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37-682: Demand for a canal had increased in the first third of the 19th Century as new settlers cleared the fertile lands along the Genesee River to plant crops such as wheat. Farmers sought a way to transport their crops north to Rochester as the Genesee's cataracts made boat transport ineffective. On 6 May 1836, an act was passed in the New York Legislature authorizing the construction of the Genesee Valley Canal. It

74-434: A navigational context, if one were floating on a raft or other vessel in the main stream, this would be the side the tributary enters from as one floats past; alternately, if one were floating down the tributary, the main stream meets it on the opposite bank of the tributary. This information may be used to avoid turbulent water by moving towards the opposite bank before approaching the confluence. An early tributary

111-447: A larger stream ( main stem or "parent" ), river, or a lake . A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean . Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they flow, drain the surrounding drainage basin of its surface water and groundwater , leading the water out into an ocean. The Irtysh is a chief tributary of the Ob river and is also the longest tributary river in

148-414: A left tributary which is called Right Fork Steer Creek. These naming conventions are reflective of the circumstances of a particular river's identification and charting: people living along the banks of a river, with a name known to them, may then float down the river in exploration, and each tributary joining it as they pass by appears as a new river, to be given its own name, perhaps one already known to

185-410: A third stream entering between two others is designated the middle fork; or the streams are distinguished by the relative height of one to the other, as one stream descending over a cataract into another becomes the upper fork, and the one it descends into, the lower ; or by relative volume: the smaller stream designated the little fork, the larger either retaining its name unmodified, or receives

222-687: Is a tributary of Lake Ontario flowing northward through the Twin Tiers of Pennsylvania and New York in the United States. The river contains several waterfalls in New York at Letchworth State Park and Rochester . The river was historically used as a border between the lands of the Seneca to the east and the Erie and Wenro to the west. Later, the river provided the original power for

259-451: Is a tributary that joins the main stem river closer to its source than its mouth, that is, before the river's midpoint ; a late tributary joins the main stem further downstream, closer to its mouth than to its source, that is, after the midpoint. In the United States, where tributaries sometimes have the same name as the river into which they feed, they are called forks . These are typically designated by compass direction. For example,

296-556: Is left of this large paleogeologic valley. The area of the lower river was also affected. Since the earth rebounded from the melting glaciers more rapidly in Canada than in New York, water from Lake Ontario was spilled over New York due to its lower elevation. During this time, the original outlet of the Genesee River, Irondequoit Bay , was flooded out, creating the current bay. As these waters later retreated, glacial debris caused

333-701: The Allegheny Plateau 's characteristic conglomerates : sandstones and shales in the rock columns of the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian subperiods. Thereafter, farther downstream as it traverses the area known as The Grand Canyon of the East , where it falls (three times) through over 600 feet (180 m) . As it passes through the gorges in New York's Letchworth State Park , the river also often exposes older rocks such as shales (some rich in hydrocarbons ), siltstones and some limestones of

370-597: The American River in California receives flow from its North, Middle, and South forks. The Chicago River 's North Branch has the East, West, and Middle Fork; the South Branch has its South Fork, and used to have a West Fork as well (now filled in). Forks are sometimes designated as right or left. Here, the handedness is from the point of view of an observer facing upstream. For instance, Steer Creek has

407-555: The Devonian period at Letchworth and, at other canyons with three more waterfalls at Rochester cuts through the Niagara Escarpment , exposing limestones and shales of Silurian age in the rock column. With cuttings in the geologic record showing so many early ages, the river area has a great variety of fossils for paleobiological and stratigraphic analysis. During the past million years, four glacial ages covered

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444-786: The Holland Purchase after the American Revolution . From 1801 to 1846 the entire region was sold to individual owners from the Holland Land office in Batavia, New York . In the 1797 Treaty of Big Tree , the Seneca tribes were granted six reservations along the river, among them Canawaugus , Little Beard's Town , Geneseo, Caneadea, Deyuitgau and Gardeau. In August 1826, the Ogden Land Company purchased

481-587: The Rochester area. The southern edges of the Laurentide Ice Sheet and those advances impacted the formation geology and geography of the area. The most recent glacier that left evidence here was about 10,000 years ago and it caused compression of the earth by as much as 2,500 feet (760 m). About 12,000 years ago, the area underwent massive changes, which included the rerouting of the Genesee and other water bodies. The pre- ice age eastern branch of

