Devil's Backbone is a rock formation and peninsula formed by the flow of Fourteen Mile Creek into the Ohio River, and is currently situated in Charlestown State Park near Charlestown, Indiana and across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky. According to local legend, on this bedrock ridge once stood a stone fortress that was built by Welsh explorers led by Prince Madoc sometime in the 12th century. [1]
The Backbone is believed to have been formed by the processes of glaciation where a combination of ice sheet advances, meltwater flows and a diversion of the Ohio River left an isolated bedrock ridge remaining between two valleys.
Rose Island, an amusement park popular during the 1920s that was destroyed by the 1937 Flood, stood on this rugged peninsula, at the base of the ridge on a level area.
Charlestown State Park hiking trails do not provide access to the Backbone, but a loop around the old Rose Island site passes below the ridge.
There is another location by the same name near Fort Ritner, Indiana, east of Bedford. [2]
Interstate 65 (I-65) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the central United States. As with most primary Interstates ending in 5, it is a major crosscountry, north–south route, connecting between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. Its southern terminus is located at an interchange with I-10 in Mobile, Alabama, and its northern terminus is at an interchange with US 12 (US 12) and US 20 in Gary, Indiana, just southeast of Chicago. I-65 connects several major metropolitan areas in the Midwest and Southern US. It connects the four largest cities in Alabama: Mobile, Montgomery, Birmingham, and Huntsville. It also serves as one of the main north–south routes through Nashville, Tennessee; Louisville, Kentucky; and Indianapolis, Indiana, each a major metropolitan area in its respective state.
Jefferson County is a county located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 782,969. It is the most populous county in the commonwealth.
Clark County is a county in the U.S. state of Indiana, located directly across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky. At the 2020 census, the population was 121,093. The county seat is Jeffersonville. Clark County is part of the Louisville/Jefferson County, KY–IN Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Charlestown State Park is an Indiana state park on 5,100 acres (20.64 km2) in Clark County, Indiana, in the United States. The park is on the banks of the Ohio River, 1 mile (2 km) east of Charlestown. It was once part of the Indiana Army Ammunition Plant (INAAP), and was donated in separate parcels to the Indiana state government. In 1993, the state of Indiana was given 859 acres (3.48 km2), and in 1994 was given an additional 1,125 acres (4.55 km2). When the park opened in 1996, it encompassed 2,400 acres (9.7 km2). With an additional 2,600 acres (10.5 km2) given by the INAAP in 2004, the park has 5,100 acres (20.6 km2), making it the third largest state park in Indiana. The park attracts nearly 200,000 visitors annually.
Clifton Heights is a neighborhood two miles east of downtown Louisville, Kentucky USA. It was named because of its hilly location atop a ridge about 100 feet above the Ohio River floodplain, overlooking the adjacent community of Clifton. Though first planned in the 1890s as Summit Park, actual growth didn't begin until after World War I when automobiles made the hilly area accessible. Clifton Heights has had an African American presence since its founding, in 2000 they accounted for 21% of the population. Housing stock includes a variety of styles and time frames, from older shotgun houses and bungalows to suburban ranch homes built in the 1970s.
The Ohio Valley is a sub region in Kentucky running 658 miles (1,059 km) long including parts of 25 counties and across five regions of the state. Over 45% of Kentucky's population live in counties that border the Ohio River, although those counties are only 16% of the state's land area.
The Salt River is a 150-mile-long (240 km) river in the U.S. state of Kentucky that drains 2,920 square miles (7,600 km2). It begins near Parksville, Kentucky, rising from the north slope of Persimmon Knob south of KY 300 between Alum Springs and Wilsonville, and ends at the Ohio River near West Point. Taylorsville Lake is formed from the Salt River, and Guist Creek Lake is also in its drainage basin.
The Point was a thriving 19th century neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky, east of Downtown Louisville and opposite Towhead Island along the Ohio River. It was also located north of the present day Butchertown area.
