Editing Ob (section)

===History===
The [[Novgorod Republic|Novgorodians]] were aware of the lands of western Siberia from at least the 11th century, which were designated by the Russian word ''[[Yugra]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rasputin |first1=Valentin |title=Siberia, Siberia |date=29 October 1997 |publisher=Northwestern University Press |isbn=978-0-8101-1575-0 |page=36 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fzchffZ3BFQC |language=en}}</ref> Novgorod established two trade routes to the Ob River, both starting from the town of [[Veliky Ustyug|Ustyug]].<ref name="Naumov"/> The first route went along the [[Sukhona]] and [[Vychegda]], then along the [[Usa (Pechora)|Usa]] to the lower reaches of the Ob.<ref name="Naumov"/> The second route went down the [[Northern Dvina]], then along the coasts of the [[White Sea]] and [[Kara Sea]], before reaching the mouth of the Ob.<ref name="Naumov">{{cite book |last1=Naumov |first1=Igor V. |title=The History of Siberia |date=22 November 2006 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-20703-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4498YjPq6mgC |language=en |page=53}}</ref>

The Russian settlements of [[Beryozovo, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug|Beryozov]] and [[Obdorsk]] were founded towards the end of the 16th century on the lower reaches of the Ob, while [[Surgut]] was founded on the middle course of the Ob.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kerner |first1=Robert Joseph |title=The Urge to the Sea: The Course of Russian History: The Role of Rivers, Portages, Ostrogs, Monasteries, and Furs |date=15 November 2023 |publisher=Univ of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-35030-4 |page=72 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j5ngEAAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref>

Until the early 20th century, a particularly important western river-port was
[[Tyumen]], located on the [[Tura (river)|Tura]], a tributary of the [[Tobol]]. Reached by an extension of the [[Yekaterinburg]]–[[Perm, Russia|Perm]] railway in 1885, and thus obtaining a rail link to the [[Kama (river)|Kama]] and [[Volga]] rivers in the heart of Russia, Tyumen became an important railhead for some years until the railway extended further east. In the eastern reaches of the Ob basin, [[Tomsk]] on the [[Tom (river)|Tom]] functioned as an important terminus.

Tyumen had its first [[steamboat]] in 1836, and steamboats have navigated the middle reaches of the Ob since 1845. In 1916, there were 49 steamers on the Ob; 10 on the Yenisei.

In an attempt to extend the Ob navigable system even further, a [[Ob–Yenisei Canal|system of canals]], utilising the [[Ket (river)|Ket]], {{convert|900|km|abbr=on}} long in all, was built in the late 19th-century to connect the Ob with the [[Yenisei River|Yenisei]], but soon abandoned as being uncompetitive with the [[Trans-Siberian Railway|railway]].

The Trans-Siberian Railway, once completed, provided for more direct, year-round transport in the east–west direction. But the Ob river-system still remained important for connecting the huge expanses of [[Tyumen Oblast]] and [[Tomsk Oblast]] with the major cities along the Trans-Siberian route, such as Novosibirsk or [[Omsk]]. In the second half of the 20th century, construction of rail links to [[Labytnangi]], [[Tobolsk]], and the oil and gas cities of [[Surgut]], and [[Nizhnevartovsk]] provided more railheads, but did not diminish the importance of the waterways for reaching places still not served by the rail.

A dam built near Novosibirsk in 1956 created the then-largest artificial lake in [[Siberia]], called [[Novosibirsk Reservoir]].
From the 1960s through 1980s, Soviet engineers and administrators contemplated a gigantic project to [[Northern river reversal|divert some of the waters of Ob and Irtysh]] to [[Kazakhstan]] and the Soviet [[Central Asia]]n republics, replenishing the [[Aral Sea]] as well. The project never left the drawing board, abandoned in 1986 for economic and environmental considerations.<ref>Douglas R. Weiner, [https://books.google.com/books?id=2rRjx4pCEx0C "A Little Corner of Freedom: Russian Nature Protection from Stalin to Gorbachev"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170109140042/https://books.google.com/books?id=2rRjx4pCEx0C |date=2017-01-09 }}. University of California Press, 1999. {{ISBN|0-520-23213-5}}. p. 415</ref><ref>Michael H. Glantz, [https://books.google.com/books?id=2YXnBxZg7c4C "Creeping Environmental Problems and Sustainable Development in the Aral Sea..."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170109101345/https://books.google.com/books?id=2YXnBxZg7c4C |date=2017-01-09 }}. {{ISBN|0-521-62086-4}}. p. 174</ref>