Back For Another Year Of Progress On The Ohio River....

 

 

Back for another year; although its hard to get in the groove....The weather outside is just so cold, but the Ohio River keeps moving on by. The river had risen over the last few weeks getting close to 40 ft, from the "base level" of around 25 ft---that's a lot of extra water sliding by. It's hard to believe that before all the lock/dam systems were put in place the river level at Cincinnati, in the late 1800's, dropped to just around 2 ft.

Progress is amazing and clearly has allowed for substantial economic development of our region, and monuments still exist to the early wood wicket dams that boosted commercial river traffic. These wooden dams were made possible by the passage by Congress of the Rivers and Harbors of Act of 1910. The goal was to make the Ohio River a more consistent and better navigable waterway for commercial traffic. The results were overwhelmingly positive from an economic perspective.

It's worth checking out some of the old structures at Chilo, Ohio or California, Kentucky. The structure located in California, Kentucky currently features a Biology Station owned and operated by Thomas More College. The Thomas More Biology Field Center is at the location of the former US Corp of Engineer Lock and Dam 35 location, an old wicket dam built in the early 1900's. The site provides invaluable monitoring of the river quality, fish population and so much more. You can even check it out online at:  http://www.thomasmore.edu/fieldstation/  

We would appreciate hearing more about the Ohio River, and all its attributes, from folks posting on our blog or reaching out to us at ohiokayak@gmail.com.  Please also share our blog with others as we continue to strive to build readership.