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Called Ke-na-po-co-mo-co or "river of the snake fish" by Native Americans, the Eel River is a tributary of the Wabash River in Indiana. It was later called the L'Anguille River. It rises southeast of Huntertown in Allen County and flows southwest 110 miles to join the Wabash at Logansport in Cass County.
Originating as an ice-marginal channel at the edge of the retreating Saginaw Lobe of the Wisconsin Glacier, the Eel River was later buried by the glacier's advancing Erie Lobe. As the Erie Lobe retreated, the Eel formed a single stream with what is now upper Cedar Creek in DeKalb and Allen counties. This ancestral Eel River was also fed by glacial meltwater surging under the ice from the southeast through a tunnel valley known today as Cedar Creek Canyon. Blockage of the Eel's channel by outwash from the canyon and a decline in the volume of meltwater forced the upper Eel to change course into the canyon, creating today's Cedar Creek. This is a classic example of stream piracy that shifted almost 175,000 acres (708 km˛) of land from the Eel-Wabash watershed to that of the St. JosephJoseph River is a tributary of the Maumee River, approximately 100 mi (161 km) long, in southern Michigan, northwestern Ohio, and northeastern Indiana in the United States. It drains a primarily rural farming region in the watershed of Lake Erie. It is on- MaumeeThe Maumee River begins in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where it is formed by the confluence of the St. Joseph and St. Marys rivers. From there, it meanders through more than 130 river miles of glacial moraine before emptying into Lake Erie at Toledo, Ohio's Maum.
Before the United States consolidated its hold on the Northwest TerritoryThis article is about the historic region of the United States; you may be looking for North-Western Territory, British North American territory Northwest Territories, present-day Canadian territory Pacific Northwest, unofficial region in the United State, the Eel formed a rough boundary between the PotawatomiThe Potawatomi (also spelled Pottawatomie or Pottawatomi are an Aboriginal American people of the upper Mississippi River region. The Potawatomi were part of a long term alliance with the Ottawa and Ojibwe, called the Council of Three Fires and which foug tribe on the north and MiamiThe Miami are a Native American tribe originally found in Indiana and Ohio. The nation's traditional capital was Kekionga, which is located within the borders of the present city of Fort Wayne, Indiana. As of 2004, people who identify as Miami live in Okl tribe on the south. During the Revolutionary WarThe American Revolutionary War ( 1775 1783), also known as the American War of Independence was a war fought between Great Britain and revolutionaries within thirteen of her North American colonies. The war, which eventually widened far beyond British Nor, a ContinentalThe Continental Army was the unified command structure of the thirteen colonies fighting Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. The Army was created by a resolution of the Continental Congress on June 15, 1775. Most of the Continental Army w force under Auguste Mottin de la Balme, who planned to seize a British trading post on the Eel near present-day Columbia CityColumbia City is a city located in Whitley County, Indiana. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 7,077. The city is the county seat of Whitley County 6. Geography Columbia City is located at 41°9'31" North, 85°29'16" West (41. 158569,, was destroyed by the Miami under Chief Michikinikwa, also known as Little Turtle. On October 19, 1790, Michikinikwa's warriors surprised and virtually annihilated a U.S. force under Colonel John Hardin in the Eel bottomlands southeast of present-day Churubusco. In 1791, the Eel was the scene of yet another battle, when General James Wilkinson destroyed the Miami town of Kenapacomaqua seven miles upstream from present-day Logansport. In September 1812, Colonel James Simrall, acting under orders from General William Henry Harrison, ravaged Miami farms and villages along the Eel in present-day Whitley County, defeating a Miami force that stood and fought.