Olentangy River

Olentangy River
State Route 315 passing over the Olentangy in Columbus in 2002
Basin
Main source	Approximately 2 mi (3.2 km) northeast of Galion, Ohio 1,190 ft (360 m)
River mouth	Scioto River at Columbus 710 ft (220 m)
Basin size	543 sq mi (1,410 km2)

The Olentangy River /oʊlənˈtændʒi/ is a 97-mile-long (156 km)tributary of the Scioto River in Ohio.

It was originally called keenhongsheconsepung, a Delaware word literally translated as "stone for your knife stream", based on the flint found along its shores. Early settlers to the region translated this into "Whetstone River". In 1833, the Ohio General Assembly passed legislation intending to restore the original Native American names to some Ohio waterways, but mistakenly gave Whetstone River the name "Olentangy"—Delaware for "river of the red face paint"—which had actually belonged to what is now known as Big Darby Creek.

The Olentangy River rises in Crawford County approximately 2 mi (3.2 km) northeast of Galion, flowing through Galion and northwest towards Bucyrus, where it then turns south and flows through Eastern Marion County, Ohio (where it is still locally known as the Whetstone River) before flowing south into Delaware County. The river continues southward towards the communities of Delaware, Powell, Worthington, and the village of Riverlea, before reaching Columbus and the campus of the Ohio State University, before joining with the Scioto River in downtown Columbus.