A Walk in Time with Lewis and Clark: Photograph with Question #1

If you were to take this journey of discovery today, what would you take with you?  Look across the Ohio River.  How do you think it has changed since Lewis & Clark started their expedition here? 

Photograph description

A view from the Falls of the Ohio looking west. The launch site for Lewis and Clark expedition would be from Mill Creek on the Indiana side, not visible in this photo, but just off the upper right side of this U. S. Army Corps of Engineers photograph (taken 2004), to the right of the McAlpine Dam.

The town of Shippingport, Kentucky was established in 1785 on the bend in the Ohio River. It was made an island when the Portland Canal was dug (completed 1830). Destroyed the 1937 flood, Shippingport was never rebuilt and Shippingport Island has partially returned to its natural condition. The west end of the island (across from Mill Creek) is the location of the locks, lower tainter gates of the dam and hydroelectric power plant.

The Portland neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky (originally its own community est. 1811) is in the upper left portion of this photo.

The City of New Albany, Indiana (est. 1813) is in the upper right, with the double-arch Sherman Minton bridge of Interstate Highway 64 and the Gallagher Power Plant (Indiana) is in the background. The Ohio River curves out of sight in the upper left corner with Indiana countryside forming the horizon.

Other changes:

The fossil beds extended from shore to shore.

The McAlpine Dam was constructed in the early 1960s on the foundation of Dam No. 41, built in the early 1920s. It was the first dam which covered most of the fossil beds.