Sandusky River

“ That court filed findings of fact and conclusions of law; held that the waters in question were not parts of Sandusky river and Mud creek, and formed part of a public bay, in whose waters defendants, as members of the public, had the right of navigation and fishing ”

“ Let us suppose then, that the river Scioto descends one hundred feet from the mouth of the Whetstone, which empties into that river at Columbus, to the Ohio, and that the Whetstone which runs through a limestone formation, descends another hundred feet, which would make Upper Sandusky two hundred feet higher than the Ohio river. From this highest ground between the Ohio and the lake, it is a well-known fact, that the land descends towards the north much more in a given distance, than it does towards the south, and the distance is not half as far. ”

“ The Sandusky rises in the northern part of Ohio, and flows northerly into Lake Erie; it is one hundred miles in length, and is navigable.
GENERAL REMARKS ON RIVERS.
The beds of rivers are the lowest parts of great chasms, formed by the same revolutions which produced the mountains. Running waters unceasingly wear away their beds and banks in places where their declivity is very rapid; they hollow out and deepen their channels in mountains composed of rocks of moderate hardness; they draw along stones, and form accumulations of them in the lower part of their course ”

“ It receives the discharges of a number of smaller lakes in the vicinity, among them one called Aitkin by Nicollet. Its principal feeders are two in number. One of these comes in at the southernmost end of the lake, and takes the name of Sandy, Sandy Lake, or Rice Lake r. The N. P. R. R. crosses this stream near McGregor, which is 12 m. by the wagon-road southward from the discharge of the lake. This river has a main branch from Manomin or Rice l.; and either this branch or the whole river is the Menomeny-sibi or Wild Oats r. of Beltrami. The other main affluent of Sandy l. ”

“ Sandy was almost the most wonderful spot in the world. It was, as most swimming holes are, on the down-stream side of a bridge. The little river widened out, on its way through the meadows, here and there into swimming holes of greater or less desirability. There was Lob's Pond, by the mill, and Deep Pool, and Musk Rat, and Little Sandy. But Sandy was the best of them all. It was shaded on one side by great trees, and the banks were hidden from the road by alder screens. At one end there was a shelving bottom, of clean sand, where the “little kids” who couldn't swim sported in safety. ”

“ Sandford, keenly enjoying the loveliness of the hour and scene; and already their fellow-passengers were beginning to leave the steamer on various little expeditions, to fill up the hours which they must wait for the turning of the tide—some to drive across the hills or along the shore of the bay; others to stroll along the shining sands and examine the long-stretching weir, composed of interlaced boughs, jutting far out into the stream, which here presents the most fascinating combination of sea-shore and inland river. ”

“ When the month was past and Singin' Sandy's day rolled round again for the ninth time, it was spring time, and the river was bankfull from the spring rise and yellow as paint with mud and full of drift and brush. Out from shore a piece, in the current, floating snags were going down, thick as harrow teeth, all pointing the same way like big black fish going to spawn. Early that morning, the river had bitten out a chunk of crumbly clay bank and took a cabin in along with it, and there was a hard job saving a couple of women and a whole shoal of young ones. ”

“ South of the plains the Big Sandy joins the Green from the east. South of the Big Sandy a long zone of sand-dunes stretches eastward. The western winds blowing up the valley drift these sands from hill to hill, so that the hills themselves are slowly journeying eastward on the wings of arid gales, and sand tempests may be encountered more terrible than storms of snow or hail. Here the northern boundary of the Plateau Province is found, for mesas and high table-lands are found on either side of the river. ”

“ If Sandy Lake had, on emerging from the wilderness, impressed us with its rural beauty, this far transcended it in the variety and extent of outlines, and that oceanic amplitude of freshness, which so often inspires admiration in beholding the interior American lakes. ”

“ Judging from the height that drift-wood was lodged in the branches of the trees, the floods rise about fifty feet; the regular channel is thirty yards wide; on the banks red, green, and white shales are exposed, but the bed of the creek is generally sandy. A large tributary appears to join this creek from the west, in which direction a large valley extends fifteen miles. At 3 p.m. steered east, and passed to the south of a remarkable sandstone hill, which we named Mount Sandiman, and at 5.30 reached the bank of the Victoria coming from the south-south-east ”

“ Wasteful methods of lumbering, together with frequent forest fires and man’s utter disregard for the future, have already brought about the necessity for reforestation in many mountain sections. As far back as 1886 out of the Big Sandy alone was run $1,500,000 worth of timber.
Rafts of logs carpeted the Big Sandy River and at its mouth was the largest round timber market in the world. With its row of riverfront saloons Catlettsburg, between the Big Sandy and the Ohio Rivers, was then called the wettest spot on earth. Through its narrow streets strode loggers and raftsmen. ”

“ On May 16th of that year, during the Pontiac rising, the Wyandot Indians burned the fort. A permanent settlement was established in 1817.
At the entrance to Sandusky Bay is Cedar Point, with a beach for bathing. This is an attractive summer resort. Outside Sandusky Bay are a number of islands, most of which belong to Ohio, but the largest, Point Pelee, is British. At the mouth of the harbour is Johnson's Island, where many Confederate prisoners were confined during the Civil War. There is a soldiers' and sailors' home here with accommodations for 1,600 persons. ”

“ Shortly after one o'clock in the afternoon we floated by the mouth of the White River flowing from the south west, which has the local name of Yú-ko-kon Heena, or Yú-ko-kon River, a much prettier name than the old one of the Hudson Bay traders. The Chilkats call it the Sand River, from the innumerable bars and banks of sand along its course; and many years ago they ascended it by a trail, which when continued leads to their own [Pg 240] country, but is now abandoned. ”

