On or near this day, the expedition boats pass the mouth of the Salt River 25 miles below Louisville, Kentucky. There, a whirlpool presents a significant river hazard as described by other travelers.
Limestone Rocks, Ohio River
Thomas Kelah Wharton (1814–1862). Courtesy New York Public Library digital collections.
Written on the above sketch: “Limestone Rocks / Ohio River / Novr. 30th. 1853 / 4 P.M. / J. K. Wharton”
Strong Current
The current of the Ohio now carried us five miles an hour, passing settlements on the right every mile with a range of picturesque hills behind them.
—Fortescue Cuming[1]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 … Continue reading
Rocky Precipices
Twenty-five miles from the falls, we passed Salt: river, about eighty yards wide, on the left, with some neat settlements on each side of it, and also on the opposite bank of the Ohio, which latter bank is oyerhung by some very high rocky precipices.
—Fortescue Cuming[2]Ibid.
Salt River Whirlpool
[W]e passed the mouth of the Salt River . . . . There is an ugly bar on the NW shore opposite the mouth of this river. This is a fine river and a strong current out of it so as to form a smart whirlpool at its junction with the Ohio.
—Thomas Rodney[3]20 October 1803. Dwight L. Smith and Ray Swick, ed., A Journey Through the West: Thomas Rodney’s 1803 Journal from Delaware to the Mississippi Territory (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1997), … Continue reading
Notes
| ↑1 | 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), 236. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | Ibid. |
| ↑3 | 20 October 1803. Dwight L. Smith and Ray Swick, ed., A Journey Through the West: Thomas Rodney’s 1803 Journal from Delaware to the Mississippi Territory (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1997), 127–28. |
Experience the Lewis and Clark Trail
The Lewis and Clark Trail Experience—our sister site at lewisandclark.travel—connects the world to people and places on the Lewis and Clark Trail.
Discover More
- The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
- The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery (abridged) by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2003). Selected journal excerpts, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
- The Lewis and Clark Journals. by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001). The complete story in 13 volumes.
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- Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail
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Unless otherwise noted, journal excerpts are from The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, edited by Gary E. Moulton, 13 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983-2001).