Editing Muskingum River (section)

==History==
The name ''Muskingum'' derives from the [[Shawnee language|Shawnee]] word ''mshkikwam'' 'swampy ground'.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mahr |first1=August C. |year=1957 |title=Indian River and Place Names in Ohio |journal=Ohio History |volume=66 |issue=2 |pages=137–158 |publisher=[[Ohio Historical Society]] |url=http://publications.ohiohistory.org/ohstemplate.cfm?action=detail&Page=0066144.html&StartPage=137&EndPage=158&volume=66&newtitle=Volume%2066%20Page%20137 |access-date=May 22, 2012 }}{{Dead link|date=April 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> In [[Lenape language|Lenape]] ''Muskingum'' was taken to mean 'elk's eye' (''mus wəshkinkw'') by [[folk etymology]], as if < ''mus'' 'elk' <ref>{{cite web|title=mus|url=http://www.talk-lenape.org/detail.php?id=5249|work=Lenape Talking Dictionary|access-date=May 22, 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120315214331/http://www.talk-lenape.org/detail.php?id=5249|archive-date=2012-03-15}}</ref> + ''wəshkinkw'' 'its eye'.<ref>{{cite web|title=wëshkinkw|url=http://www.talk-lenape.org/detail.php?id=11468|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160201235623/http://www.talk-lenape.org/detail.php?id=11468|archive-date=1 February 2016|work=Lenape Talking Dictionary|access-date=May 22, 2012}}</ref> Moravian missionary [[David Zeisberger]] wrote that the Muskingum River was called Elk's Eye "because of the numbers of elk that formerly fed on its banks, these animals being found there even at the present time [1779-1780]..."<ref>{{cite book |title=David Zeisberger's History of Northern American Indians |url=https://archive.org/details/zeisbergerhistnaind00zeisrich |author=David Zeisberger |page=[https://archive.org/details/zeisbergerhistnaind00zeisrich/page/44 44] |publisher=Press of F.J. Heer |year=1910}}</ref> Historically, it was also the name of a large [[Wyandot people|Wyandot]] town along the river.{{Citation needed|date=August 2019}}

As part of an expedition to assert French dominance throughout the entire Ohio valley, on August 15, 1749, a leaden plate claiming the region for France was buried at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio rivers by [[Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville|Pierre Joseph Céloron]].

Noted frontier [[explorer]] [[Christopher Gist]] reached the Big Sandy Creek tributary of the river on December 4, 1751. Traveling downriver, he recorded arriving on December 14 at the western Wyandot town of Muskingum, at present-day [[Coshocton, Ohio|Coshocton]].  There he remained for the following month.<ref>Darlington, ''Journal of Christopher Gist''</ref>

[[Marietta, Ohio|Marietta]] was founded in 1788 as the first permanent American settlement in the [[Northwest Territory]], at the mouth of the Muskingum River on the Ohio River.  The [[Big Bottom Massacre]] occurred along its banks in 1791.

[[Zanesville]] was settled by European Americans in 1799 at the site where [[Zane's Trace]] crossed the Muskingum at the mouth of the [[Licking River (Ohio)|Licking River]].  Later, the [[National Road|National (Cumberland) Road]] crossed the Muskingum at Zanesville.  In the mid-19th century the Muskingum was an important commercial shipping route, with [[dam]]s and [[canal lock|locks]] controlling the water level to allow boats to travel up and down the river. With the decrease in use of water-based transportation in Ohio by the 1920s, the locks fell into disrepair.

Since the 1960s, the locks have been repaired to enable pleasure craft to travel the entire navigable length of the river. The Muskingum waterway is one of the few remaining systems in the US to use hand-operated river locks. The navigation system has been designated a national [[Historic Civil Engineering Landmark]]. In 2006, it was designated "An Ohio Water Trail;" this designation provides for increased canoe access on the river.

Located north of the [[Mason–Dixon line]], from around 1812 to 1861 the Muskingum River was a major [[Underground Railroad]] route used by fugitive [[Slavery in the United States|slaves]] escaping from the [[Southern United States|South]] on their journey north to [[Lake Erie]] and [[Canada]].