The Ohio River Museum is a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

that interprets the history of the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

. The museum is situated on the

Muskingum River The Muskingum River (Shawnee: ') is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately long, in southeastern Ohio in the United States. An important commercial route in the 19th century, it flows generally southward through the eastern hill country o ...

, near its confluence with the

, in

Marietta, Ohio Marietta is a city in, and the county seat of, Washington County, Ohio, United States. It is located in southeastern Ohio at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio Rivers, northeast of Parkersburg, West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, Mar ...

. Opened on March 16, 1941, the museum celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2016. Among the museum's collection is the '' W.P. Snyder, Jr.'', the last steam-powered

towboat A pusher, pusher craft, pusher boat, pusher tug, or towboat, is a boat designed for pushing barges or car floats. In the United States, the industries that use these vessels refer to them as towboats. These vessels are characterized by a squar ...

on the river. The oldest remaining pilothouse is from the steamboat ''Tell City''. The steamboat was built in 1889 and used to carry passengers and freight on the Ohio River. She was named after the city of

Tell City, Indiana Tell City is a city in Troy Township, Perry County, in the U.S. state of Indiana, along the Ohio River. The population was 7,272 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of Perry County. History Tell City traces its 150+ year old roots ...

, on the banks of the Ohio River. She sank on April 6, 1917, in

Little Hocking, Ohio Little Hocking is a census-designated place in southern Belpre Township, Washington County, Ohio, United States. It has a post office with the ZIP code 45742. The population of the CPD was 244 at the 2020 census. Little Hocking lies along t ...

. The pilothouse survived the sinking and is on display outside of the museum. The museum is located a block from the Campus Martius Museum. The Ohio River Museum is currently closed as a new museum will be constructed on the site. Partners in the new museum project include Ohio History Connection, Friends of the Museums dba Northwest Territory Museum Society, the Washington County Public Library and the Sons and Daughters of the Pioneer Rivermen.

References

External links

Ohio River Museum
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Ohio History Connection Ohio History Connection, formerly The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society and Ohio Historical Society, is a nonprofit organization incorporated in 1885. Headquartered at the Ohio History Center in Columbus, Ohio, Ohio History Connec ...

Ohio River Maritime museums in Ohio Museums in Washington County, Ohio Buildings and structures in Marietta, Ohio Ohio History Connection {{Ohio-museum-stub