Saline River (Illinois)

Saline River (Illinois)
River
The Saline River.
Country	United States
State	Illinois
Source	Brushy Creek (Saline River)
- location	Williamson County, Illinois, United States
- elevation	351 ft (107 m)
Mouth	Ohio River
- location	Saline Landing, Illinois, United States
- elevation	200 ft (61 m)
Basin	1,762 sq mi (4,564 km2)

The Saline River is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately 27 miles (43 km) long, in the Southern Illinois region of the U.S. state of Illinois. The river drains a large section of southeast Illinois, with a drainage basin of 1,762 square miles (4,564 km²). The major tributaries include the South Fork, Middle Fork and North Fork, all lying within the Saline Valley. The once meandering swampy river was important among Native Americans and early settlers as a source of salt from numerous salt springs where it was commercially extracted in the early 19th century.

From 1807 to 1818, Illinois paid the United States Treasury $28,160.25 in revenue. During the same time, Ohio paid $240 and Indiana, Kentucky and Missouri paid nothing. One third of the State of Illinois revenue came from the salt industry coming from African American slaves working on the Saline River in 1818. The last concessionaire of the Saline Springs was John Crenshaw, then owner of what became known as the Old Slave House.

During the late 18th century, the river had heavy barge traffic. It was navigable for keel boats and batteaux for 30 miles (48 km) inland from the mouth at the Ohio River. The farthest point west that could still accommodate flat boats and barges is the largest city on the river Harrisburg, Illinois, but the river has not been used for navigation in almost a century. Coal mining and milling in Saline County heavily polluted and silted the river, after extensive channelization projects by now defunct coal mining companies. It is today used mainly as an oversized drainage ditch of little interest except for flood control.

On June 18, 1888, an act of January 25, 1849, declaring the Saline River to be navigable, was repealed by the Illinois General Assembly. The river was deemed "impractical" for navigation due to the "anxiousness" of County residents to build bridges across it.