The Ohio River -- Did It Ever Dry Up?

 

Walking across the Ohio River was actually possible. Due to a 2 month drought, navigation along Ohio River was suspended. According to records, the river hit a record low stage of 2 inches in Wheeling in Oct 1908. Picture from: Ohio County Public Library.

“The sight is nothing short of spectacular: A crinkled postcard of what appears to be a dried riverbed with the words, 'Ohio River: Bridgeport, Ohio, Oct. 15th, 1908.' Typically this image is displayed online with some type of annotation declaring that the Ohio River had actually dried up in this image.

“Though it is not true that the Ohio River has ever 'dried up' in modern history, in the autumn of 1908, the river did reach unbelievably low water levels – so much so that it is still being talked about more than a century later.”

(“October 1908: The Month the Ohio River Began Drying. Appalachian Magazine. October 15, 2019.)

In October 1908,the Ohio River dropped to two inches below zero (meaning two inches below navigable water depth). A week following the above photograph, on October 23, 1908, the Henderson Daily Gleaner (Henderson Kentucky) reported that boys were playing baseball every day in the middle of the riverbed.

“The river at this point has received very little thought for the past few weeks, by reason of the fact that the stage has gotten so low that all business has ceased and it is almost hazardous for even small gasoline boats to run,” the paper reported, adding, “Only a short time ago the Jewell was compelled to stop and only the Nisbet can find enough water to run through. In Green River, it is the same. The river at Spottsville being lined on both sides with boats and barges waiting for enough water to carry them through the locks.”

Bars, the Gleaner said, were visible along the river's length "and at Evansville the river is hardly 50 yards wide … Mr. John Sieber says that in his opinion the water is three or four inches lower than it has ever been at the water works. Captain Shelby says that he has seen it several inches lower."

On that October 23rd, the National Weather Service at Evansville recorded an official river reading of 2.0 feet. Alarming as that was, it represented a slight improvement over the period from October 11-16 when the reading was 1.3 feet.

(Judy Jenkins. Henderson Daily Gleaner. Progress Edition. March 30, 1996.)

National Weather Service records at the Greater Cincinnati International Airport list more than 160 Ohio River floods dating back to 1773. There have been many occasions when the Ohio River was shallow enough in the Covington-Newport area for a person to wade across the river. About 10 times the river dipped to less than 3-feet deep and once was listed at only 1.9 feet deep.

According to the Weather Service, in October 1908, the Ohio River officially was listed at less than 3 feet deep for the last time. The river dipped to 2.6 feet on October 6 after a long dry spell that hit tobacco dealers especially hard. The dry spell not only stunted the crops, but the shallow river level hindered many farmers from taking their meager crops to market.

Since 1908, the yearly low river mark has gradually increased. With only a few exceptions, such as 1927 when it dipped to 5.3 feet, the Ohio River has not dropped below 10 feet since 1935.

(Jim Reis. “Pieces of the Past.” The Kentucky Post. Covington. June 02, 2000.)

Ohio River showing the Lowest State of Water ever recorded - October 1908. Posted by Marc McCune on facebook site "You know you are from Wellsville, Ohio, if:. No other source information was given. 

The main reason we tend to take the Ohio River for granted today is the system of locks and dams that were designed to keep a more constant water level for river navigation and control floods. These man-made controls have helped prevent some of the extremes in high and low water levels that were once determined only by nature.

So what’s the truth of this highly debated and much shared Bridgeport photograph?

1. The image is not even of the entire Ohio River, but was taken from Wheeling Island, West Virginia, looking west toward the State of Ohio. The main stem of the river flows to the east of Wheeling Island, while the water to the westside of the island is little more than a football field in width.

2. Secondly, water is still visibly flowing in the image, though it is clearly and dramatically much lower than what is seen at typical levels.

   
   Babbs Island is an island in Hancock County, West Virginia on the Ohio River between East Liverpool, Ohio and Chester, West Virginia. This much is true for sure. There were times you could walk to Babbs Island.

Just How Bad Was the 1908 Drought?

The September 26, 1908, edition of The Akron Beacon Journal, reported the drought paled in comparison to one that had occurred a couple generations earlier.

“This season has certainly been dry, and the drought, especially during the past few weeks, has been a very serious one, but still the memory of the oldest inhabitants runs back to a year when there was a worse one… [The drought in the summer of 1845]: There was no rain from the last of March until the tenth of June, when there fell a little rain for one day, but no more until the second of July, when there probably fell a half inch, for it made the roads a little muddy. From this time no rain fell until early in September …

“So great was the scarcity of food for the domestic animals that early in the autumn droves of cattle were sent into the valley of the Scioto to pass the winter. Many stocks of dairy cows were broken up and dispersed, selling for only four or five dollars a head, as the cost of wintering would be more than their worth in the spring.”

