Great Miami River, river issuing from Indian Lake, Logan county, west-central Ohio, U.S., and flowing south-southwest past Dayton, Middletown, and Hamilton to enter the Ohio River west of Cincinnati after a course of 170 miles (274 km). Its chief tributaries are the Stillwater, Mad, and Whitewater rivers. After severe flooding in 1913 the Miami Conservancy District was established (1915) and an extensive system of levees and retarding basins was built in the river valley.