Ohio River Flood Wall Murals

Instead of having just a plain wall the city decided to have artists paint murals on it.

Ohio river flood wall murals.

Explore the history depicted in portsmouth s famous floodwall murals. With the help of the popular artist robert dafford a 2000 foot concrete block flood wall that is located along portsmouth s ohio river has been turned to be an outdoor art gallery that clearly shows portsmouth history and other areas surrounding it. This tour covers some 2 000 years of history at the confluence of the scioto and ohio rivers from the ancient adena and hopewell to the workers at williams shoe factory in downtown portsmouth. This flood wall is larger and more detailed than i ever imagined.

These walls are about 10 feet high and go on for about 1 4 mile. It has a guided tour if you would like to know more about the history of the area. The murals are painted on the town side of the flood walls erected after the 1937 flood that devastated the area. A flood wall is usually just nothing special to look at.

All you have to do is get to the ohio river. The wall is pretty easy to get to. Robert dafford murals appear on floodwalls in seven ohio river cities in four states listed below in each state from east to west another five cities have smaller floodwall. The portsmouth ohio flood wall murals project is one of the largest in the world stretching 20 feet high and 2 000 feet long between front street and the ohio river.

The wall spans more than 2 000 feet. Over 1 3 of a mile long and 200 tall this storytelling mural gives insight into not just portsmouth but to ohio and our nation s history. Explore in more detail some of the history depicted in robert dafford s epic portsmouth floodwall murals. Paducah was originally started by william clark of lewis and clark fame.