(“October 1908: The Month the Ohio River Began Drying. Appalachian Magazine. October 15, 2019.)

Picture of a car crossing the Ohio River in 1908... Wellsburg, WV, just south of Steubenville, OH.

The Truth Is Still Amazing

The Ohio might not have dried up; however, it is true – before dams were built on the Ohio, you could walk across the entire width of the river in periods of extremely dry weather, and, obviously, traffic by boat would be impossible.

Federal involvement in improving the Ohio River for commercial navigation began in 1824 when Congress directed the Corps to find a method of removing sandbars and snags. The desired channel depths to be attained by this clearing and snagging program was 3 feet, and 30 inches for the lower and Upper River reaches, respectively. This depth was deemed adequate for vessels at the time, consisting of steamboats, keelboats, and flatboats.

After the Civil War, the movement of coal downriver from Pittsburgh increased greatly and the size of coal tows grew in length as powerful steam towboats pushed more and more wooden barges. To accommodate the burgeoning coal trade, the Corps studied means of providing a dependable navigation depth on the Ohio. Following an international investigation of navigation projects, engineer officers concluded that the Ohio could best be improved by constructing a series of locks and dams to create slack water pools.

Largely due to the success of the Davis Island project on the Ohio river in Avalon, Pennsylvania, completed in 1885, Congress authorized a study of an extension of the 6-foot minimum depth down the Upper Ohio in 1888. The board recommended building a series of dams and locks to create a 6-foot depth from Davis Island to just below the mouth of the Beaver River. Lock and Dam No. 6, named Merrill Dam in honor of the great engineer, was built next. The first appropriations were made in 1890, but meager annual funding delayed the dam's completion until 1906. The first appropriations for Nos. 2 through 5 were not made until 1896.

In the early 1900s, members of the .OVIA and other groups were pointing out that large barge tows often drew more than 6 feet of water. They asked Congress to consider creating 9-foot minimum depths.

In 1905 Congress authorized an analysis of the feasibility of extending the slackwater system to the mouth of the Ohio. A special board of engineers called the Lodkwood Board after its senior member--Colonel Daniel W. Lockwood--conducted the study.

The board confirmed that the steamboat packet trade was dying out, but some 9 million tons of bulk commodities, mainly coal from the Monongahela and Kanawha valleys, were annually sent downriver. After an economic evaluation, the board estimated completion of a 6-foot project from Pittsburgh to Cairo would cost about $51 million, while the more ambitious 9-foot alternative would require construction of fifty-four dams at a cost of $63 million.

The board argued, however, that the latter alternative would greatly extend economic benefits by encouraging the development of large bulk traffic volumes. In reviewing the proposal, the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors (created in 1902 to independently review projects and eliminate "pork") observed that, although the scale of the undertaking was unprecedented, the project was worthwhile.

In the progressive climate created by the studies of the Inland Waterways Commission, created in 1907, support for the huge effort grew. Skeptics suggested it was foolhardy to canalize a river on which commerce was declining and to spend money based on projected future economic activity. But with the support of individuals such as President William H. Taft and Ohio Congressman Theodore E. Burton, in 1910 Congress approved construction of all fifty-four locks and dams required to provide 9-foot navigation the length of the Ohio. the bill called for completion of the $66 million project by 1922, but a mere $1 million was appropriated for the first year.

(Michael C. Robinson. “History of Navigation In the Ohio River Basin.” National Waterways Study 13 U.S. Army Engineer Water Resources. Institute for Water Resources. 1983.)

In the early 1950’s, the Army Corps of Engineers began replacing the old structures with twenty modern locks and dams with higher lifts, longer pool-reaches, and much longer lock chambers. Upon completion of Olmsted Locks and Dam and the removal of Locks and Dams 52 and 53, only nineteen structures will remain. But the way that enterprise at Olmsted has been progressing for the last thirty years; it may be the 22nd Century before the lock & dam is finally finished. (Allow time for audience laughter.)

(Capt. Don Sanders. “The River: From the Ice Age to Locks and Dams on the Ohio River, as told aboard BB Riverboat Belle.” Northern Kentucky Tribune. November 18, 2018.)

In 1963, a new group of 19 new dams were built which raised the level to 25' which allowed the passage of the bigger tows that were beginning to be used.

Since 2000, the longest duration of drought (D1–D4) in Ohio lasted 44 weeks beginning on July 23, 2002, and ending on May 20, 2003. The most intense period of drought occurred the week of September 4, 2007, where D3 affected 11.45% of Ohio land. 

 

1880's photo of the L&N Bridge -- Covington/Cincinnati, as originally built