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Generating a New Ohio River: Ecological Transformation in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Fleming, Kristen M
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2047-6295
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1573571453097256

Abstract Details

2019, PhD, University of Cincinnati, Arts and Sciences: History.
Over the course of the nineteen and twentieth centuries, the Ohio River underwent an ecological transformation. This dissertation examines the various and competing visions for the Ohio River and how this transformation occurred through navigational and flood control engineering projects, extractive industries and pollution from expanding municipalities and industry. Its narrative begins in the early nineteenth century, when explorers and naturalists begin to explore the young United States’ Ohio Territory in the west. The 981-mile long river grew as a vital artery, as it allowed for movement from the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers in Pittsburgh to Cairo, Illinois, where the Ohio meets the Mississippi River. Settlement grew along the river’s banks, and the residents depended on the healthy river not only for transportation but as a clean water source as well. Hoping to earn profit, residents and business owners from outside the valley also sought to exploit the river’s resources, such as the freshwater mussels that lived in it. Industrial interests, such as that of coal, lobbied heavily to invest in infrastructural projects as well, from the removal of snags and dredging to permanent locks and dams, over the course of the nineteenth century. These programs, especially the creation of 52 locks and dams, resulted in the removal of habitats and a series of slack pools. With the arrival of railroads, though, the Ohio River began to lose its dominance and the visions for the Ohio River changed as a result. Increasingly, residents and businesses and demanded the federal government also invest in protection from river flooding, which grew in intensity and came to a head with the thousand-year 1937 flood, and pollution abatement programs. This resulted in further engineering of the river and the Ohio Valley with the creation of flood control structures that included levees and reservoirs in the twentieth century. It also led to the creation of a regional regulatory body, the Ohio River Valley Sanitation Commission in 1948. This involvement and hope for the remainder of the twentieth century is where the narrative ends.
David Stradling, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Uwe Lübken, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Stephen Porter, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
207 p.
History
history; environment; Ohio River; lock; dam; flood

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Fleming, K. M. (2019). Generating a New Ohio River: Ecological Transformation in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1573571453097256

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Fleming, Kristen. Generating a New Ohio River: Ecological Transformation in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. 2019. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1573571453097256.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Fleming, Kristen. "Generating a New Ohio River: Ecological Transformation in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1573571453097256

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1573571453097256
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This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.