Along the Ohio River
Between West Virginia and Ohio flows the Ohio River. The river towns
were the first to be settled by Europeans. Two of the more
tourist-ready towns are Portsmouth and Marietta, Ohio. The first town
in Ohio was Marietta and it has a long history of sternwheel boats.
You can take a sternwheel boat ride and attend a dinner theatre on
board an old riverboat.
Portsmouth could have been one of Ohio's largest cities, if not for
the flooding of the Ohio and Scioto Rivers that join here. Canal boats
would transfer their goods to riverboats at Portsmouth. It lead to two
downtowns, the present one on high ground, and another one along the
river that has mostly gone abandon. Today, these 19th century
storefronts are being changed into antique and tourist businesses,
though at a slow rate. The main attraction is a series of wall murals
being painted along the inside of the massive flood wall.
Still, Portsmouth is a lazy river town that has seen better days. One
of the best things to do is watching the tug boats and barges float
down the Ohio River.
New England in the FALL =}
