page_title: Wabash River
section_title: Geology
hierarchical_section_title: Wabash River / Geology
caption_attribution_description: English: Landscape sketched during Henry Hamilton's tavel down the Wabash River to recapture the village of Vincennes.
context_page_description: The Wabash River is a 503-mile-long river that drains most of the state of Indiana in the United States. It flows from the headwaters in Ohio, near the Indiana border, then southwest across northern Indiana turning south near the Illinois border where the southern portion forms the Indiana-Illinois border before flowing into the Ohio River. It is the largest northern tributary of the Ohio River and third largest overall, right behind the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers. From the dam near Huntington, Indiana, to its terminus at the Ohio River, the Wabash flows freely for 411 miles. Its watershed drains most of Indiana. The Tippecanoe River, White River, Embarras River and Little Wabash River are major tributaries. The river's name comes from a Miami Indian word meaning "water over white stones".
  The Wabash is the state river of Indiana, and subject of the state song "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away" by Paul Dresser.
context_section_description: As the Laurentide Ice Sheet began to retreat from present day Northern Indiana and Northwest Ohio between 14,000 and 15,000 years ago, it receded into three distinct lobes. The eastern or Erie Lobe sat atop and behind the Fort Wayne Moraine. Meltwater from the glacier fed into two ice-marginal streams, which became the St. Joseph and St. Marys Rivers. Their combined discharge was probably the primary source of water for the proglacial Wabash River system.
  As the Erie Lobe of the glacier continued to retreat its meltwater was temporarily trapped between the ice front to the east and the Fort Wayne Moraine to the west, and formed proglacial Lake Maumee, the ancestor of modern Lake Erie. Around 11,000 years ago the waters of Lake Maumee became deep enough that it breached a "sag" or weak spot in the Fort Wayne Moraine. This caused a catastrophic draining of the lake which in turn scoured a 1 to 2 mi (1.6 to 3.2 km) wide valley known as the Wabash-Erie Channel or "sluiceway".  The Little (Wabash) River flows through this channel and U.S. 24 traverses it between Fort Wayne and Huntington. The valley is the largest topographical feature in Allen County, Indiana.
  When the ice melted completely from the region, new outlets for Lake Maumee's water opened up at elevations lower than the Wabash-Erie Channel. While the St. Joseph and St. Marys Rivers continued to flow through the channel, Lake Maumee no longer did. Now a low-lying, probably marshy bit of terrain lay in between.
  It is not known for certain when, but at some point in the distant past the St. Joseph and St. Marys Rivers jumped their banks and flooded the marshy ground of the Fort Wayne Outlet. The
  discharge of this unusual flood was enough to cut across the outlet and come into contact
  with the headwaters of the Maumee River. Once this happened, the flood waters rushed to
  the east into the Maumee River, and their erosive force was enough that the new channel cut across the Fort Wayne Outlet into the Maumee River since it was at a lower elevation than
  that of the sluiceway. This meant that when the flood waters receded, the sluiceway was
  permanently abandoned by the two rivers. As a result of capturing them both, the Maumee was converted from a minor creek to a large river. Once again, river
  waters flowed through the Fort Wayne Outlet, but now they flowed eastward, toward
  Lake Erie, instead of westward.  Following this event, the branch of the Wabash River that originates along the Wabash
  Moraine near Bluffton became the system's main course and source.
  For part of its course the Wabash follows the path of the pre-glacial Teays River.
  The river has shifted course several times along the Indiana and Illinois border, creating cutoffs where parts of the river are entirely in either Indiana or Illinois. However, both states generally regard the middle of the river as the state border.
caption: A scene along the Wabash River, sketched in 1778 by Lt Governor Henry Hamilton en route to recapture Vincennes, Indiana
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