Unit II
When most residents of metropolitan Louisville hear the name “the Ohio River”, it does not typically evoke the most sanitary memories. The waterfront does host numerous popular events annually such as Thunder over Louisville, Forecastle Festival, and the Louisville Ironman Triathlon. Most of these events limit themselves to the banks of the river or the airspace over head. Except for the brave souls of the Ironman triathlon who dive face first into the murky tea shaded water. I do in no way envy the taste that those crazy contestants have undoubtedly experienced.
It is hard to last more than a week without seeing something on the news regarding another suspected restaurant or industrial plant that is dumping waste water and products into the river. All of these circumstances combined are what leave the river in rather low regards in most Kentuckiana resident’s minds. Water sports and fishing are kept to a minimum nowadays while instead river traffic is swarmed with barges and tug boats.
As an adolescent I spent the first six years of my childhood growing up mere miles from the banks of the Ohio River. I had no personal connection with river and never understood the historical importance of this Mississippi tributary. It did not come until my later teenage years and early college years that I gained a new found appreciation for this stretch of the river.
Roughly seven years back while growing up in New Jersey my late Grandpa Ray passed along some elderly wisdom of our family lineage to me. He was not much of a story teller, except when it came to old firsthand experience World War II stories. However, he did pass along that he had a relative that joined Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their initial journey westward. To the best of his shaky knowledge, our ancestor was a French trapper and guide.
Through much research of my own, I came to piece much of this story together and formulate what I believe may have occurred connecting my family to the voyage. In the late 1700’s what was then known as the northwest territories consisting of modern day Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio were still unsettled largely unexplored land. The only inhabitants to the territory prior to 1800 were Indian tribes and pockets of French fur trappers. Thanks to Daniel Boone, Kentucky had been established as of the furthest colony west reached prior to the 1800’s. St. Louis, Missouri was the furthest point west known to the United Stated government and President Thomas Jefferson at that time.
In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson commissioned Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to make a western expedition to establish an American presence in the far northwest; to investigate a water passage to the Western Sea; to map and investigate the new Louisiana purchase; to report the culture, commerce, and capabilities of the many native-American tribes of the area; and to observe and collect botanical and biological specimens”(General).
Meriwether Lewis began the journey in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. With a few men he set off to meet his companion William Clark further down the Ohio River. After experience unforeseen problems and time delays reaching William Clark, Lewis decided to stay put for the winter. The winter settlements was on the banks of modern day Indiana where they spent time recruiting knowledgeable guides to help lead them to St. Louis, the next noted civilization. West of there was all newly purchased uncharted territory gained through the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 with the French.
This lay over period beginning in September 1803 in Clarksville, Indiana is where I feel the connection with my family history tie in. According to my Grandfather, it was an ancestor of his mother whose last name was Sampson that joined up for a stretch of the journey during the winter layover in Indiana. My Grandpa was born in modern day Nova Scotia, Canada. His mother’s family history goes back generations residing all around the great lakes region. In the 1700’s most of the western great lake states were still French land before being claimed by the United States just prior to the Louisiana Purchase.
Through further background knowledge on the corps of expedition it is documented that most of the French guides did not continue on the journey passed St. Louis. The journey was taking far longer and moving much slower than predicted so most participants dropped out just prior to the ascent up the mighty Mississippi River. Native American guides were used for the remainder of the trip.
This is why albeit minor; I still feel a connection to the significance of the Ohio River once held. Before the age of planes, trains, or cars the Ohio River, Mississippi River, Missouri River, Oregon River and Columbia River were the essential highways of travel. This murky dirty river that we take for granted on a daily basis here in Kentucky, was once the best path westward. Being an American, I feel pride in knowing that 208 years ago these two heroic Americans who discovered the western frontier were stationed just across the river. It is even more astonishing knowing that a blood relative of mine once broke bread with these men just miles from where I was born.
What makes this special piece of American history even more important to me is that I had a noted relative partake in a stretch of the trip west. It is hard to imagine a skiff made of bark and animal hide gracefully cutting down the river with any efficiency. This is what I try to picture sitting on the banks of our modern chocolate milk-esque Ohio River; a bark long boat, weaving through modern coal barges, under bridges, and around piers. I vividly imagine a small fleet of patriots traveling into the unknown with the utmost confidence. Today people do not dare plunge theirs bodies into that river; 200 years ago that same river was viewed as a blessing and an opportunity. Time has changed our perceptions and values of simple things such as nature and has unfortunately diminished our appreciation.
I would have to imagine that William Clark and my ancestor would be disappointed with the overall water degradation the Ohio River has had to endure over the past two centuries. Many early Louisvillians and Ohio Valley residents had substantial portions of their diet based from locally caught fish. If these men had to adhere to our modern day advised consumption limit of; one fish per month, do to contamination, many people would not have been able to eat adequately. It is scary to think that fish we catch today from these waters has the potential to cause certain types of cancer as well as other disorder do to the elevated levels of mercury and other pollutants. The water is said to contain the pollutants polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dioxins. According to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency these are amongst the world’s most toxic manmade chemicals (Klepal).
Ohio Valley residents need to take immediate action to prevent and limit further pollution of the river. Many Ohio residents are upset with the current leniency the cleanup process entails. Once the EPA files a report for a contaminated waterway, the location is given 10 years to “improve” the water purity (Klepal). Today the river is largely taken for granted and underappreciated. Its bounties are spoiled by the poisons humans keep feeding it. Action must be taken to regulate and preserve our waterways. Rivers were once the highway to west, nowadays most rivers have lost that luster and value.
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| Untreated industrial waste poured into the Ohio River near plants in the Rubbertown area of Louisville. 1971 |
Davis, B. (2011, June 17). Ohio river pollution [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://www.courierjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=B2&Date=20100421&Category=GREEN&ArtNo=304210004&Ref=PH