Louisville is a city in Jefferson County, in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It is located at the Falls of the Ohio River.
Beargrass Creek is the name given to several forks of a creek in Jefferson County, Kentucky. The Beargrass Creek watershed is one of the largest in the county, draining over 60 square miles (160 km2). It is fairly small, with an average discharge of 103 cubic feet per second at River Road in Louisville.
The Fourteenth Street Bridge, also known as the Ohio Falls Bridge, Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge, Conrail Railroad Bridge or Louisville and Indiana (L&I) Bridge, is a truss drawbridge that spans the Ohio River, between Louisville, Kentucky and Clarksville, Indiana.
Rose Island is an abandoned amusement park near Charlestown, Indiana, situated on a peninsula created by Fourteen Mile Creek emptying into the Ohio River. It was a recreational area known as Fern Grove in the 1880s, mostly used as a church camp. It was so named due to the many ferns that grew there. The Louisville and Jeffersonville Ferry Company acquired it and developed it in order to increase the use of its ferry business. As Fern Grove it thrived on church picnics and family outings.
Fourteen Mile Creek, shown as Fourteenmile Creek on federal maps, is a 22.7-mile-long (36.5 km) creek in Clark County, Indiana, close to Charlestown. It is so named because its mouth on the Ohio River is 14 miles (23 km) upstream from the Falls of the Ohio; similar to how Eighteen Mile Island, Twelve Mile Island, and Six Mile Island got their names. It is navigable for 2.9 miles (4.7 km) from the Ohio River. It is a State Heritage Program Site and a popular canoe trail.
The Indiana Army Ammunition Plant was an Army manufacturing plant built in 1941 between Charlestown and Jeffersonville, Indiana. It consisted of three areas within two separate but attached manufacturing plants:
The Ohio River flood of 1937 took place in late January and February 1937. With damage stretching from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Cairo, Illinois, 385 people died, one million people were left homeless and property losses reached $500 million. Federal and state resources were strained to aid recovery as the disaster occurred during the depths of the Great Depression and a few years after the beginning of the Dust Bowl.
Fort Nelson, built in 1781 by troops under George Rogers Clark including Captain Richard Chenoweth, was the second on-shore fort on the Ohio River in the area of what is now downtown Louisville, Kentucky. Fort-on-Shore, the downriver and first on-shore fort, had proved to be insufficient barely three years after it was established. In response to continuing attacks from Native Americans and the threat of British attacks during the Revolutionary War, Fort Nelson was constructed between what is currently Main Street and the river, with its main gate near Seventh Street. It was named after Thomas Nelson Jr., then the governor of Virginia.
The geography of Indiana comprises the physical features of the land and relative location of U.S. State of Indiana. Indiana is in the north-central United States and borders on Lake Michigan. Surrounding states are Michigan to the north and northeast, Illinois to the west, Kentucky to the south, and Ohio to the east. The entire southern boundary is the Ohio River.
Camp Joe Holt was a Union base during the American Civil War in Jeffersonville, Indiana, across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky, on land that is now part of Clarksville, Indiana, near the Big Eddy. It was a major staging area for troops in the Western Theatre of the War, in preparation for invading the Confederate States of America. Its establishment was the first major step performed by Kentucky Unionists to keep Kentucky from seceding to the Confederacy.
Silver Creek is a stream in southern Indiana in the United States. It drains a watershed of 97,442 acres (394.33 km2). The creek rises in Scott County and flows 38.0 miles (61.2 km), dropping 168 feet (51 m), before flowing into the Ohio River.
The Kankakee Torrent was a catastrophic flood that occurred about 19,000 calibrated years ago in the Midwestern United States. It resulted from a breach of moraines forming a large glacial lake fed by the melting of the Late Wisconsin Laurentide Ice Sheet. The point of origin of the flood was Lake Chicago. The landscape south of Chicago still shows the effects of the torrent, particularly at Kankakee River State Park and on the Illinois River at Starved Rock State Park.