The Teays River (pronounced taze) was a major preglacial river that drained much of the present

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 ...

watershed, but took a more northerly downstream course. Traces of the Teays across northern

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 ...

are represented by a network of river valleys. The largest still existing contributor to the former Teays River is the

Kanawha River The Kanawha River ( ) is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately 97 mi (156 km) long, in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The largest inland waterway in West Virginia, its valley has been a significant industrial region of the stat ...

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

, which is itself an extension of the New River. The name "Teays," from the much smaller

Teays Valley Teays Valley ( ) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Putnam County, West Virginia, United States. The place is divided into the two districts of Teays Valley and Scott Depot. The population was 13,175 at the 2010 census. Teays Valley is par ...

still extant above the surface, has been associated with the river and the remainder of its related buried valley since 1910.The Glacial Boundary in Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois; George Frederick Weight; Bulletin of the United States Geological Survey No. 58; Washington, Government Printing Office; 1890; pg 86-88 The more appropriate name would be the Ancestral Kanawha Valley.Glacial Geology of Wabash County, Indiana: William J. Wayne and William D. Thornbury; Indiana Department of Conservation, Geological Survey; Bulletin No. 5; Bloomington, Indiana; 1951 The term Teays is used when discussing the buried portion of the Ancestral Kanawha River. The Teays was comparable in size to the

. The River's headwaters were near

Blowing Rock, North Carolina Blowing Rock is a town in Watauga and Caldwell counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The population was 1,397 at the 2021 census. The Caldwell County portion of Blowing Rock is part of the Hickory– Lenoir– Morganton Metropo ...

; it then flowed through

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

and

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. (Hansen, 1995).Teays River; ES 767 Quaternary Geology, Fall 2011; Wesley C. Smith; Emporia State University, Earth Science Department: Webpage submitted on November 28, 2011 The largest tributary to the Teays River was the Old Kentucky River (Teller 1991), which extended from southern Kentucky through Frankfort and subsequently flowed northeast, meeting other tributaries and eventually joining the Teays.

Creation

Scattered erratics in northeastern Kentucky and southern Ohio are pre- Kansan in age. Only the Nebraskan is recognized as earlier than Kansan; these have been designated as remnants of deposits left by the Nebraskan glacier. The ice sheet overrode the preglacial Teays creating ponds or

glacial lake A glacial lake is a body of water with origins from glacier activity. They are formed when a glacier erodes the land and then melts, filling the depression created by the glacier. Formation Near the end of the last glacial period, roughly 10,0 ...

s. The back up of water diverted the upper basin over the surrounding divides into the preglacial

. Thus the ‘deep stage’ more likely is post-Nebraskan and pre-Kansan in age rather than preglacial. With the withdrawal of the Nebraskan glacier, which caused integration of the upper Kanawha (Teays) with the preglacial

, a vastly shortened, unnamed descendant of the Teays apparently headed somewhere in west-central Ohio and cut the ‘deep stage’ across Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois during the long Aftonian interglacial stage, which followed. If the sequence of

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid Rock (geology), rock that lies under loose material (regolith) within the crust (geology), crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface mater ...

formations of northern Indiana were exposed, the extensive cliffs along the ‘deep stage’ of the Teays and its tributaries would provide a clearer understanding of the

stratigraphy Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock (geology), rock layers (Stratum, strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary rock, sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigrap ...

of northern Indiana. The entire

Silurian The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, Mya. The Silurian is the shortest period of the Paleozo ...

section below the Liston Creek limestone and a few feet of the upper

Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and System (geology), system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era (geology), Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start ...

probably would be visible in the vicinity of La Fontaine. In Wabash County the part of the Teays Valley above the ‘deep stage’ consists of broad terraces at an altitude of about . From this terrace level the bedrock rises gradually to the on the Lexington pene-plain surface. These terraces probably correspond in age to an erosional surface in the unglaciated areas known as the Parker strath, which was the result an erosion cycle that ended before the Kansan phase of the

pre-Illinoian The Pre-Illinoian Stage is used by Quaternary geologists for the early and middle Pleistocene glacial and interglacial periods of geologic time in North America from ~2.5–0.2 Ma (million years ago). North America As the oldest stage in t ...

