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The Native Americans had called the river the Wah-Bah Shik-Ki
which meant "pure white." When the French arrived
they corrupted the word by calling it "Quabache"
and eventually, of course, the settlers anglicized the
word by spelling it "Wabash." But it was the
Native Americans who first occupied the banks of the Wabash, and
many important villages were located along its length.
French explorers, missionaries and fur traders were the
first white men to arrive on the scene, and the Wabash
soon became the great trade route linking the lower Great
Lakes and the Mississippi River. Much of the struggle
for control of the New World by the French and British
took place along the Wabash. Later it was the scene of
George Rogers Clark's surprise defeat of the British,
which eliminated the British hold on the Northwest Territory.
The elimination of the British left the pioneer Hoosiers
with only the Native Americans to contend with. In 1811, Governor
William Henry Harrison and his army defeated Tecumseh
at the Battle of Tippecanoe near Lafayette. This victory,
which would later launch the campaign slogan "Tippecanoe
and Tyler, Too", probably propelled Harrison to the
Presidency.
The river was not only the site of war and bloodshed,
it was also a center of learning and social advance. This
"civilizing" influence was epitomized by the
Rappites, a religious group that formed a communal colony
at New Harmony on the lower Wabash. Their experiment lasted
10 years until they sold their holdings to Robert Owen,
who initiated another communal colony which was based
upon education and science rather than religion. Owen's
work at New Harmony was short-lived but led to the birth
of the Geological Survey and the concept of free public
schools.
Of course, the Wabash's greatest contribution to the
growth of Indiana was its role as a vital transportation
link. When the river proved to be too unreliable, the
Wabash-Erie Canal, America's longest, was built along
the river. Soon after completion the coming of the locomotive
in 1865 resulted in the doom of the canal. It left a long
lasting heritage however, in the diverse ethnic groups
who came to work on the canal and then stayed to settle
in the valley. The "canal towns" which developed
soon became industrialized and their focus changed from
the transportation of goods to the production of goods.
A little known fact is that during the early 1900's the
Wabash and the city of Vincennes in particular was a center
of pearling activity. Mussels in the river were gathered
in huge quantities to be used in the manufacture of buttons
from the shells. Finding pearls in the mussels set off
an unprecedented rush of activity. Most were imperfect
and of little value but occasionally pearls in the $700
to $4000 class were found.
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