Excerpt from Souvenir Programme: Fall Celebration, Louisville, 1889 The falls of the Ohio constitute the most striking peculiarity of that beautiful river from its source to its mouth. After un interrupted navigation of nearly 600 miles from Fort Pitt, the frail crafts of the pioneers and explorers here encountered the first natural obstruction to their progress. In a course of less than three miles the fall of the river is, at the low-water stage 25% feet, and that swift descent forms rapids which have been formidable to all navigators of the river, whatever the character of their vessels. Dr. Connolly's observation had taught him that as the country was settled a considerable city was sure to grow up in the vicinity of such an interruption to river travel and transportation as that. Along the course of the upper Ohio, the hills approach closely to the banks of the river, and there are very few places where the plain between the river and the hills is wideenough to afford room for a city of any size. At the falls, however, there is on either side of the Ohio abundance of level ground above high-water mark, suitable for the site of a large city. There were several good reasons why the site on the southern side was to be preferred. The main channel of the rapids, running close to the northern side of the river, made the current along that shore stronger. The bend of the river, beginning at the head of the falls, threw deep and quiet water close to the southern bank. The contour of the bend was such that all portages would be made on the southern side of the rapids. A small stream, Beargrass creek, entered the river on that side, a short distance above the head of the rapids, the deep mouth of which formed an excellent harbor for the small vessels of that period. A short distance above the mouth of Beargrass the hills receded from the river, leaving a bottom or plain above high-water mark, varying from three to six miles in width, and ex tending down the river for twenty miles, affording excellent building room for a larger city than any known to history. An other reason for preferring the southern side as the location for a settlement was the fact that the Indians, whose hostility was to be dreaded by the settlers, all lived on the north side of the Ohio, the Kentucky region being reserved as a common hunting ground by all the tribes, and none of them making permanent habitation within its territory.
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