Beaver River is a

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drai ...

of the Ohio River in

Western Pennsylvania Western Pennsylvania is a region in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, covering the western third of the state. Pittsburgh is the region's principal city, with a metropolitan area population of about 2.4 million people, and serves as its economic ...

. It has a length of approximately 21 mi (34 km) and flows through a historically important

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

-producing region north of

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

. Beaver River is formed in Lawrence County by the confluence of the Mahoning and Shenango rivers in the Mahoningtown neighborhood of New Castle. It flows generally south, past West Pittsburg and Homewood. It receives

Connoquenessing Creek Connoquenessing Creek is a tributary of the Beaver River, approximately 50 mi (80 km) long, in Western Pennsylvania in the United States. Course Connoquenessing Creek rises in eastern Butler County and flows southwest, through the L ...

west of

Ellwood City Ellwood City is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough primarily in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, United States, with a small district in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, Beaver County. The population was 7,031 at the 2020 ...

and flows past

Beaver Falls Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers ar ...

and New Brighton. It joins the Ohio at Bridgewater and

Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...

(flowing between these two towns) at the downstream end of a sharp bend in the Ohio approximately 20 mi (32 km) northwest of (and downstream from) Pittsburgh. In the lower reaches near the Ohio River, the Beaver cuts through a gorge of underlying

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

. The river is roughly parallel to the border with the state of

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, with both

Interstate 376 Interstate 376 (I-376) is a major auxiliary route of the Interstate Highway System in the US state of Pennsylvania, located within the Allegheny Plateau. It runs from I-80 near Sharon south and east to a junction with the Pennsylvania T ...

and

Pennsylvania Route 18 Pennsylvania Route 18 (PA 18) is a major north–south highway in Western Pennsylvania whose southern terminus is at West Virginia Route 69 (WV 69) at the state line in Greene County near the village of Garrison, while the northern termin ...

running parallel to the river itself. The river, which flows throughout the northern half of Beaver County, serves as the namesake of the county as well as several locales in both Beaver and Lawrence County. The river itself was either named for King Beaver ( Tamaqua) of the

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

nation that had migrated to the area in the late 1740s, or for the animal itself. Until the partition of Lawrence County from parts of Beaver and Mercer County in 1849, the river was entirely located in Beaver County, with its upstream terminus being at the border between Beaver and Mercer County from 1800-1849.

Communities along the river

* West Pittsburg *

Wampum Wampum is a traditional shell bead of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of Native Americans. It includes white shell beads hand-fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell and white and purple beads made from the quahog or Western Nor ...

* Koppel * Homewood *

* Eastvale * New Brighton * Fallston *

* Bridgewater

References

External links

U.S. Geological Survey: PA stream gaging stations
{{authority control Rivers of Pennsylvania Tributaries of the Ohio River Rivers of Beaver County, Pennsylvania Rivers of Lawrence County, Pennsylvania Allegheny Plateau

Communities along the river

See also

References

External links