518-541: The canal was opened to navigation from Rochester to Mount Morris . The extension to Dansville opened in the fall of 1841, and by then the split between the Dansville branch and the main line was set at Sonyea , southeast of Mount Morris . After some partial openings, the full line was opened at the beginning of navigation in 1862, running to Olean on the Allegheny River and beyond to Mill Grove, on

555-692: The 1825 Erie Canal allowed the mills to ship products to New York City . A few hundred feet north of the center of the village of Rochester, the Erie Canal crossed the Genesee River via an 1823 stone aqueduct (802 feet (244 m) long, 17 feet (5.2 m) wide), which was replaced by the Second Genesee Aqueduct in 1842 . In 1836 the Genesee Valley Canal was begun to build a new canal from the Erie Canal near Rochester, up

592-544: The Genesee Valley, across to the Allegheny River at Olean . Construction of new sections extended upriver (southward) until 1880. Although an important commercial route, the canal was plagued by frequent flood damage and the final leg down the Allegany River was never completed. The most difficult section to build was the bypass around the gorge and falls at present day Letchworth Park. The canal followed

629-563: The Genesee runs south of Mount Morris and was completely diverted by extensive terminal moraines in Livingston County with a key blocking dam just south of Dansville , so most of the upper section of the ancient river was diverted instead to fall the off Appalachian Plateau toward the Susquehanna River system (to an eventual destination well to the southeast). Only a small creek ( Irondequoit Creek ) flows in what

666-571: The Rochester area's 19th century mills, and still provides hydroelectric power for downtown Rochester. Flooding occurred periodically in the river valley before construction of the Mount Morris Dam in the 1950s. The Genesee is the remaining western branch of a preglacial system , with rock layers tilted an average of 40 feet (12 m) per mile, so the river flows across progressively older bedrock as it flows northward. It begins in exposing

703-647: The culverts on the Ischua feeder, as well as on lock sections 98 through 101, in Maplehurst, was awarded to Joseph T. Lyman and Dauphin Murray on Oct. 11, 1839. The canal builders faced considerable difficulty getting past the Portage Falls gorge in what is now part of Letchworth State Park . This resulted in the building of a 400 foot aqueduct that ran 50 feet above the Genesee River. On 1 September 1840,

740-416: The designation big . Tributaries are sometimes listed starting with those nearest to the source of the river and ending with those nearest to the mouth of the river . The Strahler stream order examines the arrangement of tributaries in a hierarchy of first, second, third and higher orders, with the first-order tributary being typically the least in size. For example, a second-order tributary would be

777-863: The lands of the Five Nations of the Iroquois , whose range extended east and the related tribes of the Erie people and Wenro along the west side of the gorge. By the end of the Beaver Wars and the American Revolution, the lands in all of upstate New York into the Ohio Country were controlled by the Iroquois Confederation, but were also effectively depopulated, the tribes weakened in the Revolution. In 1779, on

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814-403: The main stream. Distributaries are most often found in river deltas . Right tributary , or right-bank tributary , and left tributary , or left-bank tributary , describe the orientation of the tributary relative to the flow of the main stem river. These terms are defined from the perspective of looking downstream, that is, facing the direction the water current of the main stem is going. In

851-661: The old Native American portage route, which necessitated many locks. These old locks can still be seen near Nunda. The project was abandoned, and the right of way was sold in 1880. The property became the roadbed for the Genesee Valley Canal Railroad , which eventually merged with the Pennsylvania Railroad . Much of the canal and railroad right-of-way is open to the public today as the Genesee Valley Greenway , which

888-470: The only instance where the river's flow exceeded the storage capacity of the reservoir of the Mount Morris Dam , the largest flood control dam east of the Mississippi , and water had to be released from the dam to prevent overtopping of the spillway. The Genesee has been the subject of books and poetry: Tributary A tributary , or an affluent , is a stream or river that flows into

925-480: The orders of George Washington , the Sullivan Expedition destroyed over 40 Haudenosaunee villages in and around the watershed to force the Seneca and allied nations out of the newly formed United States. Subsequently, with most Iroquois having fled to Canada, the remnant tribal groups were in no position to further impede white settlers, so most of New York state west of the Genesee River became part of

962-464: The people who live upon its banks. Conversely, explorers approaching a new land from the sea encounter its rivers at their mouths, where they name them on their charts, then, following a river upstream, encounter each tributary as a forking of the stream to the right and to the left, which then appear on their charts as such; or the streams are seen to diverge by the cardinal direction (north, south, east, or west) in which they proceed upstream, sometimes