glaciation. More recent correlation places its age as pre-Nebraskan. The Parker strath probably represents an erosional level existent at the beginning of the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

before the rejuvenation associated with, and following, the Nebraskan glaciation. The general appearance and width of the strath terrace along the Teays Valley in Indiana indicates that it represents only a slight rejuvenation following the Lexington cycle. In Virginia and West Virginia, the Teays River flowed in the valleys of the modern New River and

(Hansen, 1995). The river then flowed west to

Scioto County, Ohio Scioto County is a county located along the Ohio River in the south central region of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 74,008. Its county seat is Portsmouth. The county was founded March 24, 1804, from Adams C ...

and to Ross County, Ohio near Chillicothe. The valley then disappears under glacial sediments but can be tracked using water well yields and other means (Hansen, 1995). A total of seven

till image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...

s have been identified within the Teays River Valley (Andrews, 2004). In portions of Ohio, the buried valley is up to wide and lies beneath of glacial sediments (Hansen, 1995).

Course

The Teays River was a north- and northwest-flowing river existing before the

Ice Ages An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...

– before 2.5 million years ago. The Teays flowed through southwest

, between

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

and Ohio, and northwest across Ohio (see illustration). The Teays then flowed under what is present-day

Lafayette, Indiana Lafayette ( , ) is a city in and the county seat of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, located northwest of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette, on the other side of the Wabash River, is home to Purdue University, whi ...

and just north of

Champaign, Illinois Champaign ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 88,302 at the 2020 census. It is the tenth-most populous municipality in Illinois and the fourth most populous city in Illinois outside the Chicago metropo ...

, and likely was coincident with the lower present-day

Illinois River The Illinois River ( mia, Inoka Siipiiwi) is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River and is approximately long. Located in the U.S. state of Illinois, it has a drainage basin of . The Illinois River begins at the confluence of the D ...

. The Teays River was dissected and largely wiped away by advancing

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...

s and their

meltwater Meltwater is water released by the melting of snow or ice, including glacial ice, tabular icebergs and ice shelves over oceans. Meltwater is often found in the ablation zone of glaciers, where the rate of snow cover is reducing. Meltwater can be ...

. These glaciers were the massive continental ice sheets that began to cover large parts of Ohio and other states downstream (west) of Ohio between 2.5 and 3 million years ago. Their presence caused lakes ( Lake Tight,

Lake Monongahela Lake Monongahela was a proglacial lake in western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. It formed during the Pre-Illinoian ice epoch when the retreat of the ice sheet northwards blocked the drainage of these valleys to the north. The lake form ...

and Scioto Rivers, which are associated with the most direct evidence of the Teays.

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

The Teays River was the main stream of a preglacial river system. Its headwaters was near the eastern escarpment of the Blue Ridge, at the edge of the

Piedmont Plateau The Piedmont is a plateau region located in the Eastern United States. It is situated between the Atlantic coastal plain and the main Appalachian Mountains, stretching from New York in the north to central Alabama in the south. The Piedmont ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

and

.The Teays River; Karl Ver Steeg: The Ohio Journal of Science; Vol. XLVI, November, 1946 No. 6; College of Wooster; Wooster, Ohio The New River, the southernmost headwater of the Teays River, arises in

Watauga County, North Carolina Watauga County ( )
from the North Carolina Collection's website at the

in the Blue Ridge. This area is northeast of

Asheville Asheville ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most populous ci ...

. It flows northeasterly direction for some distance and after making a right-angled bend, it trends northward until it makes a 90° turn to the west and joins the

Gauley River The Gauley River is a river in West Virginia. It merges with the New River to form the Kanawha River, a tributary of the Ohio River. The river features numerous recreational whitewater areas, including those in Gauley River National Recreation Ar ...

