A growing legal battle has been brewing since early 2008 between the states of Ohio and Kentucky…all over a rock.  It appears that local historian Steve Shaffer, a life long resident of Portsmouth, Ohio had heard about Indian’s Head rock, a popular river landmark,  most of his young life.  It seems that Indian’s Head rock was once a popular place to carve your initials, and the majority of the visible surface of the rock contains just that.  The rock was partially visible during the 1920’s as it sat in the Ohio River about 60 feet from the Kentucky shoreline.  When navigational dams raised the level of the Ohio River during the 1920’s, it was lost from sight forever.  But Shaffer, diver David Vetter,  and several  other scuba diving friends were determined to find the notorious rock.  It took a while, but they eventually located the 8-ton boulder and removed it from the river.    The divers donated the rock to the City of Portsmouth for display. City officials, realizing that the Ohio river is actually in Kentucky, promptly offered the rock to the City of South Shore, Kentucky.  When the city of South Shore showed no interest in the sandstone rock, Portsmouth officials made plans to display the rock in their city.  That is when the legal dispute began.

Indians Head rock has long been the subject of much discussion among the residents of  Kentucky and Ohio.  Believed to possibly be the work of Indians native to the area, the rock  was placed in the Ohio registry of antiques.  Just before the completion of the dam that would eventually cover this rock forever, the following entry was made in Volume 30 of Ohio History.

“In all probability, neither the Indian’s head, nor the rock upon which it is cut, will ever be seen again, as it is hardly within the realms of chance that the dam will be broken at such an opportune time. Unquestionably, the Indian’s head was not the work of a quarryman. It bears strong resemblance to other Indian carvings and impresses the mind with the fact that it is thoroughly Indian in its execution. The outline is cut in the southeast corner of the rock and faces east.

“There is another rock, about one hundred years upstream from the Indian rock, upon which someone in recent years carved an Indian profile with feathered head-dress, but this one is not the genuine Indian head, though frequently taken for it.”

Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway wrote a letter to the Portsmouth city government demanding the return of the rock.   The Kentucky Attorney General insists that the well-inscribed rock is actually a  registered antiquity in the state of Kentucky, and that removal of the rock is theft of an antiquity and subject to prosecution.  To make matters worse, the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers is claiming jurisdiction over the rock because it was taken from a waterway regulated by the Corp.  Steve Shaffer is making no comments, since his involvement in the removal might be the subject of criminal penalties.   The rock now sits in a maintenance garage at the City of Portsmouth, pending the outcome of this interesting legal battle.

More about this story can be found at NPR.org

Phil Ellis

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