Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2015 May 16

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May 16

Allegheny vs. Monongahela

[Not sure if I should be asking this here; I probably know more about western Pennsylvania history than do most people here. Just hoping that some of you are ahead of me, especially in this situation]

Driving along the Allegheny River for much of its length above Pittsburgh is rather fast and simple: you get a small town every several miles, occasionally county seats like Kittanning, but it's largely open countryside through thickly forested hills. Driving along the Monongahela River for much of its length above Pittsburgh is significantly different: you're constantly going through old steel towns, old other-former-industry towns, and other settlements that are concentrated far more closely than along the Allegheny to the north. Do we have any idea why the industry settled along the Monongahela much more than along the Allegheny? The topography is rather comparable. South of Pittsburgh is getting into coal country, with mining company towns like Shoaf and Smock all over the place, while they're not that common in the Allegheny basin; however, File:US coal production by coal-producing region, 2010.png shows lots of coal reserves up north, so it's apparently not a lack of coal in the Allegheny basin, either. Nyttend (talk) 04:28, 16 May 2015 (UTC)

Have you looked into where the rail roads were located through various eras of history? That may have influenced industrial settlement. (If I am looking for a site to build my factory... I am more likely to choose a location along an existing rail road) Blueboar (talk) 14:01, 16 May 2015 (UTC)

I have not. I know that both regions had similar pre-rail industry (although how much, I don't know); one finds sites like the Alliance Furnace and the Mount Vernon Furnace in the Monongahela valley, but sites like the Buchanan Furnace and the Rockland Furnace were also present up north. Nyttend (talk) 14:38, 16 May 2015 (UTC)

I think probably it's an issue of accessibility. The Monongahela flows out of West Virginia, where coal mining has a long history because there were huge coal beds that could easily be reached. Looie496 (talk) 14:09, 16 May 2015 (UTC)