TheMohawk River is a 149-mile-long (240 km)[1]river in theU.S. state ofNew York. It is the largesttributary of theHudson River, flowing into it inCohoes, a few miles north of the state capital ofAlbany.[10] The river is named for theMohawk Nation of theIroquois Confederacy. A significant portion of the river's valley served as the path of theErie Canal,[11] key to developing both New York state and theGreat Lakes area. The Mohawk's largest tributary, theSchoharie Creek, accounts for over one quarter (26.83%) of the river'swatershed, withWest Canada Creek contributing another 16.33% of total.[citation needed]
The river's source is at the confluence of theWest Branch Mohawk River andEast Branch Mohawk River in north-centralOneida County. It begins flowing generally southeastward towards the Hamlet of Hillside, first receivingBlue Brook thenMcMullen Brook andHaynes Brook. In Hillside is the confluence ofLansing Kill, after which it flows towards the Hamlet ofNorth Western receivingStringer Brook along the way. After North Western it receivesTannery Brook thenWells Creek in the Hamlet ofFrenchville. At Frenchville it curves to the southwest and heads toward the Hamlet ofWesternville receivingDeans Gulf along the way. In Westernville it entersDelta Reservoir. After exiting the reservoir it heads south toward the City ofRome receivingHurlbut Glen Brook and passing the Rome Fish Hatchery along the way. On the south side of the City it enters theErie Canal and begins to flow east.
After Rome the river flows generally east through theMohawk Valley, passing by the cities ofUtica,Little Falls,Canajoharie,Amsterdam, andSchenectady before entering the Hudson River atCohoes, just north of Albany.
The river and its supporting canal, theErie Canal, connect the Hudson River and port ofNew York with theGreat Lakes atBuffalo, New York.[12] The lower part of the Mohawk River has five permanentdams, nine movable dams (seasonal), and five activehydropower plants.[13]
Schoharie Creek andWest Canada Creek are the principaltributaries of the Mohawk River. Both of these tributaries have several significant dams including the Hinckley Dam on the West Canada and theGilboa Dam on the upper reaches of Schoharie Creek. The Gilboa Dam, which was completed in 1926 as part of theNew York City water supply system, is the subject of an active and aggressive rehabilitation project.[14]
The Mohawk watershed drains a large section of theCatskill Mountains, the Mohawk Valley proper, and a section of the southernAdirondack Mountains. All three regions have distinct bedrock geology, and the underlying rocks become progressively younger to the south.[15] Overall, this part of New York is represented by lowerPaleozoic sedimentary rocks thatunconformably overlie theGrenville-aged (Proterozoic, here about 1.1 billion years old) metamorphic rocks of the Adirondacks.[16] In the watershed, these rocks are only significant in the headwaters of the West Canada Creek. Much of the main trunk of the Mohawk River sits inCambro-Ordovician carbonates (limestone) and Middle Ordoviciansandstones andshales.[17] The southern tributaries (Catskill Mountains) are underlain by a thin sequence ofDevonian limestones that are overlain by a thick sequence of sandstones and shale of theCatskill Delta, which is also Devonian in age.[18]
During thePleistocene (c. 1.8 to 0.01mya), the watershed was extensively modified by continentalglaciation. As a result of glacial scour and deposition, the surficial deposits in much of the watershed are poorly sorted boulder- and clay-rich glacialtill. Duringdeglaciation, several glacial lakes leftvarved clay deposits. In the final stages of deglaciation, approximately 13,350 years ago,[19] the catastrophic draining ofGlacial Lake Iroquois, a pro-glacial lake, was through what would become the modern Mohawk Valley.[20] In this final phase, the enormous discharge of water caused local deep scour features (e.g. thePotholes at Little Falls), and extensive sand and gravel deposition, which is one of the key sources of municipal groundwater including the Scotia Delta, which is also known as the Great Flats Aquifer.[21]
The river is named for theMohawk Nation of theIroquois Confederacy.[22] In the 1700s and before, the Mohawk people, a section ofIroquois Confederacy, were based in theMohawk Valley. Their territory ranged north to theSt. Lawrence River, southernQuebec and easternOntario; south to greaterNew Jersey and into Pennsylvania; eastward to theGreen Mountains ofVermont; and westward to the border with the IroquoianOneida Nation's traditional homeland territory.[23]
The river has long been important to transportation and migration to the west as a passage through theAppalachian Mountains, between theCatskill Mountains andAllegheny Plateau to the south and theAdirondack Mountains to the north. The Mohawk Valley allowed easier passage than going over the mountains to the north or south of the valley. As a result, it was strategically important during theFrench and Indian War and theAmerican Revolutionary War, and a number of important battles were fought here. The fertile Mohawk Valley also attracted early settlers.
The river was the highway of the nativeMohawk people. TheMohawk name for the river isTeionontatátie, "a river flowing through a mountain"[24]: p.71 (orYeionontatátie, "going round a mountain").
