Currents
July 2019
Globetrotter
MAID FOR TODAY
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By: Max Edwards
Ol’ Man Rivers Offer U.S. Staycations
There is wisdom in the plaintive lyrics of Ol’ Man
River, penned by Oscar Hammerstein for Jerome
Kerns’ Show Boat. In the 1927 musical, a Missis-
sippi River stevedore, in sonorous baritone, opines
that the river “don’t say nothin’, but he must know
somethin’.” Indeed, rivers, and their valleys, are wit-
nesses to all of human existence. And if rivers are
sagacious, why not visit three of the five oldest, all in
East Coast U.S?
Even a one-day riparian picnic can provide a con-
templative visit with history, passport not required.
To estimate a river’s age, scientists look to oro-
genic events, the cataclysmic crumplings of the
earth’s crust which form mountains. Mountain age is
not an absolute determinant of river age, as rivers
can predate mountains.
What is the world’s oldest river? The Nile, or the
Amazon? Neither, both are geologic youngsters.
Oldest is the Finke, some 350 to 400 million years
old, in central Australia, predating the Alice Springs
Orogeny. The second oldest, the Meuse, a 590-mile
European waterway with outflow to the North Sea, is
320 to 340 million years old.
Next oldest are three U.S. rivers, all dissecting the
Appalachian Mountains, and all at 260 to 325 million
years old. The third oldest is the New, in North Car-
olina, Virginia, and West Virginia, outflowing to the
Kanawha River. Along its 320-mile length, the New
has Class 1 to 5 rapids (West Virginia), 50 miles of
hiking trails, and 1400 established rock climbs. Visit
the New River Gorge Bridge, spanning an 851-foot
canyon.
Fourth oldest is the Susquehanna, in Maryland,
Pennsylvania, and New York, which outflows to the
Chesapeake Bay. The river, central to the lives of
Native American tribes, also figured in Revolutionary
and Civil War history. Today, it hosts kayakers,
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