Rough Waters
I like imagining Louisville in a different world, where natural features like a river rapid weren't obstacles to be overcome. The Ohio River rapids would have appeared as a seasonally braided river that meandered over a vast maze of rock. It would have been a great draw.
Instead, the Corps of Engineers built the dams and transformed the Ohio from a dynamic river to what it is, a placid, slow-flowing lake. This is all I've known of the Ohio, and this has affected how I've looked at every river I've seen. It's altered what I expect of a river, so that I look for characteristics that really have only existed for the last 100 or 150 years. I expect all rivers to be lakes.
It's nice that in this one little corner, at least, some hint of the Ohio as it was for the 10 millennia before the last century still exists, at least every once in a while.
Rough Waters
I like imagining Louisville in a different world, where natural features like a river rapid weren't obstacles to be overcome. The Ohio River rapids would have appeared as a seasonally braided river that meandered over a vast maze of rock. It would have been a great draw.
Instead, the Corps of Engineers built the dams and transformed the Ohio from a dynamic river to what it is, a placid, slow-flowing lake. This is all I've known of the Ohio, and this has affected how I've looked at every river I've seen. It's altered what I expect of a river, so that I look for characteristics that really have only existed for the last 100 or 150 years. I expect all rivers to be lakes.
It's nice that in this one little corner, at least, some hint of the Ohio as it was for the 10 millennia before the last century still exists, at least every once in a while.