Allegheny River

The Allegheny River ( AL-ig-AY-nee; Seneca: Ohi꞉yoʼ; Unami: Alikehane) is a 325-mile-long (523 km) river that is located in western Pennsylvania and western New York in the United States. The chief tributary of the Ohio River, the Allegheny runs from its headwaters just below the center of Pennsylvania’s northern border, heads northwest into Western New York, then zigzags southwesterly back across the border to flow through Western Pennsylvania and finally join the Monongahela River at Forks of the Ohio near Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Allegheny River is, by volume, the main headstream of both the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Historically, the Allegheny was considered to be the upper Ohio River by both Native Americans and European settlers. This shallow river has been made navigable upstream from Pittsburgh to East Brady by a series of locks and dams that were constructed during the early 20th century. A 24-mile-long portion of the upper river in Warren and McKean counties of Pennsylvania and Cattaraugus County in New York forms the Allegheny Reservoir, which was created by the erection of the Kinzua Dam in 1965 for flood control. The etymology behind the word "Allegheny" is of unclear pre-Columbian origin and may be derived from one of a number of Delaware/Unami phrases that are homophones of the English name, with varying translations.

The name Allegheny probably comes from Lenape welhik hane or oolikhanna, which means 'best flowing river of the hills' or 'beautiful stream'. There is a Lenape legend of a tribe called "Talligewi" who used to live along the river. Frederick Webb Hodge cited Henry Schoolcraft to connect the "Talligewi" to the Cherokee. The following account of the origin of the name Allegheny was given in 1780 by Moravian missionary David Zeisberger: "All this land and region, stretching as far as the creeks and waters that flow into the Alleghene the Delawares called Alligewinenk, which means 'a land into which they came from distant parts'. The river itself, however, is called Alligewi Sipo. The whites have made Alleghene out of this, the Six Nations calling the river the Ohio." The Delaware Tribe of Indians gives the Lenape name as Alikehane, "river where footprints can be seen." Native Americans, including the Lenape and Iroquois, considered the Allegheny and Ohio rivers as the same, as is suggested by a New York State road sign on Interstate 86 that refers to the Allegheny River also as Ohi꞉yoʼ. The Geographic Names Information System lists O-hee-yo and O-hi-o as variant names. The river is called Ohi:'i:o` (river beautiful) in the Seneca language. In New York, areas around the river are often named with the alternate spelling Allegany in reference to the river; for example, the Village of Allegany and Allegany State Park. Port Allegany, located along the river in Pennsylvania near the border with New York, also follows this pattern.

The Allegheny River rises in north central Pennsylvania, on Cobb Hill in Allegany Township in north central Potter County, 8 miles (13 km) south of the New York–Pennsylvania border and a few miles northwest of the eastern triple divide. The stream flows south and passes under Pennsylvania Route 49 11 miles northeast of Coudersport where a historical marker that declares the start of the river is located. Cobb Hill is about a mile north. The stream flows southwest paralleling Route 49 to Coudersport. The route continues west to Port Allegany, where thereafter the river joins with a number of small streams and widens considerably before turning north and crossing into western New York. Looping westward across southern Cattaraugus County for approximately 30 miles (48 km), past Portville, Olean, Allegany and Salamanca, the river flows through Seneca Indian Nation lands

Flows through: United States.

River data from Wikidata (CC0); lengths normalised to a common unit.