The first recorded European exploration of the Mohawk was a trip by the Dutchman Harman Meyndertsz van den Bogaert in 1634. He followed the river upstream from Albany for a distance of 100 miles, including all the territory of the Mohawks.[25]
In 1661 Dutch colonists founded the city of Schenectady on the Mohawk River approximately 19 miles (31 km) from Albany. "For fifty years Schenectady was the outpost of civilization and Dutch-English rule in the Mohawk valley."[26]
In 1712 the British, now in control of New York, builtFort Hunter at the confluence of the Mohawk and theSchoharie Creek, about 22 miles (35 km) upriver from Schenectady. Around 600Palatine Germans were settled along the Mohawk and Schoharie Creek. Swedish explorer and botanist,Pehr Kalm, visited the area along the river in the mid-18th century where he encountered some of the indigenous peoples belonging to theIroquois confederacy, and recorded some of their customs in his journal.[27]
In the early nineteenth century water transport was a vital means of transporting both people and goods. A corporation was formed to build theErie Canal along the Mohawk River toLake Erie. Its construction simplified and reduced the difficulties of European westward settler migration and encouragedManifest Destiny.
Later in the 19th century railroads followed theWater Level Route along the Mohawk Valley, and in the 20th major east–west roads such asRoute 5 and a limited-access superhighway, theNew York State Thruway (later coterminous withInterstate 90), were built in valley.
The Mohawk River Heritage Corridor Commission was created to preserve and promote the natural and historic assets of the Mohawk River. This commission was created by the NY State Legislature in 1997 to improve historic preservation along the river.[28]
The Mohawk River has a relatively long record of flooding that has been documented back to settlement in the 17th century.[29] The average volume of water that flows through the Mohawk is about 184 billion cubic feet (5.21 km3) every year.[30] Much of the water flows through thewatershed in the spring as snow melts rapidly and enters the tributaries and the main trunk of the river. The maximum average daily flow on the river occurs between late March and early April. For the period between 1917 and 2000, the highest mean daily flow is c. 18,000 cu ft (510 m3) as measured at Cohoes, near the confluence with the Hudson. The lowest mean daily flow of 1,400 cu ft (40 m3) occurs in late August. There is a long record of significant and damaging floods along the entire length of the river.[29]
Because the river and its tributaries typically freeze in the winter, the spring melt is commonly accompanied by ice floes that getstuck and jammed along the main trunk of the river. This annual spring breakup typically occurs in the last few weeks of March, although there are numerous floods that have occurred before or after this time, such as in 2018 when the ice jam breakup happened in late February after record warm weather in the region.[31] These ice jams can cause considerable damage to structures along the riverbanks and on the floodplain. The most severe flood of record on the main trunk of the Mohawk River was the spring breakup flood that occurred from 27 to 28 March 1914. This flood caused a tremendous amount of damage to the infrastructure because it was a spring breakup flood with enormous amounts of ice. Ice jams of some significance occur about every other year.[32][33]
One major flood on the Mohawk was on 26–29 June 2006, during theMid-Atlantic United States flood of 2006. Flooding was caused by a stalled frontal system that resulted in 50 to 330 millimeters (2.0 to 13.0 in) of rain across central New York and widespread flooding occurred in the Mohawk,Delaware, andSusquehanna watersheds. Across the state, this event caused over $227 million in damage and resulted in the loss of four lives. This flooding was acute in the upper parts of the Mohawk watershed.[34]
The Mohawk River also saw significant flooding during the weeks between August 21, 2011, and September 5, 2011, due to torrential rains experienced fromHurricane Irene andTropical Storm Lee. Many of the Mohawk Barge Canal locks sustained major damage, especially near Waterford and Rotterdam Junction.
Another major flood was on June 28, 2013. It was caused by heavy rain that had fallen in the region for weeks. On the night of June 27, 2013, theJordanville area reported that 4 inches of rain fell in one hour. The next day, the Mohawk River flooded the valley, residents were stranded and without power for about a week. There was considerable damage everywhere, especially Mohawk and Fort Plain.
On July 3, 1985, Congress approved a project at Amsterdam for work to be done on the Mohawk River and South Chuctanunda Creek. The creek was cleared at the upstream end of the project for approximately 950 feet (290 m). New flood walls were installed along the right bank of the creek and the Mohawk River. A new wing wall was installed on the left bank of the creek at the upstream end of the New York Central Railroad Bridge. The creek was realigned and reshaped for approximately 1,056 feet (322 m) and riprap was added where needed. The existing channel of the creek was slightly reshaped downstream of the Florida Avenue bridge. Construction plans for the project were issued on November 15, 1962. Construction work began on February 25, 1963, with construction being completed on June 4, 1965. The flood walls protect the city of Amsterdam from floods of 122,500 cu ft/s (3,470 m3/s) from the Mohawk River and floods of 3,400 cu ft/s (96 m3/s) from the creek.[35] The floodwalls were able to prevent $13.6 million in damages from tropical stormsLee andIrene. In July 2012, governor Cuomo announced a project to improve the flood walls on the creek and Mohawk River. The floodwalls and river banks were repaired at a cost of $164,248.[36][37]
Historically, the Mohawk watershed has lacked awatershed management plan typical in many adjacent basins. In 2010, theNew York State Department of Environmental Conservation released the Mohawk River Basin Action Agenda, which is the first framework for a watershed management plan in this basin.[38] This plan identifies five priority goals for the Mohawk River Basin that are designed to enhanceecosystem health and the vitality of the region. The Action Agenda, developed by the NYS DEC in collaboration with a number of stakeholders in the basin with public input, advocates an ecosystem-based approach to watershed management.[39] In October 2014, Riverkeeper, an environmental advocacy and clean water watchdog organization, announced that they will be expanding the reach of their efforts from the Hudson River to the Mohawk as well.[40]
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