Transcription contributed by Martie Callihan 28 Oct 2004

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257

When this region was covered with forests, creeks which are now nearly dry half the year, wore constant running streams. Mills built on streams like Turtle Creek, would run at least ten months in the year by water-power. It is worthy of notice in this connection that Judge Symmes, in giving information by his pamphlet, to those seeking homes in his purchase, assumed that the streams running into the Miamis would be the mill-streams, and that the two Miamis would be of most value for the purposes of navigation.

" The tract is said to be well watered with springs and rivulets, and several fine mill-streams falling from the dividing ridge into the two Miamis, which lie about thirty miles apart, and are both supposed to be navigable higher up in the country than the northern extent of this purchase, so that the interior farms will have navigation in the boating seasons within fifteen or eighteen miles at farthest."—Symmes' Pamphlet, 1787.

And in fact, for many years, the Great Miami, before it was obstructed with dams, proved of much value for floating loaded flat-boats started for New Orleans, many boat loads of produce having been shipped from Franklin in this county. Little did Judge Symmes anticipate in 1787 that the Little Miami would furnish a mill-'seat at every few miles of its course, and that even the Great Miami would be crossed with dams to furnish water-power for thriving cities and towns, and that, with the cultivation of the country and the destruction of the forests, not only would the smaller streams become almost worthless as mill-streams, but even in the Miamis low water would be one of the greatest difficulties water-power mills and factories would have to contend against.

The clearness of the waters of the Little Miami, before the forests were cleared away and the country was cultivated, was noted in the journal of Rev. James Smith. He says it was no uncommon thing to see shoals of fish in the rivers. He stood, in 1797, in the yard of Rev. Francis McCormick's residence, about fifty yards from the Little Miami, and saw numbers of fish near the opposite bank of the river, which was about one hundred yards wide. The same traveler afterward noted the clearness of the waters of Paint Creek, in which he saw a shoal of fish on the farther side, where it was one hundred yards wide.