. Here, it takes a new name as the

. This continues to the northwest to Charleston. As New River, it was joined by the Greenbrier and Bluestone rivers. At Charleston, the Kanawah, is joined by the Elk River. In its course, the Teays River cut across the folded Appalachians, a remarkable feature. The valley varies in width, from , an average of . A mile wide valley can be observed without a stream from St. Albans to Huntington. No doubt, a large stream once occupied this abandoned valley. Approaching Huntington, the Guyandotte River joins the general path of the ancient river beginning at Barboursville and follows it north until the former river veers west over the south hills of Huntington and joins the Ohio River Valley heading west towards Kentucky. The Ohio River follows the Teays path until leaving the Ohio River in the north end of Catlettsburg where it veers away just south of Ashland to Wheelersburg. The Ohio River has a floor of the original valley as shown by the silted flats south of Ashland and the terraces between Franklin Furnace and Wheelersburg. At Wheelersburg, the Teays River flowed northward past Minford, Stockdale and Beaver, to Waverly, through a high-level, broad, well-defined open valley.

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 ...

The Teays system in Ohio is known as the Parker Strath. The Teays River extended across Ohio in a northwesterly direction from

Huntington, West Virginia Huntington is a city in Cabell and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is the county seat of Cabell County, and the largest city in the Huntington–Ashland metropolitan area, sometimes referred to as the Tri-State Area. A h ...

. It splits away from the

near Sciotodale/Wheelersburg and goes north and west through Minford, Stockdale, and Beaver before merging with the

Scioto River The Scioto River ( ) is a river in central and southern Ohio more than in length. It rises in Hardin County just north of Roundhead, Ohio, flows through Columbus, Ohio, where it collects its largest tributary, the Olentangy River, and meets t ...

valley near Waverly/Piketon. This is clearly visible on aerial and satellite imagery. However, its floor exists as broad upland flats, near Omega and Higby. The Scioto River has eroded and partially destroyed the Teays Valley from Waverly to Richmond Dale. It then continues northward to Chillicothe, where it disappears under a layering of Wisconsin glacial drift. Surveying under the glacial drift has revealed that it continues to the border of Indiana, near

Grand Lake St. Marys Grand Lake St. Marys State Park is a public recreation area located on Grand Lake in Mercer and Auglaize counties, Ohio. Grand Lake is the largest inland lake in Ohio in terms of area, but is shallow, with an average depth of only . The stat ...

. From Chillicothe, the Teays Valley can be traced in a northwesterly direction past Andersonville, crossing the southwestern part of Pickaway County, past Atlanta. From there, it crosses the northeast corner of Fayette County near Waterloo, extending in a northwesterly direction past London in Madison County, to South Vienna in Clark County. Here the Teays was joined by the Groveport River, which drained central Ohio. From South Vienna, the Teays River continues in a westerly direction, to a point near Springfield, in Clark County, and thence northwestward past Boulusville and St. Paris in Champaign County, and Sidney, Anna and Botkins, in Shelby County, to the southeastern part of Washington Township in Auglaize County, where it was joined from the north by a tributary, Wapakoneta Creek. The Teays continued its course westward past the village of Mercer to Rockford. Continuing west to the Ohio-Indiana state line in Mercer County.

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 ...

The Teays Valley enters Indiana in Jay County and trends west. It turns to the northwest west of La Fontaine crossing Miami County south of the

Wabash River The Wabash River ( French: Ouabache) is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 13, 2011 river that drains most of the state of Indiana in the United States. It flows fro ...

. Reaching under

Tippecanoe County Tippecanoe may refer to several places or things in the United States: * The 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe in Indiana * A nickname for William Henry Harrison (U.S. President March 1841–April 1841) from his role in the battle ** Tippecanoe and Tyler t ...

, it continues west through southern Benton County and into Illinois. (Fidlar, 1948, pp. 12–15).

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

In Illinois, the valley is called the Mahomet.(Horberg, 1945, pp. 349–350). It trends westerly across the state, into the bedrock valley of the

Entrenched or ‘deep stage’

The ‘deep stage’ is used to describe the portion of the Teays Valley and other proglacial valleys carved into

in the Great Lakes region. This includes

Ohio Valley 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 ...

