Ohio, Monroe County

Formerly the USArmy Corps of Engineers Lock and Dam Wilderness Area #15, this is an excellent example of transforming unused Federal property into a community park! It has everything desirable in a riverside park: lots of river access via a boat launch, a dock, and lots of places to fish. People can sit on a bench on the low bluff above the dock, or grill and eat in the picnic shelter. There’s a basketball hoop and a piece of old-style playground equipment for kids: a merry-go-round.

Even better, flush toilets! Like many community parks the built ecosystem is not superb: it’s pretty much a paved parking lot and a mowed lawn. (Thanks to the neighboring golf course for keeping it so well mowed!) Not much information about the river, either.

Worst: no one seems to use it.

Come on, people, this is a great local park!

The only information about the Ohio River: the fish you can catch

An excellent boat launch and backwater.

Good tie-ups

The Army Corps of Engineers made this former site of Lock and Dam 18 available for redevelopment into a county park.

Trees planted in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the Northwest Ordinance

The trees were donated in 1987 by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the Nurserymen’s Association, and the Daughters of the American Revolution.

A Boy Scout, Joshua Hise, built this bench from which to view the river.