Hocking River

Hocking River
The Hocking River near Logan
Location
Country	United States
State	Ohio
Counties	Fairfield, Hocking, Athens
Physical characteristics
Source
• location	Fairfield County
• elevation	~ 1,050 ft (320 m)[1]
Mouth	Ohio River
• location	Hockingport
• elevation	582 ft (177 m)[2]
Basin size	1,197 sq mi (3,100 km2)[3]
Discharge
• location	mouth
• average	1,341.74 cu ft/s (37.994 m3/s) (estimate)[4]

The Hocking River (formerly the Hockhocking River) is a 102-mile-long (164 km) right tributary of the Ohio River in southeastern Ohio in the United States.

The Hocking flows mostly on the unglaciated Allegheny Plateau, but its headwaters are in a glaciated region. It rises in Bloom Township in Fairfield County and flows generally southeastwardly through Fairfield, Hocking, and Athens counties, through the Hocking Hills region and past the cities of Lancaster, Logan, Nelsonville, Athens and Coolville. It joins the Ohio River at Hockingport. The Hocking's tributaries also drain parts of Perry, Morgan, and Washington Counties.

Its name originally derives from a Native American name, roughly "Hokhokken" or "Hokhochen", which meant "bottle-shaped" or "gourd-shaped" and referred to the river's headwaters 7 miles north-west of present-day Lancaster, Ohio. The river begins as a small stream, then immediately goes over a waterfall into a wide gorge. When viewed from above this feature looks like a bottle, which led to its name.^[5] The river was known as the Hockhocking River until the late 19th century.

The Hocking Canal once linked Athens to Lancaster and the Ohio and Erie Canal, but was destroyed by flooding and never rebuilt. Due to frequent flooding of Ohio University's campus, the Army Corps of Engineers re-channelized a section of the Hocking River in Athens during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Between Nelsonville and Athens, the Hocking today is roughly paralleled by a rail trail, the Hockhocking Adena Bikeway. The path serves as a major source of recreation for the residents of the area, especially the students of Ohio University and Hocking College.

Major tributaries to the Hocking include (downriver to upriver) Federal Creek, Margaret Creek, Sunday Creek, Monday Creek, Scott Creek, Oldtown Creek, Clear Creek, Rush Creek, Pleasant Run, Baldwin Run, and Hunters Run. Many of these tributaries are affected by acid mine drainage.