The Great Miami River (also called the Miami River) (

Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...

: ''Msimiyamithiipi'') is a tributary of the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
, accessed May 19, 2011 in southwestern

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 ...

and

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The Great Miami originates at the man-made Indian Lake and flows south through the cities of Sidney, Piqua,

Troy Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in prese ...

Dayton Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...

, Middletown and

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

. The river is named for the

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

, an Algonquian-speaking Native American people who lived in the region during the early days of European settlement. They were forced to relocate to the west to escape pressure from European-American settlers. The region surrounding the Great Miami River is known as the

Miami Valley The Miami Valley is the land area surrounding the Great Miami River in southwest Ohio, USA, and includes the Little Miami, Mad, and Stillwater rivers as well. Geographically, it includes Dayton, Springfield, Middletown, Hamilton, and other c ...

. This term is used in the upper portions of the valley as a moniker for the economic-cultural region centered primarily on the

Greater Dayton The Dayton, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area, also known as Greater Dayton and the Miami Valley, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of three counties in the Miami Valley region of Ohio and is anchored by the cit ...

area. As the lower portions of the Miami Valley fall under the influence of

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

and the Ohio River Valley, residents of the lower area do not identify with the Miami in the same way.

Course

The main course of the Great Miami River rises from the outflow of Indian Lake in

Logan County Logan County is the name of ten current counties and one former county in the United States: * Logan County, Arkansas * Logan County, Colorado * Logan County, Idaho (1889–1895) * Logan County, Illinois * Logan County, Kansas * Logan County, ...

, about southeast of the village of Russells Point, approximately southeast of

Lima Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of t ...

. Indian Lake is an artificial

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

which receives the flow from the North and South forks of the Great Miami River. It flows south and southwest, past Sidney, and is joined by

Loramie Creek Loramie Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed May 19, 2011 tributary of the Great Miami River in western Ohio in the United States. Via the Great Miami and Ohio river ...

in northern Miami County. It flows south past Piqua and

, and through

Taylorsville Dam The Miami Conservancy District is a river management agency operating in Southwest Ohio to control flooding of the Great Miami River and its tributaries. It was organized in 1915 following the catastrophic Great Dayton Flood of the Great Miami R ...

in Huber Heights and Vandalia. It continues through

, where it is joined by the Stillwater and the Mad rivers and Wolf Creek. From Dayton it flows southwest past

Miamisburg Miamisburg ( ) is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio. The population was 20,181 at the time of the 2010 census. A suburb of Dayton. It is part of the Dayton metropolitan area. Miamisburg is known for its large industry (mainly for its nuclear ...

Franklin Franklin may refer to: People * Franklin (given name) * Franklin (surname) * Franklin (class), a member of a historical English social class Places Australia * Franklin, Tasmania, a township * Division of Franklin, federal electoral d ...

, Middletown and

in the southwest corner of Ohio. In southwestern Hamilton County, it is joined by the Whitewater River approximately upstream from its mouth on the

, just east of the

state line, approximately west of

. The river meanders across the state line near

Lawrenceburg, Indiana Lawrenceburg is a city in Dearborn County, Indiana, United States. The population was 5,042 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat and largest city of Dearborn County. Lawrenceburg is in southeast Indiana, on the Ohio River west of Cinci ...

in the last two miles (3 km) before reaching its mouth approximately ¼ mile east of the border in Ohio. The border of

and

was based on where the confluence of the Ohio and Great Miami Rivers was in 1800.

Natural and human history

In the 1700s, the French called the river Riviere à la Roche ("River of the Rocks"). This name was directly taken from the Myaamia language (Miami-Illinois) of the Miami Nation that lived in the area (''ahseni siipiiwi'', meaing ''Rock River''). The

Miami and Erie Canal The Miami and Erie Canal was a canal that ran from Cincinnati to Toledo, Ohio, creating a water route between the Ohio River and Lake Erie. Construction on the canal began in 1825 and was completed in 1845 at a cost to the state government of $ ...

