The Wabash River

"Oh, the moonlight's fair tonight along the Wabash 
From the fields there comes the breath of new mown hay.
Thro' the sycamores the candle lights are gleamin'
On the banks of the Wabash, far away."




 

Marker Reads:

THE WABASH RIVER
        was called "Wah-bah-shik-ki" by the Miami.  The French called it the "Oua-ba-che."  It was the principal route connecting Quebec and New Orleans.  The Miami, Potawatomi, Mascouten, Wea, Kickapoo, and Plankashaw Indians lived in the Wabash Valley.  Along the river the French established Fort Ouiatenon (1717) and Post Vincennes (1732).  The French lost their empire to the British in 1763.
        The Ottawa chief, Pontiac, who led a revolt against the British, made peace (1765) with the British at Ouiatenon.  During the American Revolution George Rogers Clark seized Vincennes and Ouiatenon from the British.  In 1778, Lt. Governor Henry Hamilton moved a force of 350 soldiers and Indians to Vincennes by the Wabash route.  Clark captured his command in February of 1779.
        In the 19th century both flatboats and steamboats used the Wabash.  By 1852 the Wabash and Erie Canal linked the Great Lakes with the Ohio.  The Wabash has been a major highway for travel, trade and settlement for two centuries.  In song and in story it symbolizes Indiana.
    Erected by the Indiana Historical Society 1973.    Marker is located at Mascouten Park on State Road 43 North in West Lafayette, Indiana, Wabash Township.

 

The Wabash River

Historical Markers


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