Levee Levee A levee (), dike, dyke, embankment, floodbank or stopbank is an elongated naturally occurring ridge or artificially constructed fill or wall, which regulates water levels. It is usually earthen and often parallel to the course of a river in its floodplain or along low-lying coastlines. Speakers of American English (notably in the Midwest and Deep South), use the word "levee", from the French word "levée" (from the feminine past participle of the French verb "lever", "to raise"). It originated in New Orleans a few years after the city's founding in 1718 and was later adopted by English speakers. The
Wabash River of its course the Wabash follows the path of the pre-glacial Teays River. The name "Wabash" is an English spelling of the French name for the river, "Ouabache". French traders named the river after the Miami-Illinois word for the river, "waapaahšiiki", meaning "it shines white", "pure white", or "water over white stones". The Miami name reflected the clarity of the river in Huntington County, Indiana where the river bottom is limestone. The Wabash was first mapped by French explorers to the Mississippi, including the sections now known as the Ohio River. Although the Wabash is today considered a tributary of