999-719: The remnants of the Ischua Dam can be seen by visiting the Town of Ischua Historical Society and Park, on the corner of Route 16 and Farwell Road in the Town of Ischua . Further down Route 16, the Hinsdale VFW post has highlighted the remnants of the lock system of the Genesee Valley Canal located there, both in Cattaraugus County near the Olean terminus. Cuba Lake , originally known as Oil Creek Reservoir, located in

1036-413: The river at Carrollton , west of Olean , was used as a reason to continue building the canal. On 4 June 1877, the legislature approved an abandonment of the canal on or after 30 September 1878. The canal was sold on 6 November 1880 to the Genesee Valley Canal Railroad , which had been chartered 15 July of that year. The canal is long gone, but its remnants form the Genesee Valley Greenway . Sites like

1073-632: The river just north of the Pennsylvania state line. However, by then, the Main Line of Public Works and Pennsylvania Railroad had been completed, opening up the interior of Pennsylvania without depending on New York, and there was no interest in improving the Allegheny River , which proved to only be able to handle large ships when its water level was at its highest in the spring. Instead, the Buffalo, Bradford and Pittsburgh Railroad , connecting to

1110-482: The river to be rerouted to the west along its current path. The Seneca nation traditionally lived between the Genesee River and Canandaigua Lake . The region was surveyed by Thomas Davies in 1766. The High Falls was then also known as the Great Seneca Falls, and the Genesee River was also spelled Zinochsaa by early writers. Historically, the river's gorge formed a clearly demarcated border between

1147-538: The river, leading to him being nicknamed "The Genesee River Killer". A March 1865 thaw was the worst Genesee flood in Rochester history, and a similar 1913 flood motivated the excavation of the Genesee's rock bed in Downtown Rochester. The 1972 Hurricane Agnes flood broke all county historical records, with the most concentrated damage in the Wellsville area. The water from Hurricane Agnes caused

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1184-600: The six Genesee River reservations from the Seneca, allegedly under duress; the modern Seneca Nation of Indians does not recognize the 1826 sale as valid and moved to reclaim Canawaugus in December 2022. On Friday, November 13, 1829 (Friday the 13th), the daredevil Sam Patch jumped to his death before 8,000 spectators at the Upper Falls in Rochester . If "not for hydropower, the flour mills, clothing mills, and tool fabricators would not have located in Rochester", and

1221-625: The summit at Hinsdale after crossing Oil Creek on an aqueduct. Thirteen feeder creeks fed the Genesee Valley Canal. The Ischua Creek runs north to south to the Allegheny River and the still waters of the Ischua run deep, the town of Ischua was the perfect area to build a dam and utilize the water-way. Routing the canal through the Ischua-Hinsdale area enabled merchants to transport commerce from Rochester to Pittsburgh. The contract for

1258-643: The town of Cuba in Allegany County, was created in 1858 to help maintain water levels on the Genesee Valley Canal. Cuba Lake and its surrounding land is owned by New York State. Today, cottage and home sites on the lake are officially leased from the state as part of the Cuba Lake District. 42°16′21″N 78°14′00″W  /  42.27250°N 78.23333°W  / 42.27250; -78.23333 Genesee River The Genesee River ( / ˌ dʒ ɛ n ɪ ˈ s iː / JEN -iss- EE )

1295-433: The world with a length of 4,248 km (2,640 mi). The Madeira River is the largest tributary river by volume in the world with an average discharge of 31,200 m /s (1.1 million cu ft/s). A confluence , where two or more bodies of water meet, usually refers to the joining of tributaries. The opposite to a tributary is a distributary , a river or stream that branches off from and flows away from

1332-462: Was started in 1991. In 1852 a wooden railroad bridge was built over the Upper Falls at Portageville . It was the largest of all wooden bridges built at the time. The wood from 300 acres (1.2 km²) of trees was required for its timber. In the "summer of 1943", Arch Merrill walked the length of the Genesee River. Serial killer Arthur Shawcross dumped most of his victims in or near

1369-491: Was to run from the Erie Canal on the south side of Rochester south-southwest along the Genesee River valley to Mount Morris , Portageville , and Belfast , and then cross-country to the Allegheny River at Olean , with a branch from Mount Morris paralleling Canaseraga Creek to Dansville . According to New York State archives, the reservoir supplying the summit level impounded 68,000,000 cubic feet (1,900,000 m) of water. A non-navigable feeder creek carried water to

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