignorantly built too close to the shoreline. Not surprisingly, the Ohio River’s drainage basin is huge, gathering water from nearly 190,000 square miles across six states.

Then in 1885, construction began on the first of 19 dams (nine of which are contiguous to the state of Ohio) that raised the water level of the river significantly to expedite both trade and travel.

As a result, the Ohio River today is essentially a string of deep, slow-moving reservoirs connected by the massive locks associated with those dams, which raise and lower boats and barges from pool to pool.

Another historical aspect of the river that has changed due to the higher modern-day water level is the once-impressive Falls of the Ohio, the only natural obstruction in the river’s entire length, where, on October 4, 1803, Meriwether Lewis met William Clark to begin their famous expedition westward.

Located at Louisville, Kentucky, the “falls” were not a vertical drop like Niagara Falls, but a 2.5-mile-long series of treacherous, rock-filled rapids that dropped 26 feet from start to finish. Unfortunately for river lovers, most of the original falls are now under water.

A state-of-the-art interpretive center, located on the Indiana side of the river at Falls of the Ohio State Park in Clarksville, does an excellent job of explaining the changes and is definitely worth a visit.

Home of monsters

One of the aspects of the Ohio River that has not changed through the years is the size of its trophy catfish. Although there may not be as many as during pioneer times, they are just as big and heavy.

In fact, just this year, on April 7, 15-year-old Jaylynn Parker of New Richmond, Ohio, caught a blue catfish from Twelve Mile Creek, a tributary of the Ohio River, that weighed a whopping 101.11 pounds — besting the previous state record by more than 5 pounds. The giant cat, which measured nearly five feet in length (56.5 inches) with a girth of 39.5 inches, was kept alive, weighed on a certified scale, then released.

Before Jaylynn landed hers, the record had been held by Chris Rolph of Williamsburg, Ohio, who caught his fish from the Ohio River near Cincinnati on June 11, 2009.

W.H. “Chip” Gross is Ohio Cooperative Living’s outdoors editor. Email him with your outdoors questions at whchipgross@gmail.com.

HardTackers: A decade-long journey of seafaring lore

sbradford — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 20:14:23 +0000

HardTackers: A decade-long journey of seafaring lore

July 27, 2021

Jamie Rhein

Features

Ohio is the only state in the union with a burgee flag — a shape usually associated with a boating organization. The flag commemorates Ohio’s water transportation history: the miles of Lake Erie shoreline, the Ohio River, and the waterways and once-extensive network of canals in between.

So a crew of sea-shanty-singing Midwesterners isn’t as out of place as it might first appear; Ohio has plenty of wet to sing about.

Enter the HardTackers. With their mastery of maritime know-how and their banter-filled harmonizing, the ensemble has entertained at festivals and other events in the U.S. and Canada for a decade.

Shanties date to the mid-1400s era of tall ships, when sailors’ work was grueling and labor-intensive. The rhythms of the call-and-response style of shanty songs helped the crew push and pull, hoisting sails and hauling lines in a synchronized effort. Often adapted from familiar folk tunes and ballads of the day, shanty lyrics were flavored with nautical terms and names of places the sailors had been — or hoped to see. ]

A HardTackers performance is a rollicking, participatory trip through seafaring time. With each member taking turns as the boisterous lead, the Tackers nimbly belt out a repertoire that includes the familiar “Fifteen Miles on the Erie Canal,” as well as songs like “The Bonny Ship The Diamond,” about the lure of quick riches to whaling crews who dream of “bonny lassies.” Then there’s “Whiskey Johnny,” a cheery-sounding cautionary tale about the dangers of drunkenness — all peppered with jokes and puns and a mini-history about their origins.

Named for hardtack, the staple biscuit of sailors, and tacking, the sailing maneuver, the HardTackers got their start in 2009. John Locke, a member of the Columbus Folk Music Society, helped band the group together as the official shanty-singing crew of the Santa Maria — the life-size replica of Christopher Columbus’ flagship that was then moored along the Scioto River in downtown Columbus. Even after that ship was scuttled in 2014, camaraderie and love for folk music have kept the
a cappella group belting out their tales of adventure, mishap, lament, and longing.

Each of the members may have taken a different path to sea shanties — from a grandma’s closet filled with musical instruments, to singalongs, garage bands, bluegrass bands, and the 1960s folk music revival — but they share a love of the style and the showmanship. Says Tacker Andy Beyer, “It’s not too much of a stretch between a folk singer and a sea shanty singer. You have to be brave enough to not hide behind a guitar.” As for the notion that sea shanties mean pirates: “We’ll pretend we’re pirates if there’s money in it,” he laughs.

Linda Bolla, a committee chair of the Erie Tall Ships Festival, loves the good-time feeling of a HardTackers concert. “I love their sense of humor,” she says. “Not every performer has that much fun. You can feel the good vibe of the audience response — their ability to reach out and bring the audience into the performance, whether through the songs or the stories, is unique. They bring an authenticity and tradition of 400 years of seafaring history.”

Like sailors who’ve weathered storms, the HardTackers have ridden the waves of change. Locke retired from the group a few years ago, and of the six original members, only Beyer and Rennie Beetham remain — though Larry Drake and Joe Cook have been there almost from the start.

The HardTackers have moved on from the Santa Maria and are now the unofficial/official crew of the Flagship Niagara — a reproduction of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry’s victorious brig from the Battle of Lake Erie in the War of 1812. The Niagara is the star attraction of the Erie Maritime Museum, and during Tall Ships festivals all along Lake Erie, the HardTackers are a highlight.

In July 2019, the HardTackers released their fourth CD, appropriately named Rise Again. Now, after a hiatus due to COVID-19, the HardTackers are back to in-person Tuesday rehearsals like they’ve done for 11 years, getting ready for their next voyage.

The HardTackers are slated to perform at the Dublin Irish Festival in August. The next Tall Ships Festival in Erie, Pennsylvania, is in 2022.