Talk:Monongahela River

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I've been thinking of making a map of the 10 or so main tributaries of the Monongahela River, but I can't figure out how best to do it. It seems like it would be best to make a single basemap showing all the main tributaries. Perhaps it would be enough to make a single map showing the 10 main rivers, labeled, and reuse that for each river page? Alternatively, I could highlight specific tributaries for specific pages -- but existing wikipedia maps that do that don't look very good to me (like the Missouri River tributary maps, such as Powder River (Montana)). So I wondering if anyone can point me to nicely done example maps that show a system of tributaries.

The main tributaries I am thinking of are: Monongahela River, Youghiogheny River, Cheat River, Shavers Fork, Black Fork, Blackwater River, Dry Fork, Tygart Valley River, West Fork, Buckhannon River, and Middle Fork. Sound right? Pfly 20:13, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

I'd recommend taking a look at the maps that Kmusser has created, they can be found at User:Kmusser/Images#U.S._Rivers_and_Lakes. I'd also recommend talking to Kmusser and taking a look at WikiProject Maps. VerruckteDan 20:52, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

If the Cheat River's upper tributaries are included, the Glady Fork and Laurel Fork should probably be included even though they don't have articles yet. (I've had those two on my to-do list for ages now; they're approximately equal in size and prominence to the Dry Fork.) The Cheat River's network of headwaters tributaries is fairly intricate, I wonder if naming them all might overwhelm a map of the Monongahela basin? (The Black Fork, for instance, is only 4 miles long.) --Malepheasant 03:32, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Re-reading this now, maybe you weren't intending to name them directly on the map anyway? --Malepheasant 03:42, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Well I don't know. There's the possibility of a number or letter key, or highlighting streams for each page. It is an intricate basin, which is partly why I wanted to make a map -- a while ago I spent some time figuring out which stream connects to which, and it was not easy to do, even with some pretty good maps. That Black Fork stream easily confuses. ..I started a rough test map tonight and it seems pretty challenging to do it well. I can't guarantee I'll manage to do it, but it is something I've thought about for some time. There's a variety of ways it could be done, the question is figuring out which is best for a relatively small web-map. Thanks for the comments! Pfly 06:56, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Since my name was invoked - that sounds very similar to the series I did for the Volga and its tributaries (e.g. Kama River). Feel free to copy that style, or I'll get to making them myself eventually. Kmusser 13:49, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the comments. Kmusser, I did borrow your Volga/Kama style, but ended up veering off into a somewhat different direction. I've made a few maps of the Monongahela river system, trying things out. I posted some maps and request for comments over at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Maps, specifically Comments on some maps requested. Malepheasant, I kept Glady and Laurel Fork in there at first, but they are so close together and close to Dry Fork that that part of the map was looking confusing and cluttered, so I took them out. They can be added again, or some variation done for them. My original logic in leaving them out was that I'd show streams whose confluences change the names of other streams. Thus Dry Fork was in because its confluence with Blackwater River made Black Fork, but Laurel and Glady were out. Then again, by that logic I should leave out Middle Fork, Buckhannon.. and even Cheat. So much for logic.

Anyway, I'm curious about the test maps posted over at WikiProjects Maps. Thoughts? (I'm not entirely sure why I am mapping this basin, I've never been there. I think it has to do with the odd nature of the topology and stream names -- a bit of a challenge I guess) Posted the Monongahela River map test here too. Pfly 21:24, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit]

I have removed the following from this article:

The Monongahela is one of the few rivers on Earth that flow northward for much of their length. While the Nile is in a class of its own, the Monongahela flows almost due north for 128 miles.

The reason for the removal is two-fold. First, it is not particularily rare for rivers to run northward (please see the wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River#Direction_of_flow). Second, the name Monongahela represents only a small portion of a river system that flows predominately southward.

fiat lux 17:39, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Pronunciation help

I am in contact with a professional voice actor who is trying to record a spoken version of George Washington and he wants to hear someone pronounce "Monongahela". If anyone would be willing to call him up or even leave a voice mail with the proper pronunciation, please email me and I will send you his contact info. Thanks. howcheng {chat} 18:03, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

I know this isn't formal phonetics, but the pronunciation is basically "moe-non-guh-hay-la". Another common pronunciation is "moe-nun-guh-hee-la". Either one is basically correct. Brian Powell (talk) 02:50, 31 May 2008 (UTC)