A beautiful location. Plants take over human engineering.
Lock and Dam 18 Ohio River Access
Tour de Pork! August 5
Be sure to sign up for Le TOUR DE PORK. It’s an annual bike ride and fundraiser for the Ohio River Greenway.
The Ohio River Museum
If you like boats, you definitely should take a look at the Ohio River Museum, in Marietta, Ohio. It is a treasure trove of boats, models of boats, and photographs of boats, especially of steamboats. The authors of Atlas Obscura would love it.
Newport Trojans Ballfields
The Newport Trojans Ballfields, though a pleasant place, doesn’t give you any access to the Ohio River. But you can go a bit downstream and enjoy a view and a milkshake at The Jug.
FDR at the Evansville Riverfront Park
The riverfront park in Evansville, Indiana has a memorial dedicated to the Four Freedoms as articulated by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his 1941 State of the Union Address to Congress (January 6, 1941). They are freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. After finding it we went on and read the whole speech, which contains this extraordinary paragraph, so applicable today:
“…there is nothing mysterious about the foundations of a healthy and strong democracy. The basic things expected by our people of their political and economic systems are simple. They are: Equality of opportunity for youth and for others. Jobs for those who can work. Security for those who need it. The ending of special privilege for the few. The preservation of civil liberties for all. The enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and constantly rising standard of living. These are the simple, basic things that must never be lost sight of in the turmoil and unbelievable complexity of our modern world. The inner and abiding strength of our economic and political systems is dependent upon the degree to which they fulfill these expectations. Many subjects connected with our social economy call for immediate improvement. As examples: We should bring more citizens under the coverage of old-age pensions and unemployment insurance. We should widen the opportunities for adequate medical care. We should plan a better system by which persons deserving or needing gainful employment may obtain it. I have called for personal sacrifice. I am assured of the willingness of almost all Americans to respond to that call. A part of the sacrifice means the payment of more money in taxes. In my budget message I shall recommend that a greater portion of this great defense program be paid for from taxation than we are paying today. No person should try, or be allowed, to get rich out of this program; and the principle of tax payments in accordance with ability to pay should be constantly before our eyes to guide our legislation.”
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, State of the Union Address to Congress, January 6,1941
Bird sounds at Newport Landing
There were a lot of birds here at Newport Landing in Toronto, Ohio, on the day we made the video of the river. You can’t see the birds, but you certainly can hear them. They’re not exotic birds, but can someone identify them?
Broadway Wharf, East Liverpool, Ohio
East Liverpool is not a rich city, but on this hot summer day there are a lot of people enjoying the beautifully constructed Broadway Wharf. You can hear their chatter in the background. But first you hear a goose.
People in Parks
Check out the two videos of Point State Park, in Pittsburgh. The river view of the park, and the park view. The surprising thing about them is the number of people who appear in them. People walking, people talking, people jogging, people bicycling, people sailing. That’s the more surprising because they were taken on a Monday, and a Monday that was not a holiday. Too often there are no people in the videos because there are no people in the parks. So !Hooray! for Pittsburgh for having so many people there!
River Museum, Wellsville, Ohio
Take a look at the River Museum, in Wellsville, Ohio. The page just been posted. It was kind of a strange place when the research team visited it last summer. It looks like it ought to have some interesting content — and we credited it with “Information about the Ohio River: some.” That’s only a hypothesis. We didn’t actually go into it, because it was closed. Its hours are really narrow! But the Facebook page of the Wellsville Historical Society gives some information about what it does. The building is pretty, and it has an excellent shady location on the river.
Ohio River Parks Project 