The Allegheny River Watershed

The Allegheny River Watershed. Big Bend Recreation Area. , The Allegheny River rises from a spring in Potter County in north central Pennsylvania, 130 miles upstream of the Kinzua Dam, flowing northwest into New York then southwest into Pennsylvania again. The Iroquois and Shawnee Indians who lived along the river referred to it as the "O Hi Yo." The Iroquois who inhabited western Pennsylvania considered the Allegheny to be the upper part of the Ohio River. Iroquois Ohio means "beautiful river." When the Delaware, an Algonquin people, moved to western Pennsylvania in the 18th century and displaced the Iroquois, they translated Iroquoian Ohio into Delaware, yielding welhik-heny, "most beautiful stream." The name Welhik-heny was then anglicized as Allegheny. , Kinzua Dam and Allegheny Reservoir , Construction of Kinzua Dam, the only flood control project on the river, was completed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1965. It created a 24-mile long reservoir. The dam lies eight miles upstream of Warren, PA and 195 miles upstream of Pittsburgh, PA. , The Allegheny's zigzag course south , Designated a Wild and Scenic River downstream of the dam, the Allegheny River flows in a broad zigzag course southward across Western Pennsylvania, flowing past Warren, Tidioute, Tionesta, Oil City, and Franklin. The river was important for coal and lumber transportation before railroads. The river now is important for recreation for many people and continues to provide valuable wildlife habitat. , Where does it end? , From the small spring in Potter County to Point State Park in Pittsburgh, the river flows 325 miles. In Pittsburgh it joins with the Monongahela River to form the Ohio River. Water from the Allegheny eventually flows down the Ohio River and the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. , What is a watershed? , Simply stated, it is an area of land which water flows across or under on its way to a stream, river, or lake. Think of a watershed as a funnel. We all live in a watershed. You and everyone in your community ar a part of that watershed community. Watersheds are natural systems that link the land and water resources and the living organisms, including people, within its boundaries. How we live on the land affects the quality and quantity of the resources within the watershed. So whatever factors impact the water quality here at Big Bend, these factors also influence the water quality in the Ohio River watershed and the Mississippi River watershed. , Water , Water Resources Education Network , This panel has been partially funded by the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania Citizen Education Fund under a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.