A few weeks ago, the Ohio River flooded. In the first few days of April the creeks, springs and waterways in our valley were spilling their banks. Kings Creek escaped its course and easily overtook the roads. It reminded me of the flooding of the early 2000s along the creek, but the one that hit Kings Creek the hardest was the flood of 1912, which wiped out almost every bridge on the waterway. Each was a covered bridge and after that flood, there was no longer that type of structure over Kings Creek.

In April, water rushed through our valleys and emptied into the river, which crested at 40 feet in New Cumberland. This was certainly not the worst flood in our area, but it wasn’t a minor one either. From my office in the Hancock County Courthouse, I watched the water creep up to nearly the stoplight at the bottom of Station Hill. Certainly, there has been water there before, and for those who live along the river, it’s a part of life.

Today, the locks and dams on the river help mitigate flooding, although on occasion, when there is huge amounts of water, it’s hard to control. Sometimes the locks and dams open the gates so to speak and let the water flow. Another role of the lock system is to control the water to allow for the river to be navigable. That is to allow enough water in the river to allow for river traffic.

There was a time in the past though when the river was wild. In fact, for most of its history the river was just that. It would freeze, flood and it would, and could, occasionally almost dry up. Looking at the river today, it’s hard to believe that it could and has dried up. Generally, the river is kept at a depth to allow for traffic, but that is in the recent history. In the past it was impossible to control.

When the river dried up, traffic had to stop. Commerce on the river grinded to a standstill until the water level rebounded. There have been more than a few occasions in the 19th century when the river level dropped to unprecedented levels. Usually, the drop in water is related to a drought in our region. Records dealing with droughts are hard to come by in historical accounts. Unless there was a significant drop in river level or a lack of rain for months at a time, the news didn’t make headlines.

In 1881 there was a terrific drought in September that had our citizens concerned. The lack of rain not only had impacts on the river, but on the crops and, by extension, the food supply, especially during the following winter. The Steubenville Weekly Herald wrote on Sept. 9, 1881, that the “Terrible drought continues. Small springs and streams are dried up, the Ohio River has shrunk to the dimensions of a creek, pastures and vegetation generally are parched up, and there seems to be no prospect of change. This is unprecedented September weather, and we will pay for it in costs for eatables this coming winter.”

But by Sept. 23, 1881, the drought was over, according to an article in the Steubenville Weekly Herald. In this article, another more devastating drought was referenced, that of one that occurred here in 1819: “In 1819 there was a fearful drought that extended from June to the middle of January. There was no rain, and vegetation was very generally burned up and apparently destroyed. The only water left away from the large streams existed in stagnant pools, and poisoned the cattle which drank it. Stock in many cases were attacked with the “hot weather itch,” and thousands died, some of them having literally torn their skin from their sides in the frantic effort to relieve the terrible itching by scratching. The cattle, sheep and horses, maddened by the intolerable itch, and frantic from eating the dry grass, deprived from all nutritive elements, roamed over the fields and through the forests moaning, howling and pawing the earth in terrible, impotent rage; countless numbers of deer and horses died with the black tongue; fowls and birds became stupefied, lost their plumage and died in agony. Sickness prevailed among humans beginning from drinking the foul, stagnant water, and from other causes. Of course, forest fires were numerous, the air filled with smoke and ashes, causing blindness and eye diseases and all together it was a most terrible season.”

The drought of 1819 was a terrible event in our history. The article goes on to detail the drought of 1849 when no rain fell for 108 days. In 1854, there was another terrible drought similar to the one in 1881. In 1862, the article explains there was no rain from May 1 through Sept. 14, a period of 123 days. Talk about dry weather.

In 1908, arguably the last great dry up occurred in our area. I can’t find records of rainfall from that year, but the river essentially disappeared in September and October.

The level of the river was reported to be 5 inches deep in New Cumberland and at the Market Street Bridge in Steubenville, it was only 3 inches deep. According to an article in the Steubenville Herald in 1896, it recorded the depth of the river in 1880, but I think it was the drought of 1881, as being only 9 inches in Steubenville.

The dry up of 1908 was certainly the most impactful. By October of 1908, the government ordered that all 252 navigational lights be extinguished on the Ohio River because there was no place between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati where the river exceeded 16 inches in depth. With the receding water, numerous ancient Native American petroglyphs emerged along the banks of the river that were only seen at dry seasons. The most famous were those located in at Smith’s Ferry just north of East Liverpool at the mouth of Little Beaver Creek. There were also some located on the West Virginia side of the river opposite Browns Island. On Oct. 21, 50 students from Cove School in Holidays Cove went on a hayride to see the picture rocks.

Due to the low river, another historical relic was rediscovered across from Market Street on the West Virginia side of the river, according to a Sept. 28 article published in the Steubenville Herald-Star: “Monroe Bert, an attache at the warfboat, went across the river yesterday and scrubbed off the ledge of rocks opposite Market Street, and took there from the initials and dates chiseled on the rocks at various periods of low water. One date is ‘1785,’ with no initials appended, on one rock. The name ‘E. Wells’ appears on another with two dates ‘1852’ and ‘1856.’ His coat of arms, a ‘boiler,’ with an ‘anchor”‘ inside is also appended. “‘G. Reimer, Sept 8, 1894,’ and ‘Jno, 1851,’ are the inscriptions on another rock, but the name following ‘John”‘ is illegible.”

The drought of 1908 was significant in another important way as well. During that year, E.T. Weir was in Clarksburg, W.Va., with his fledgling tin plate factory. Due to the drought, he was buying all the water he could to bring the much-needed commodity into his mill, even buying farmers’ ponds. He realized he needed a steady and reliable source of water to support his operations. Thus, the need for water was one of the reasons he chose to move his plant to Holliday’s Cove in 1909.

After 1910, however, Congress passed the Rivers and Harbors Act which authorized the construction of the locks and dams on the Ohio River and in 1929 the total canalization of the Ohio was completed. This allowed the water on the river to be maintained at 9 feet and made it possible to retain water in the river for navigation. The days of the wild river were over.

It’s hard to believe today that the river once could get as low as 3 inches deep. And with that low water, relics of the past, evidence of peoples who came before, could be seen clearly on the banks.

Maybe those petroglyphs were meant to entice their gods to bring rain to our valley during times of droughts. That history is now deep under the water of the mighty Ohio River.

(Zuros is the Hancock County administrator)