, near Madison, Indiana, before the Pleistocene; the Wabash Valley; and the Mississippi Valley. The floor of the Teays Valley in West Virginia is above the entrenched Kanawha and Ohio valley floors, and its bedrock floor is at least above them. The ‘deep stage’ apparently was cut mainly after the diversion of the upper Kanawha (Teays) drainage to the Ohio River (Stout, Ver Steeg, and Lamb, 1943, pp. 78–79). The lowest bedrock altitude obtained along the course of the Teays Valley across Wabash County was above sea level in the vicinity of La Fontaine. The average gradient of the Mahomet Valley above Beardstown, Illinois, is about 7 inches per mile (11.1 cm per kilometer). The altitude of the valley floor where it occurs beneath the present floodplain of the Wabash River should be about . The profile of the Teays is a gorge-like valley entrenched within a broad, old age valley. Steep walls high can be recognized along the buried trench. The inner valley has been called the ‘deep stage’ and is interglacial in age.

Tributaries

Ohio valleys

In the unglaciated area of southern Ohio, tributaries reflect the adjacent hills, which are considerably reduced: low gradients, broad valleys for the size of the modern streams, and

dendritic Dendrite derives from the Greek word "dendron" meaning ( "tree-like"), and may refer to: Biology *Dendrite, a branched projection of a neuron *Dendrite (non-neuronal), branching projections of certain skin cells and immune cells Physical * Dendr ...

patterns, all features of maturity. The largest of the tributaries in Ohio are the Marietta River, Hamden Creek, Albany River, Barlow Creek, Portsmouth River, Logan River, Bremen Creek, Putnam Creek, Cambridge River, Groveport River, Mechanicsburg Creek, and Wapakoneta Creek. The Cincinnati River flows northeastward from the southwest corner of Ohio to Dayton, to join the Teays River. That a divide existed between the preglacial Teays and the Miami watershed. Well records do not indicate a broad depression, which widens northward and is of sufficient size to have accommodated so large a stream as the Cincinnati River.

Preglacial Eel Valley

The Eel Valley in

Wabash County, Indiana Wabash County is a county located in the northern central part of the U.S. state of Indiana. As of 2020, the population was 30,976. The county seat is Wabash. History The area was inhabited for thousands of years by cultures of indigenous pe ...

follows a preglacial tributary of the Teays.(Horberg, 1945, p. 357). It too has a ‘deep stage’. At its junction with the Teays Valley it is just under above sea level. The tributary does not rise above through its length in Wabash County.

Illinois valleys

A tributary from the north enters the Mahomet Valley near Paxton, and important tributaries from the south, north of Danville, and in western Logan and

Menard Menard may refer to: Places Canada *Menard River, a tributary of the Wawagosic River in Quebec, Canada United States * Menard County, Illinois ** Menard, Illinois * Menard County, Texas ** Menard, Texas * Menard–Hodges site, archaeological s ...

counties.

Demise

The Kanawha (Teays) was forced across a major divide when the return of the Laurentian ice sheet dammed the northward flow of the river. The diversion occurred during the Nebraskan or older pre-Illinoian glaciation. This is based on an analysis of the drift found in the valley from the Kansan or late pre-Illinoian age.

Present-day remnants

Visual remains of the Teays River today include large valleys containing only small streams (such as the mile-wide valley from Huntington to

St. Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman r ...

in West Virginia and the valley extending north from Wheelersburg in Ohio). These valleys can be seen on aerial and satellite images. However, short segments of some such valleys are still occupied by the Ohio and Scioto Rivers. The Scioto flows through the valley in the opposite direction (south) to that taken by the Teays (north). The Teays River was dissected and largely wiped away by advancing glaciers and their meltwater. These glaciers were the massive continental ice sheets that began to cover large parts of Ohio and other states downstream (west) of Ohio between 2.5 and 3 million years ago. Their presence caused lakes ( Lake Tight,

