Wabash River

The Wabash River is a 475 mi (765 km) long river in the eastern United States that flows southwest from northwest Ohio near St. Henry, Ohio across northern Indiana to Illinois where it forms the southern Illinois-Indiana border before draining into the Ohio River, of which it is the largest northern tributary.

When the Wisconsin Glacier melted 14,000 years ago, the Wabash River drained Glacial Lake Maumee, the ancestor to Lake Erie.

History

The name "Wabash" is an English spelling of the French name for the river, "Ouabache." French traders named the river after the Miami Indian word for the river, "Wabashike," (Prounounced "Wah-bah-she-keh"), the word for "pure white." The Miami name reflected the clarity of the river in Huntington County, Indiana where the river bottom is limestone. This is a historical oddity since today the river bottom is no longer visible due to water pollution and agricultural siltation.

For 200 years, from the mid-1600s into the 1800s, the Wabash was a major trading route, linking Canada, Quebec and the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River.

Two notable battles in U.S. history, St. Clair's Defeat (1791) and the Battle of Tippecanoe (1811), were fought near the Wabash, and both have sometimes been called the "Battle of the Wabash".

A 329 acre remnant of the old-growth forests that once bordered the Wabash can be found at Beall Woods State Park, near Mount Carmel, Illinois.

In the 1800s, the Wabash and Erie Canal, one of the longest canals in the world, was built.

Major Tributaries

The major tributaries of the Wabash River include:

Salamonie River (Indiana)
Little River (Indiana)
Mississinewa River (Indiana)
Eel River (Indiana)
Tippecanoe River (Indiana)
White River (Indiana)
Patoka River (Indiana)
Vermilion River (Illinois and Indiana)
Embarras River (Illinois)
Little Wabash River (Illinois)

Trivia

The Wabash is the state river of Indiana and subject of the state song, "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away" by Paul Dresser.
From the dam near Huntington to its terminus at the Ohio River, the Wabash flows freely for 661 kilometers (411 miles) which makes it the longest stretch of free-flowing river in the United States east of the Mississippi River.

Cities and towns along the Wabash River

Illinois

Indiana

Ohio

Fort Recovery

External links

The Wabash River Heritage Corridor Commission

Rivers of Illinois | Rivers of Indiana | Rivers of Ohio | Tributaries of the Ohio River

Wabash

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