This Day in History: The 1917 Ohio River Ice Jam

On December 16, 1917 an ice jam closed the Ohio River from Warsaw, KY to Rising Sun, IN. This area of the Ohio River is located between northern Kentucky and southeastern Indiana. According to David Ludlum, the ice jam reached 30 feet high and lasted 58 days. This backed up trading traffic on the Ohio River 100 miles.

The ice was also thick near Cincinnati, Indiana, where some photos of the ice emerged. Pictured below you can see the Island Queen and Princess steamboats caught in the ice. These pictures were taken later in January of 1918, but are of the same ice jam as the one mentioned above.