“ Sandy Lake, where ended my voyaging on the Mississippi, is one of the most famous lakes of the northwest. It lies only about three miles east of the great river, and almost directly west from Lake Superior. Over the intervening route which connects the two water wonders of our country, more furs and Indian goods have been transported, than over any other trail in the wilderness. The lake received its name from the French, on account of its sandy shores, which are remarkably beautiful, abounding in agates and cornelians. ”

“ Sandy Lake.—The first view of this body of water was obtained from one of those eminences situated at the influx of the west Savanna River.
This lake is bounded, on its western borders, by the delta of the Mississippi; its outlet is about two miles in length. We here first beheld the object of our search. The soil on its banks is of the richest alluvial character. From this point, dense forests and a moderately elevated soil, varying from three or four to fifteen feet, confined the view, on either side, during more than two days' march. ”

“ When we came to the little lake at the mouth of Sandusky, we called at a Wyandot town that was then there, called Sunyendeand. Here we diverted ourselves several days by catching rock-fish in a small creek, the name of which is also Sunyendeand, which signifies rock-fish. They fished in the night with lights, and struck the fish with gigs or spears. The rock-fish here, when they begin first to run up the creek to spawn, are exceedingly fat, sufficiently so to fry themselves. ”

“ Soon, however, the wind ceased to blow, the thunder to roar, and the lightning to flash; and, in less than one hour after its commencement the storm had subsided, and that portion of the Saguenay was glowing beneath the crimson rays of the setting sun.
From what I have written, my reader may be impressed with the idea that this river is incapable of yielding pleasurable sensations. Sail along its shores, on a pleasant day, when its cliffs are partly hidden in shadow, and covered with a gauze-like atmosphere, and they will fill your heart with images of beauty. ”

“ There is being revived the plan of twenty years ago for the canalization of one of the best-known and most important rivers of the Blue Ridge Country—the Big Sandy. As a means to that end there is an organization called the Big Sandy Improvement Association and, with a mountain man, Congressman A. J. May, to espouse its cause, things look promising for the project.
The mountain men and their city co-workers get together and speak their minds and exchange views at dinner meetings down in the Big Sandy Valley. ”

“ Notwithstanding our failure, we were by no means disheartened, or disposed to relinquish our endeavours to cross the river; on the contrary, the non-success of our first attempt only intensified my firm resolve to reach Sandy Point, come what might, by the 1st of November, and nerved us to a fresh encounter with the dangers of the river and the inclemency of the weather.
The next morning we again made the attempt, and were again unsuccessful as before. The horses went well till they got to the rapid middle current, and there nothing would induce them to continue. ”

“ June 27.—This day, eight miles of dead level, sage, sandy plain, brought us to Big Sandy, a stream about four rods wide and from three to five inches deep. Here we lay till next morning.
June 28.—This day we followed down course of the stream on a high sage plain, destitute of anything but sage, for 17 miles. Here drove down to the stream and camped. We have good grass here and sage for fuel. Here we have one snowy range on each side of us; the Wind river and Bear River mountains, either of them not less than 40 or 50 miles of us. Weather cool and windy. The roads are very good. ”

“ It can do no harm, even if it prove to be a false alarm. They will understand the motive that sent Blue Jacket over here again. And, Sandy, perhaps father may want us to give up that long canoe trip we had planned for to-day."
At that Sandy's face fell.
"Oh! I hope not!" he exclaimed, quickly. "For I have been looking forward ever so much to exploring that country away to the east, and up the river. Pat told us that on the other shore, above, the game was thicker than any place he knew. ”

“ The river in normal times is very shallow; but at frequently recurring periods freshets caused by melting snow in the mountains and heavy rains or cloudbursts, flood and overflow the banks of the river and result in many changes in the channel both by erosions and accretions and by sudden and violent avulsions.
At the time the bill was filed the river ran on the eastern side of the valley in the northern portion of the area in dispute, and, crossing the valley in the southern portion, ran on the western side until it reached the gorge. Neither State claims that this was the location in 1850. ”

“ This is not a little pocket wilderness like the Adirondacks, but something vast and primitive. You do not cross it, from one railroad to another, by a line of hotels. You go into it by one river as far as you like, or dare; and then you turn and come back again by another river, making haste to get out before your provisions are exhausted. The lake itself is the cradle of the mighty Saguenay: an inland sea, thirty miles across and nearly round, lying in the broad limestone basin north of the Laurentian Mountains. The southern and eastern shores have been settled for twenty or thirty years ”

“ The bend to the south at Sandy Hill is substantially the head of the valley of Hudson's River. Throughout the mountainous region above that point several Indian names are quoted by writers in obscure orthographies and very doubtful interpretations, the most tangible, aside from those which have been noticed, being that which is said to have been the name of Glen's Falls, but was actually the name of the very large district known as Kay-au-do-ros-sa. In Mohawk, Sandy Hill would probably be called Gea-di-go, "Beautiful plain," but it has no Indian name of record. ”

“ He quickly decided, however, that the one place where he might be of use was at the outer end of the tunnel, from which the escaping waters rushed [Pg 137] headlong over a precipice, to fall in a series of frightful leaps some thousands of feet into the river far below. To reach this spot Mr. Sandham had to climb the high bluff through which the tunnel was cut, and descend the almost perpendicular cliff on the other side. The climb itself was no mean test of a man's agility and nerve, but Mr. Sandham has both, and he was soon at the summit. ”

“ No great rise of the river is required to submerge the whole valley; a rise of ten feet above the present low-water mark would reach the highest point it ever attains, as seen in the markings of the bank on which stood Santuru's ancient capital, and two or three feet more would deluge all the villages. This never happens, though the water sometimes comes so near the foundations of the huts that the people can not move outside the walls of reeds which encircle their villages. When the river is compressed among the high rocky banks near Gonye, it rises sixty feet. ”