Kentucky

Waterways History

Kentucky, like many mid-western states, made use of the natural rivers instead of constructing all man-made canals. These were all federalized and run by the United States government. Many are still in operation today, but some sections have been abandoned and the dams removed to return the river to its natural flows.

With the exception of the Cumberland River, the rest of the waterways were all branches off the Ohio River and built mostly to ship coal. The Green, Kentucky, and Big Sandy are all north flowing rivers. Each was made navigable by the use of locks and dams that would have created navigation pools by impounding water to a suitable depth. Many of the dams were called movable dams as they could be used or not, depending on the natural flow of the river. If the dams were not in use, the lock was also not used.

The Ohio River is 967 miles long and runs from Pittsburgh in the east to Cairo in the west. This river continues to serve as an important transportation route, and it is operated by the USACE.

Work started on the Big Sandy River in the 1880s. The entire river was to be made usable by constructing 21 dams and locks, but work stopped after the construction of the first five. Today, about 9 miles of the Big Sandy remain in use as part of the Ohio navigations. There are no locks or dams in the section of the Big Sandy and the navigation pool is controlled by the Greenup Lock and dam on the Ohio River.

The 384-mile-long Green and Barren Rivers were improved in 1841. Six locks and dams were constructed. Today only the first two are in use.

The 260-mile-long Kentucky River was improved between 1835-1845 and over the years 14 locks and dams were built. Today only the first four locks are in use to recreational traffic.

The Cumberland River is mostly in Tennessee however a short section does extend over the southern border.

CANAL GROUPS AND ORGANIZATIONS

There is no statewide canal or waterways organization.

Management of the Kentucky River is by Kentucky River Authority whose main charge is to maintain the river for drinking water.

The Ohio, Big Sandy, and Green rivers are under the control of US Army Corps of Engineers; Great Lakes and Ohio River Division.

MAJOR REPOSITORIES AND ARCHIVES

This is a listing of the larger archive holdings. Many of the small volunteer-run historical societies along the routes of the canals will likely have hidden collections and thus, they should not be over-looked.

The USACE maintains a digital library and offers it’s collections as free downloads.

As most of the work to improve the rivers was a the federal level, the Library of Congress would be the best place to search for information about the waterways.

CANAL INDEX PAGES

Note: Canals in blue and underlined have index sheets which are accessible by double clicking on the hyperlink.  Canals listed in green below do not yet have index sheets.  They are listed here to make the list more complete.  It is intended to add index sheets for them in the future.

Please note that some of these are the actual pages done in the early 1970s.  Changes have occurred since and there are some inaccuracies in the information on the pages.

Revised 04/29/2022