The Clarion River is a tributary of the Allegheny River, approximately 110 mi (177 km) long, in west central Pennsylvania in the United States. It drains a mountainous area of the Allegheny Plateau in the Ohio River watershed, flowing through narrow serpentine valleys and hardwood forests.
Description
It is formed at Johnsonburg in central Elk County by the confluence of its East and West Branches. The East Branch, approximately 15 mi (24 km) long, rises in northeastern Elk County and flows southwest through East Branch Clarion River Lake to the join the West Branch. The river flows generally WSW across western Pennsylvania in a tight meandering course past Ridgway and Clarion. It joins the Allegheny from the east in eastern Clarion County approximately 5 mi (8 km) south of Emlenton.
The Allegheny River (historically, especially in New York state, also spelled Allegany River) is a principal tributary of the Ohio River, which it forms with the Monongahela River at the downtown Pittsburgh's Golden Triangle "point".
The pressure to open the river valley and the surrounding area to settlement is considered by historians to be one of the root causes of the American Revolutionary War in the following decade.
During the 19th century, the river became a principal means of navigation in the upper Ohio valley, especially for the transport of coal.
Clarion County, erected on March 11, 1839, from parts of Venango and Armstrong counties, is named for the ClarionRiver, as is the county seat town of Clarion.
Thense the river was known as the ClarionRiver.
Clarion County was within the oil producing region of the state and shared in the development of this natural resource after the drilling of "Colonel" Edwin L. Drake’s well at Titusville in 1859.
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