, which connected the Ohio River with

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...

, was built through the Great Miami watershed. The first portion of the canal, from

to Middletown, was operational in 1828, and extended to

in 1830. Water from the Great Miami fed into the canal. A later extension to the canal, the Sidney Feeder, drew water from the upper reaches of the Great Miami from near

Port Jefferson Port Jefferson (informally known as "Port Jeff") is an incorporated village in the town of Brookhaven in Suffolk County, New York, on the North Shore of Long Island. Officially known as the Incorporated Village of Port Jefferson, the population ...

and Sidney. The canal served as the principal north-south route of transportation from Toledo to Cincinnati for western Ohio until being supplanted in the 1850s by railroads. As was common in early industrial days, beginning in the 19th century the river served as a source of water and a method to dispose of wastes for a variety of major industrial firms, including

Armco Steel AK Steel Holdings Corporation was a steelmaking company headquartered in West Chester Township, Butler County, Ohio. The company, whose name was derived from the initials of Armco, its predecessor company, and Kawasaki Steel Corporation, was a ...

Champion International Paper Champion International was a large paper and wood products producer based since 1980 in Stamford, Connecticut. It was acquired by International Paper in 2000. From 1893 it had been based in Hamilton, Ohio, expanding to plants in Texas and Western N ...

, Black Clawson, Fernald and many others. Heightened attention to water pollution in the late 1950s and 1960s has led to significant improvements in waste disposal and water quality. Following a catastrophic

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

in March 1913, the

Miami Conservancy District The Miami Conservancy District is a river management agency operating in Southwest Ohio to control flooding of the Great Miami River and its tributaries. It was organized in 1915 following the catastrophic Great Dayton Flood of the Great Miami R ...

was established in 1914 to build

dams A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, ...

levee A levee (), dike (American English), dyke (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), embankment, floodbank, or stop bank is a structure that is usually soil, earthen and that often runs parallel (geometry), parallel to ...

s and storage areas as well as

dredge Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing da ...

and straighten channels to control flooding of the river.

Crossings

Alternate names

Flannery Island at Ohio-Miami confluence

The Great Miami River has also been known as: * Assereniet River * Big Miami River * Gran Miammee Fiume * Grande Miami Riviere * Great Miama River * Great Miamia River * Great Miammee River * Great Mineami River * Miami River * Riviere à la Roche * Rocky Fiume * Rocky River * Big Mineamy River * Great Miamis River * Great Miyamis River * Miamis River * Riviere La Rushes * Rockey River

Tributaries

* Clear Creek (Great Miami River) *

Mad River (Ohio) The Mad River (Shawnee: ''Hathennithiipi'' ) is a stream located in the west central part of the U.S. state of Ohio. It flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed May 19, 2011 ...

Stillwater River (Ohio) The Stillwater River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed May 19, 2011 tributary of the Great Miami River in western Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region ...

* Twin Creek * Whitewater River * Wolf Creek * Indian Creek (Ohio) * Taylor Creek (Ohio) * Four Mile Creek (Ohio) *

Holes Creek Holes Creek is a stream in the U.S. state of Ohio. The long stream is a tributary of the Great Miami River. The stream originates in extreme north-central Warren County in Clearcreek Township, roughly 1.5 miles east of Dayton–Wright Brother ...

References

* Arthur Benke & Colbert Cushing, ''Rivers of North America'', Elsevier Academic Press, 2005

External links

{{authority control Rivers of Ohio Rivers of Indiana Tributaries of the Ohio River Bodies of water of Dearborn County, Indiana Rivers of Butler County, Ohio Rivers of Hamilton County, Ohio Rivers of Logan County, Ohio Rivers of Miami County, Ohio Rivers of Montgomery County, Ohio Rivers of Shelby County, Ohio Rivers of Warren County, Ohio