The Allegheny River

The Allegheny River Basin flows 315 miles and occupies 11,747 square miles in the states of New York and Pennsylvania. It contributes 60 percent of the Ohio River flow at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Allegheny’s headwaters begin just below the middle of Pennsylvania’s northern border, flow into New York then zigzags southwesterly across the border and through western Pennsylvania to join the Monongahela River at the Forks of the Ohio on the “Point” of Point State Park in downtown Pittsburgh. The Allegheny River is, by volume, the main headstream of both the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Historically, the Allegheny was considered to be the upper Ohio River by both Native Americans and European settlers. It flows in a broad course southwest across western Pennsylvania. It first flows past Warren, Tidioute, Tionesta, Oil City, and Franklin, forming much of the northwestern boundary of Allegheny National Forest. South of Franklin it turns southeast across Clarion County in a meandering course, then turns again southwest across Armstrong County, flowing past Kittanning, Ford City, Clinton, and Freeport.

Oil Discovered

In 1859, the first petroleum in the United States was drilled north of the river at Titusville. Titusville is known as the birthplace of the American oil industry and for a number of years was the leading oilproducing region in the world. The Drake Well Museum and Park is a museum that interprets the birth of the American oil industry and sits along the banks of Oil Creek. The museum collects and preserves related artifacts. The reconstructed Drake Well demonstrates the first

practical use of salt drilling techniques for the extraction of petroleum through an oil well. Once oil was discovered, nearby Franklin became a booming oil town. One of America’s most infamous villains, John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, formed an oil company in Franklin in 1864 and resided there while performing at the Franklin Opera House. Oil production in Pennsylvania peaked in 1891. The Highland Park Bridge crosses the Allegheny River at Aspinwall, Pennsylvania, just above Allegheny River Lock and Dam No. 2. The river enters both Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, the Pittsburgh suburbs, and the City of Pittsburgh from the northeast. It passes the North Side, downtown Pittsburgh, and Point State Park. The Allegheny joins with the Monongahela River at the “Point” in downtown Pittsburgh to form the Ohio River. The shallow river has been made navigable upstream from Pittsburgh to East Brady by a series of locks and dams constructed in the early 20th century. A 24mile long portion of the upper river in Warren and McKean counties of Pennsylvania and Cattaraugus County in New York is the Allegheny Reservoir, created by the erection of the Kinzua Dam in 1965 for flood control. During the 19th century, the river became a principal means of navigation in the upper Ohio Valley, especially for the transport of coal. The railroads lessened the importance of the river somewhat. The lower river (navigable as far as East Brady, Pennsylvania through locks) has continued to serve as a route of commercial transportation.

Kinzua Dam

In 1965, the completion of the federally sponsored Kinzua Dam for floodcontrol in northwestern Pennsylvania east of Warren created the long Allegheny Reservoir, known as Lake Perfidy among the Seneca, part of which is included in the Allegheny National Recreation Area. The dam flooded parts of lands deeded “forever” to the Seneca Nation of Indians by the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua, and lands given to Seneca Chief Cornplanter and his descendants. The event was described in the Johnny Cash song “As Long as the Grass Shall Grow” from the 1964 album Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian, which focused on the history of and problems facing Native Americans in the United States.