Devola, Ohio

The community of Devola sits where the Muskingum River makes its final approach toward the Ohio, and it takes its name from the Devol family, among the first settlers to put down roots in this stretch of Muskingum Township in Washington County. What really put Devola on the map was water engineering. Between eighteen thirty-six and eighteen forty-one, Ohio funded a series of eleven dams and twelve locks along the Muskingum River from Marietta north to Dresden, and the lock at Devola was part of that system.

For the first time, steamboats could work their way up a river that had always been too shallow in stretches, connecting the Ohio River to the canal network that reached Lake Erie. The Muskingum became one of Ohio's great navigable rivers, and Devola's lock was a quiet hinge in that larger story of commerce and movement.