Wabash River - History

History

When the Wisconsin Glacier melted 14,000 years ago, part of the meltwaters formed the proglacial Lake Maumee, the ancestor to Lake Erie. Eventually the meltwaters overtopped a glacial moraine located near Fort Wayne, Indiana, and catastrophically drained southwestward in the Maumee Torrent. The torrent carved the wide alluvial valley that the Wabash flows through today.

The name "Wabash" is an English spelling of the French name for the river, "Ouabache." French traders named the river after the Miami Indian word for the river, waapaahšiiki, meaning "it shines white", "pure white", or "water over white stones". The Miami name reflected the clarity of the river in Huntington County, Indiana where the river bottom is limestone.

The Wabash was first mapped by French explorers to the Mississippi, including the sections now known as the Ohio River. Although the Wabash is today considered a tributary of the Ohio, the Ohio was considered a tributary of the Wabash until the mid-18th century. This is because the French traders traveled north and south from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico via the Wabash; it served as a vital trade route for North American-French trade.

The United States has fought five battles on or near the river; the Battle of Vincennes (1779), St. Clair's Defeat (1791), the Attack on Fort Recovery (1794), the Battle of Tippecanoe (1811), and the Siege of Fort Harrison (1812). Different conflicts have been referred to as the "Battle of the Wabash". A 329-acre (133 ha) remnant of the old-growth forests that once bordered the Wabash can be found at Beall Woods State Park, near Mount Carmel, Illinois. In the 19th century, the Wabash and Erie Canal, one of the longest canals in the world, was built along the entire length of the river. Portions are still accessible in modern times, but most of the abandoned canal no longer exists.

The Wabash River between Terre Haute and the Ohio River was navigable by large ships during the nineteenth century, and was a regular stop for steam ships. Erosion due to farming and runoff rendered it impassible to such ships during the late nineteenth century. Dredging could have resolved the problem, but the availability of railroad transportation did not require such intervention. There are several swing bridges over the river on the two-hundred mile stretch, but none remain in operation.

The river has shifted course several times in the stretch along the Indiana and Illinois border creating cutoffs where parts of the river are entirely in either Indiana or Illinois. However, both states still generally regard the middle of the river as the state border.

In the 1920s there existed a famous hotel and resort that existed in Wabash County, Illinois nearby the Grand Rapids Dam on the Wabash River. The hotel was named the Grand Rapids Hotel and was owned by Frederick Hinde Zimmerman. During the hotel's nine year existence it catered to individuals from all over the United States.