Allegheny
Allegheny is a mapped river in the YearMaps hydrographic index. River courses organise settlement, agriculture and frontier-making more durably than any political boundary, and this reach is indexed against the dams, lakes and cities within its catchment.
- Feature Class
- River
- Coordinates
- 41.83°, -79.09°
About Allegheny
The Allegheny River ( AL-ig-AY-nee; Seneca: Ohi꞉yoʼ; Unami: Alikehane) is a 325-mile-long (523 km) river that is located in western Pennsylvania and western New York in the United States. The chief tributary of the Ohio River, the Allegheny runs from its headwaters just below the center of Pennsylvania’s northern border, heads northwest into Western New York, then zigzags southwesterly back across the border to flow through Western Pennsylvania and finally join the Monongahela River at Forks of the Ohio near Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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.
This shallow river has been made navigable upstream from Pittsburgh to East Brady by a series of locks and dams that were constructed during the early 20th century. A 24-mile-long portion of the upper river in Warren and McKean counties of Pennsylvania and Cattaraugus County in New York forms the Allegheny Reservoir, which was created by the erection of the Kinzua Dam in 1965 for flood control.
Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Allegheny River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Allegheny in Depth
Course
The Allegheny River rises in north central Pennsylvania, on Cobb Hill in Allegany Township in north central Potter County, 8 miles (13 km) south of the New York–Pennsylvania border and a few miles northwest of the eastern triple divide. The stream flows south and passes under Pennsylvania Route 49 11 miles northeast of Coudersport where a historical marker that declares the start of the river is located. Cobb Hill is about a mile north. The stream flows southwest paralleling Route 49 to Coudersport.
The route continues west to Port Allegany, where thereafter the river joins with a number of small streams and widens considerably before turning north and crossing into western New York.
History
In the latter half of the 17th century, control of the river valley passed back-and-forth between Algonquian-speaking Shawnee and the Iroquois. By the time of the arrival of French colonialists in the early 18th century, the Shawnee were once again in control and formed an alliance with France against attempts by colonists from British North America to settle across the Allegheny Mountains. The conflict over the expansion of Anglo-American settlement into the Allegheny Valley and the surrounding Ohio Country was a primary cause of the French and Indian War in the 1750s.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Allegheny River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Allegheny: Key Facts
| Length | 523 km |
|---|---|
| Average discharge | 559 m³/s |
| Drainage basin | 29,992 km² |
| Source | Allegheny Mountains |
| Mouth | Ohio River |
| Drainage system | Allegheny River drainage basin |
| Tributaries | Tionesta Creek, French Creek, Brokenstraw Creek, Buffalo Creek, Bull Creek, Chartiers Run, Clarion River, Conewango Creek |
Facts from Wikidata Q686021 (CC0).
Major River Dossiers
Hand-written studies of the great river systems of history.
Connected Reaches
Nearby watercourses in the same drainage network.
Water Bodies in the Catchment
Settlements Along the Reach
Hydraulic Infrastructure Nearby
Surrounding Terrain
Allegheny: Quick Answers
- Where is Allegheny?
- Allegheny is located in United States, at 41.8318° N, 79.0939° W.
- Are there dams on the Allegheny?
- No dam on the Allegheny is recorded in the YearMaps dam index, which covers major structures only.