Warrior's Path Narratives

The Kentucky Warrior's Path begins where the Scioto River enters the Ohio River, at Portsmouth, Ohio.

The Scioto River is a product of North America's most recent period of glaciation. The glacial ice-front opened a broad valley between the hills of eastern and western Ohio. When the glacier retreated, its meltwater fed the ancestral Scioto, and the valley became the catchment basin for the many substantial creeks that feed into the Scioto from the north, east, and west.

The western edge of the Scioto River is bordered by Ohio Route 104. It is not widely recognized that Rt. 104 is routed on the bed of the old Ohio and Erie canal. When the canal failed as a result of competition from the railroads, the barge towpaths were used to fill in the canal and the highway way was placed on top of the fill. The availability of a relatively straight and contiguous right-of-way offset the effort required to re-use the old canal way.

Like many other rivers that pass through developed areas, most of the meanders of the Scioto have been removed so the fertile farmland through which it passes may be used to maximum benefit. Today, the river is largely confined to the western edge of the valley through which it passes. Kentucky Route 8 is used to follow the course of this part of the trail along the Ohio River From Portsmouth, Oh. to Vanceburg, Ky.

We should always keep in mind that the Ohio River that we experience today would be unrecognizable to a Native American traveler through this area in the pre-contact era. In that earlier time, a traveler by foot could easily walk the banks of the great river for long distances. The river's natural cycle of flood and retreat created extensive sand bars and gravel banks, clear floodplains, broad river banks, and alluvial marshes.

The original river bed is engulfed by the impounded, channelized, and dredged river waters, but perhaps to return again someday, in the great sweep of time. Archeologists have found the remains of numerous significant Native American settlements along the course of the Ohio River, but one may only speculate the number of formerly inhabited areas that were inundated when the Ohio River was dammed and dredged for commercial navigation.