Continuing with the
Theory that the Great Lakes area is the Land of Promise and the question, if
Lehi landed in that area, how did he get there? In the last post, we showed
once again that the St. Lawrence and Mississippi rivers were not the avenue
Lehi could have taken with his deep-sea vessel that Nephi built as some
Theorists claim. In this post, we will look at the possibility of sailing along
the inland waterway system of the Eastern U.S. as other Great Lake Theorists claim.
There are a few major
river possibilities that Theorists suggest Lehi could have used, including the
largest eastern river, the Susquehanna. This river, as it nears its headwaters,
splits into two branches at Sunbury/Northumberland—the North Branch, which is
not navigable except by rafts and canoes, and the West Branch, which is not
commercially navigable, flows past Williamsport to Lock Haven and then
northwest to Renovo, where it turns more to the southwest.
The confluence of the Susquehanna River’s
West Branch (left) and North Branch (center). The borough of Northumberland center
left and city of Sunbury far right. At this point it is 249 miles overland to
Lake Erie
The West Branch,
which runs closer to Lake Erie, averages six feet in depth at Northumberland
with depths from 3 feet to 8 feet. The North Branch drops from 7 feet to 2
feet within a short distance. Creeks that branch off the Susquehanna West
Branch that are nearer to the Great Lakes are 1) Pine Creek, which has a
maximum depth of 4.6 feet and an average depth of 2.4 feet; 2) Loyalslock
Creek, has a maximum depth of 3.8 feet and an average depth of 2.8 feet; and 3)
Lycoming Creek, that has a maximum depth of 4 feet and an average depth of 3
feet.
West Branch of the Susquehanna River at
Williamsport, 32 miles past Northumberland. Note the shallows and obstructions
in the narrow river at this point, which is 231 miles from Lake Erie
The Susquehanna at
Millersburg, 32 miles south of Northumberland, was so shallow that a
flat-bottomed ferry could be poled across the river by hand until 1873. At that
time, a dam of rock piles was laid across the mile-wide river to increase the
depth so a steam-powered side-paddle wheel ferry could cross. The dam is still
used today for the stern-mounted, gasoline-powered, wooden double paddle
wheelers can be used. In all, the depth is so shallow one could walk across the
river and obviously, no deep-sea ocean vessel could possibly sail up this
river.
Top: The Susquehanna River at Millersburg,
where it is quite obvious no ocean going vessel could ever have passed, what
with the islands blocking passage for anything more than small paddle boats,
flat-bottom boats, canoes, and kayaks; Bottom Left: Note the rocky bottom at
this point; Bottom Right; Note the white water caused by shallows blocked by
rocks and ledges
Fifty-five miles
below Northumberland, the river at Harrisburg, just 84 miles upriver from its
mouth into the Chesapeake Bay at Havre de Grace, and 120 miles upriver from
Baltimore, is a mile wide, though is as shallow as 3.7 feet—so shallow that
most boats that move on it are pontoon, and though the river at this point is
very wide, its depth in places averages about five feet. In fact 14- to 16-long
flat-bottomed boats are very popular on the river, as are canoes. A little
south of there, the river is now dammed and deep, but before that, the rock
hazards made boating there very dangerous.
The Dauphin Narrows is a shallow two-mile
long stretch of the Susquehanna with depths as low as 3.2 feet, with rock
ledges, islands, and rapids, making the river impassable except for kayaks
Just beyond
Harrisburg is the Dauphin Narrows, a two-mile long section of both large and
small islands, creating edges and back eddies, with grass beds strewn among
numerous gravel bars causing extreme shallows and rapids as the river drops 8
feet, and its depth varies between 3 and 4.6 feet. Obviously, nothing other than
sturdy canoes and kayaks can pass this part of the Susquehanna River where it
is 259 miles from Lake Erie.
It should be kept in
mind that though the Susquehanna River is one of the largest rivers on the
eastern coast of the U.S., and is 444 miles long, it is considered by the Pennsylvania
Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, as non-navigable.
In fact, it is listed as the 16th largest river in the U.S., the
largest river lying entirely in the U.S. that drains into the Atlantic, and the
largest commercially non-navigable river in North America. What commerce over
time existed on it was due to both dredging and dams, with logs and lumber from
the forests and sawmills of northcentral Pennsylvania “floated” down the river
to market.
The historical
movement of people, products and coal over the Susquehanna was done by canal
systems because of the shallowness and impassable areas of the river itself. In
fact, to ship coal from Sunbury to Baltimore, a railroad was built by Northern
Central Railroad (now Pennsylvania Railroad) along the Susquehanna since the
river itself because of its shallow depth could not be used to transport the coal, though river shipping is
far cheaper than rail.
So now we come to the
heart of the matter—the furthest upriver Lehi’s ship could have possibly sailed
on the Susquehanna River from the Atlantic Ocean through the 200-mile-long
Chesapeake Bay would have been about ten miles, barely above the mouth of the
river.
Top: The Conowingo Dam now built across the
Susquehanna River; Bottom: The hydroelectric generation plant on the north side
of the river. Note the rocks and islands downriver from the dam where they have always existed, making it
impassable for any sizeable boat or ship traffic
In 1608 Sir John
Smith, explorer and leader of the Virginia Colony (Jamestown), sailed up the
Chesapeake Bay to the mouth of the Susquehanna River, then turned up river as
far as an area of huge boulders strewn across the river that blocked his path.
He called this area Smyth Fale
(Smith’s Falls), near present day Port Deposit, Maryland, where he persuaded a
group of sixty Susquehannock warriors to come down from their upriver
settlement to meet him. Today the Conowingo Dam and hydroelectric generation
plant are built at this spot.
Left:
John Smith’s 1612 map (north is toward the bottom)—Green Arrow: Chesapeake Bay;
White Arrow: Susquehanna River; Yellow Arrow: Smith’s Falls, which he located
with an “x” on his map; Right: Modern map (north at top)—Red Arrow: Location of
Smith’s Falls south of the Maryland border with Pennsylvania
The area named Smith’s
Falls on the above map, is now known as Conowingo on the Susquehanna River
about ten miles from the river mouth at the Chesapeake Bay (45 miles from
Baltimore). Dammed since 1929 to create the 105-foot deep Conowingo Reservoir
for hydroelectric power generation, the river in 1612 was impassable.
Beyond Smith’s Falls between
Dauphin, Lancaster, and York Counties are two fields of literally thousands of
potholes. The first is just downstream of Three Mile Island, and is known as
the Conewago Falls near Falmouth. The second, just above the Mason-Dixon line
is the Holtwood Gorge. In both, the Susquehanna has drilled through solid rock
to make some really odd shapes, with much of these boulders stretching to and
across the river.
Left: Conewago Falls on the Susquehanna
River just above Smith’s Falls. Note the Susquehanna full of rocks, boulders,
and other obstructional debris; Right: The United States Geographical Survey
(USGS) Middletown Quad Topographical Map of Conewago Falls
To sum it all up, the
inability for ocean going vessels to move up the Susquehanna was pointed out in
a 1902 political debate. In that year, U.S. Representative M. E. Olmsted
directed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to investigate the navigability of
the Susquehanna River. His rival in that year’s election was promising to make
the river navigable for ocean-going vessels from the Chesapeake to
Northumberland. The Corps reported that it could be done, but prohibitively
expensive at $1 million per mile and said it was simply not worth the effort.
The fact is, despite
all the theorizing, Lehi could not have sailed up the Susquehanna, the only
eastern river that could be considered a route from the Atlantic to near the
Great Lakes.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment