Falls of the Ohio, KY-IN The view from Louisville‘s port at Bear Grass Creek presented Lewis with a panoramic view of the Falls of the Ohio. Victor Collot (1796) and Fortescue Cuming (1808) describe the area’s geography including Clarksville, the home site of the Clark family.
Clarksville
George Rogers Clark Cabin
Watercolor by Steve Ludeman
© 2023 by Steve Ludeman, www.steveludemanfineart.com. Used by permission.
The cabin of George Rogers Clark, Clark’s older brother and hero of the Revolutionary War, was built in the area that would become Clarksville, Indiana (point to map below). The Lewis and Clark spent two weeks in the area where York and Seven Young Men from Kentucky joined the expedition.
Clarksville, a new village in Indiana at the lower end of the rapids, is next seen, beyond which Silver creek hills, a moderately high and even chain, bound the view five or six miles distant.
—Fortescue Cuming[1]10 May 1808. Fortescue Cuming, Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country: Through the States of Ohio and Kentucky, a voyage down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and a trip through the Mississippi … Continue reading
Plan of the Rapids or Falls of the OHIO[2]Victor Collot, A Journey in North America, Containing a survey of the countries watered by the Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri, and other affluing rivers; with exact observations on the course and … Continue reading
Latitude of Louisville
To see labels, point to the map.
Victor Collot, A Journey in North America (1796), Plate 17.
Transcript:
- References
- D’A to D is the carriage Way to the North.
- From C to D is the shortest and surest way.
- The punctuated Line shows the way Boats must keep to
Louisville
Louisville is most delightfully situated on an elevated plain to which the ascent from the creek and river is gradual, being just slope enough to admit of hanging gardens with terraces . . . .
—Fortescue Cuming
Jeffersonville
Looking upwards, a reach of five or six miles presents itself, and turning the eye to the left, Jeffersonville, a neat village of thirty houses, in Indiana, about a mile distant, is next seen. The eye still turning a little more to the left, next rests upon a high point where general Clark first encamped his little army, about thirty years ago, when he descended the river to make a campaign against the Indians . . . .
—Fortescue Cuming
The Rapids
The rapids or falls (as they are called) of the Ohio, are the next objects which strike the observer. They are formed by a range of rocks and low islands, which extend across the river, the deepest channel through which is near the Indiana shore, and has only six feet water, and that even very narrow when the river is low. The fall here has been proved by a level to be twenty-two inches and a half in two miles, from Bear Grass creek to Shipping Port, which causes a velocity of current of about twelve miles an hour in the channel.
—Fortescue Cuming
Notes
| ↑1 | 10 May 1808. Fortescue Cuming, Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country: Through the States of Ohio and Kentucky, a voyage down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and a trip through the Mississippi territory, and part of West Florida, commenced at Philadelphia in the winter of 1807… (Pittsburgh: Cramer, Spear, & Eichbaum, 1810). |
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| ↑2 | Victor Collot, A Journey in North America, Containing a survey of the countries watered by the Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri, and other affluing rivers; with exact observations on the course and soundings of these rivers; and on the towns, villages, hamlets and farms of that part of the new-world; followed by philosophical, political, military and commercial remarks and by a projected line of frontiers and genera limits. (2 vols., Paris, 1826), Plate 17. |
