The
Olentangy River () is a
tributary of the
Scioto River in
Ohio.
It was originally called
keenhongsheconsepung, a
Delaware word literally translated as "stone for your knife stream", based on the
shale found along its shores. Early settlers to the region translated this into "Whetstone River". In 1833, the
Ohio General Assembly passed legislation intending to restore the original
Native American names to some Ohio waterways, but mistakenly gave Whetstone River the name "Olentangy"—Delaware for "river of the red face paint"—which had actually belonged to what is now known as Big Darby Creek.The Olentangy River rises in
Crawford County approximately 2 mi (3.2 km) northeast of
Galion, flowing through Galion and northwest towards
Bucyrus, where it then turns south and flows through the communities of
Delaware,
Powell,
Worthington, and the campus of
Ohio State University, before joining with the Scioto River in downtown
Columbus.
The Delaware State Park Reservoir, also known as Delaware Lake, was constructed along the Olentangy River in 1951. The reservoir is located 5 miles north of the city of Delaware, and was built by the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for flood control purposes. On January 13, 2005, Delaware Dam was nearly overtopped. The water level came within less than 1 foot of requiring the main spill gates to be opened before it began dropping.
The...
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