Beaver River is a
tributary of the
Ohio River in
Western Pennsylvania
Western Pennsylvania is a region in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, covering the western third of the state. Pittsburgh is the region's principal city, with a metropolitan area population of about 2.4 million people, and serves as its economic ...
. It has a length of approximately 21 mi (34 km) and flows through a historically important
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when dead ...
-producing region north of
Pittsburgh. Beaver River is formed in
Lawrence County by the confluence of the
Mahoning and
Shenango rivers in the
Mahoningtown neighborhood of
New Castle. It flows generally south, past
West Pittsburg and
Homewood. It receives
Connoquenessing Creek
Connoquenessing Creek is a tributary of the Beaver River, approximately 50 mi (80 km) long, in Western Pennsylvania in the United States.
Course
Connoquenessing Creek rises in eastern Butler County and flows southwest, through the L ...
west of
Ellwood City and flows past
Beaver Falls and
New Brighton. It joins the Ohio at
Bridgewater and
Rochester (flowing between these two towns) at the downstream end of a sharp bend in the Ohio approximately 20 mi (32 km) northwest of (and downstream from) Pittsburgh. In the lower reaches near the Ohio River, the Beaver cuts through a gorge of underlying
sandstone. The river is roughly parallel to the border with the state of
Ohio, with both
Interstate 376
Interstate 376 (I-376) is a major auxiliary route of the Interstate Highway System in the US state of Pennsylvania, located within the Allegheny Plateau. It runs from I-80 near Sharon south and east to a junction with the Pennsylvania Tur ...
and
Pennsylvania Route 18
Pennsylvania Route 18 (PA 18) is a major north–south highway in Western Pennsylvania whose southern terminus is at West Virginia Route 69 (WV 69) at the state line in Greene County, Pennsylvania, Greene County near the village of Garrison ...
running parallel to the river itself.
The river, which flows throughout the northern half of
Beaver County, serves as the namesake of the county as well as several locales in both Beaver and Lawrence County. The river itself was either named for
King Beaver
Tamaqua or Tamaque, also known as The Beaver and King Beaver ( – 1769 or 1771), was a leading man of the Unalachtigo (Turkey) phratry of the Lenape people. Although the Iroquois in 1752 had appointed Shingas chief of the Lenape at the Treaty ...
(
Tamaqua) of the
Delaware nation that had migrated to the area in the late 1740s, or for the
animal itself.
Until the partition of Lawrence County from parts of Beaver and
Mercer County in 1849, the river was entirely located in Beaver County, with its upstream terminus being at the border between Beaver and Mercer County from 1800-1849.
Communities along the river
*
West Pittsburg
*
Wampum
*
Koppel
*
Homewood
*
Beaver Falls
*
Eastvale
*
New Brighton
*
Fallston
*
Rochester
*
Bridgewater
See also
*
List of crossings of the Beaver River
*
List of rivers of Pennsylvania
This is a list of streams and rivers in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania.
By drainage basin
This list is arranged by drainage basin, with respective tributaries indented under each larger stream's name.
Delaware Bay
Chesapeake Bay
*' ...
References
External links
U.S. Geological Survey: PA stream gaging stations
{{authority control
Rivers of Pennsylvania
Tributaries of the Ohio River
Rivers of Beaver County, Pennsylvania
Rivers of Lawrence County, Pennsylvania
Allegheny Plateau