History of the Upper Yough
Youghiogheny River History
The Youghiogheny River is an incredible and unique resource, both as a natural and a cultural asset. It is a relatively “big water” river that flows from the crest of the Appalachians northward, flows 365 days a year and is an amazing cool temperature throughout the heat of the summer. Other rivers in the Mid-Atlantic may contain some of these qualities, but no other river has all of the them rolled into one package like the Yough.
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History of the Upper Yough
Read and listen to stories of the Upper Yough
History of the Upper Yough Race
Now going for well over 30 years, the Upper Yough Race is a community institution. It’s the lone long release guaranteed each season, so that the dozens of racers can have the river to themselves while speeding their way through the rapids.
History of the Youghiogheny
The Youghiogheny River is an incredible and unique resource, both as a natural and a cultural asset. It is a relatively “big water” river that flows from the crest of the Appalachians northward, flows 365 days a year and is an amazing cool temperature throughout the heat of the summer. Other rivers in the Mid-Atlantic may contain some of these qualities, but no other river has all of the them rolled into one package like the Yough.
Youghiogheny (Original Edition): Appalachian River
The mountains of southwestern Pennsylvania provide the setting for the most popular whitewater in America: the Youghiogheny River at Ohiopyle. People from all over the nation come to run the rapids, while others simply enjoy the natural beauty of Ohiopyle State Park.
But this Appalachian river has many faces as it flows from its source among the scattered mountain farms of western Maryland to its confluence with the Monongahela in the industrial outskirts of Pittsburgh. Though always a home to people who cherish their mountain roots, the region\u2019s river offers recreation for millions of Americans.
By canoe, raft, van, and on foot, Tim Palmer explores the river from its highest spring to its industrial end. He writes about the people – afternoon visitors and eigth-generation natives – and about their pasts and their hopes, about the shaping of the land, and the land\u2019s inevitable shaping of them.
The author chronicles the rise of the five Ohiopyle rafting companies that host 80,000 visitors each year and then takes the reader on one of these outfitted voyages. Finally, Palmer paddles beyond the Appalachians to the river\u2019s urban end near Pittsburgh. Strip mining, land development, and recreation management are examined with a consciousness that asks, What will happen to this remarkable but threatened place?
Dams on the Upper Yough: What Almost Wasn’t
There was supposed to be a dam at Sang Run.
And another at Swallow Falls. A third major dam in Crellin for water storage would have completed the plan. The Youghiogheny flows free today from its origins above Silver Lake until it crosses the Pennsylvania border. But engineers, politicians, and power companies spent the first half of the twentieth century trying to reduce it to a series of lakes.
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