Wheeling Wharf

Wheeling Wharf in 1886, showing significant growth from the “pretty considerable Village” Meriwether Lewis described eighty years earlier.

Ohio County Public Library

Traveling down the Ohio River by boat, Captain Meriwether Lewis and his crew reached Wheeling, West Virginia, on September 7, 1803. Lewis described Wheeling as a “pretty considerable Village” with “about fifty houses.” Here the company rested and resupplied.6 Setting out again two days later, they encountered cold rain, pouring down so hard that they had to bail out the boats.7

Echoing the expedition’s day of rain, West Virginia has experienced increased precipitation during the twentieth century. The Environmental Protection Agency attributes more frequent heavy rainstorms and a one-half degree increase in average temperature in the area to climate change. The agency anticipates more flooding events and impacts to local ecosystems as a result of climate change.8

Citations:
6 Meriwether Lewis, September 7, 1803 entry, in Gary E. Moulton, Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, https://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu/item/lc.jrn.1803-09-07.
7 Meriwether Lewis, September 9, 1803 entry, in Moulton, Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, https://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu/item/lc.jrn.1803-09-09.
8 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “What Climate Change Means for West Virginia,” August 2016, 1–2.

Climate Change:Lewis and Clark Trail