, etc.) to form along the Teays and associated rivers. Overflow of these lakes into nearby, lower valleys caused large floods and new rivers to form. These new rivers – formed about 2 million years ago – included the present-day Ohio and Scioto Rivers, which are associated with the most direct evidence of the Teays. The present Ohio-Mississippi river system contains some distinctive

relict A relict is a surviving remnant of a natural phenomenon. Biology A relict (or relic) is an organism that at an earlier time was abundant in a large area but now occurs at only one or a few small areas. Geology and geomorphology In geology, a r ...

fish populations descended from

Jurassic Period The Jurassic ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of ...

fishes of the Teays, such as the primitive bowfin (''Amia calva'') and various

gar Gars are members of the family Lepisosteidae, which are the only surviving members of the Ginglymodi, an ancient holosteian group of ray-finned fish, which first appeared during the Triassic, over 240 million years ago. Gars comprise seven livin ...

s (''

Lepisosteus ''Lepisosteus'' is a genus of gars in the family Lepisosteidae. Distribution While in the present day, ''Lepisosteus'' is only known across North America, fossil remains show it was much more widespread in the past, with specimens known from ...

'' spp).

Discovery

The Teays River was discovered and named for the village of

Teays, West Virginia Teays, written Seays until ''circa'' 1884, is an unincorporated community in Putnam County, West Virginia, United States. The town is centered on the former general store / post office on Teays Lane, which sits across from the site of the Teays r ...

by geologist William G. Tight (1865–1910).Wright, G. Frederick (1894), "The Cincinnati Ice Dam"
''

The Popular Science Monthly ''Popular Science'' (also known as ''PopSci'') is an American digital magazine carrying popular science content, which refers to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. ''Popular Science'' has won over 58 awards, inclu ...

'', June issue, pp. 184–198. The small community of Teays is in the "riverless" Teays Valley that used to be the bottom of the Teays River. In 1886, Gerard Fowke recognized that the gorge west of

Chillicothe, Ohio Chillicothe ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Ross County, Ohio, United States. Located along the Scioto River 45 miles (72 km) south of Columbus, Chillicothe was the first and third capital of Ohio. It is the only city in Ross Count ...

was larger than Paint Creek would have created. He claimed that a large river would have had to exist to create the wide and deep valley. Conventional geologists did not support his claim.A Great Lost River Gets Its Due; Walter Sullivan; Science, The New York Times; November 29, 1983 In 1903 William G. Tight, a professor at

Denison University Denison University is a private liberal arts college in Granville, Ohio. One of the earliest colleges established in the former Northwest Territory, Denison University was founded in 1831. The college was first called the Granville Literary and ...

Granville, Ohio Granville is a village in Licking County, Ohio, United States. The population was 5,646 at the 2010 census. The village is located in a rural area of rolling hills in central Ohio. It is east of Columbus, the state capital, and west of Newar ...

, saw the same type of valley and small stream running from Charleston to the

. It had only a minor water course beyond

St. Albans, West Virginia St. Albans is a city in Kanawha County, West Virginia, United States, at the confluence of the Kanawha and Coal rivers. The population was 10,861 at the 2020 census. History St. Albans was laid out in 1816. Originally, it was known as Philip ...

. Here, the

turns north. Professor Tight sought in vain to persuade the geological community that this valley once carried a mighty river that continued across

and

through a valley now deeply buried under glacial deposits. He called it the Teays (pronounced taze) River, for a village in

Namesakes

Teays Valley, West Virginia Teays Valley ( ) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Putnam County, West Virginia, United States. The place is divided into the two districts of Teays Valley and Scott Depot. The population was 13,175 at the 2010 census. Teays Valley is par ...

and Ashville, Ohio's

Teays Valley Local School District Teays Valley Local School District is a school district in Pickaway County, Ohio, United States. It services the communities of South Bloomfield, Ashville, Commercial Point, and Amanda; in addition, students from Circleville and Grove City ...

are named after the former river.

References

External links

NPS.gov: ''Geology of the New River''
{{Pleistocene Lakes and Seas Former rivers

Creation

Course

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

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 ...

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 ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

Entrenched or ‘deep stage’

Tributaries

Ohio valleys

Preglacial Eel Valley

Illinois valleys

Demise

Present-day remnants

Discovery

Namesakes

See also

References

External links