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Featured Route: See No Borders
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About the Ohio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary of the Mississippi River. It is approximately 981 miles long and is located in the eastern United States. It flows through or along the border of six states, including Illinois.
The river had great significance in the history of the Native Americans. It was a main transportation route during the westward expansion of the early United States. People used active transportation to travel down the river by boat and canoe.
De La Salle led an expedition of French traders who became the first Europeans to find the river in 1669. He traveled from Canada and entered the river in the north, traveling as far as the Falls of Ohio before turning back. He returned to explore the river again and brought an Italian cartographer with him, who created the first map of the Ohio River.
Because it is the southern border of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, the Ohio River was a part of the border that divided free states and slave states before the Civil War. The expression "sold down the river" comes from when Kentucky slaves were taken from their families and sold in Louisville and other Kentucky locations, and shipped on the Ohio River down to New Orleans to be sold to plantation owners. Before and during the Civil War, the Ohio River was called the "River Jordan" by slaves escaping to freedom in the North using the Underground Railroad. More escaping slaves made their dangerous journey north to freedom using the Ohio River, than anywhere else across the north-south frontier.
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