Miami Conservancy District
The Miami Conservancy District is a river management agency operating in Southwest Ohio to control flooding of the Great Miami River and its tributaries. It was organized in 1914 following the catastrophic flood of the Great Miami River in March of 1913, which hit Dayton, Ohio particularly hard. The Miami Conservancy District built levees, straightened the river channel throughout the Miami Valley, and built five dry dams on various tributaries to control flooding. The district and its projects are unusual in that they were funded almost entirely by local tax initiatives, unlike similar projects elsewhere which were funded by the federal government and coordinated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Dams
The five dry dams managed by the district, the channels they control, and their locations are:
- Englewood Dam — Stillwater River — Englewood, Ohio
- Germantown Dam — Twin Creek — Germantown, Ohio
- Huffman Dam — Mad River — Fairborn, Ohio
- Lockington Dam — Loramie Creek — North of Piqua, Ohio
- Taylorsville Dam — Great Miami River — South of Tipp City, Ohio
Recreation
The Miami Conservancy District builds and plans a system of bikeways along the Miami corridor. Currently, bike trails follow the Great Miami River much of the way through Montgomery and Warren Counties. The current northern trail terminus is Taylorsville MetroPark, between Vandalia and Huber Heights. Construction is planned in the near future to extend the trail north through Miami County to Tipp City, Troy, and Piqua.