Mohawk River
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Mohawk River (disambiguation)
The Mohawk River is a major waterway in north-central New York, United States. The river flows approximately 143 miles (230 km) ESE from Oneida County entering the Hudson River near Albany. The cities of Schenectady, Amsterdam, Utica, and Rome are built on its banks. The river and its supporting canal, the Erie Canal (a part of the New York State Canal System, called the New York State Barge Canal for much of the 20th century), connect the Hudson River and port of New York with the Great Lakes, at Buffalo, New York.
The river has long been important to transportation and migration to the west as a passage between the Allegheny and Adirondack highlands. The fertile valley also attracted early settlers, and a number of important battles of the French and Indian War and the Revolution were fought here.
During the early westward growth of the United States, the Erie Canal was an important link to the west that followed or used the river's path.
The middle course of the Mohawk River runs through Montgomery County, where most of the village sites of the Mohawk Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy are located. The Mohawks were compelled to leave the region during the American Revolution.
