Clark, Kenton, and Boone at the Little Miami
Near Dayton, Ohio
In seventeen eighty and again in seventeen eighty-two, militia forces commanded by George Rogers Clark crossed the Little Miami River near this spot. Legendary frontiersmen such as Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone fought in these same frontier wars. Clark was leading punitive raids into the Ohio Country, striking Shawnee towns north of the river in retaliation for raids on Kentucky settlements.
The seventeen eighty-two expedition followed the Battle of Blue Licks, one of the last significant engagements of the Revolutionary War on the western frontier. These crossings were part of the long, violent contest over the Ohio Valley that shaped the entire Northwest Territory. The river looks peaceful now.
It was not always.
