Thomas Hart published an engraving of Benedict Arnold in 1776 after he led American troops through the wilderness to Canada and heroically stormed Quebec, which appears in the background. Library of Congress.
George Washington's 1770 meeting with the Seneca chief Guyasuta is commemorated in James A. West's sculpture "Point of View," which stands in a park overlooking Pittsburgh. Washington was in the area at the time looking for settlement land along the Ohio River. Photo by Lee Paxton, Wikipedia.
William Louis Sonntag captured the primeval beauty of “La Belle Rivière”in his 1850 oil painting, “Ohio River Near Maysville, Kentucky.” Cincinnati Museum Center.
There was still not a single legal permanent settlement in the Northwest Territory when the U.S. Constitution was signed in 1787.
The Seneca Indians called it the Ohi:yo’ (pronounced oh-hee-yoh), literally the “Good River.”
When French explorer La Salle first saw the Ohio in 1669, he described it as La Belle Rivière, " the Beautiful River.”
