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| Line drawings of the carvings at Wellsville from the book "Petroglyphs of Ohio" by James Swauger. |
Along the Ohio river between East Liverpool and Wellsville there was a dam that was known as dam number 8. It was a wicket dam. Wicket dams were made up of several smaller wooden structures connected together to make a semi solid dam to back up the river enough for barges and larger boats to go through in the summer months when the water was typically lower. The dam sections were raised one section at a time by a crew of workers in a ship. A concrete base at the bottom of the river supported each wooden wicket. Water pressure helped "flip" the wooden wicket over and a four inch pipe locked the dam in place. Openings at the West Virginia side let river traffic through. The dam was constructed around 1910 and used until the New Cumberland dams were complete in 1959.
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| A great view of an individual wicket. |
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| How wickets were raised in 1910. Both pictures courtesy of http://cincinnativiews.net/ |
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| Dam no 8 as it sits today on the West virginia side. It is now part of the Kennedy Marina. |
Long before any of this ever took place the area before and after the dam was known for another reason. Petroglyphs are ancient rock carvings or pictures. Some think that the local Indians made the designs others think that the carvings date back even farther to the mound builders that lived in Ohio before the Indians. The general consensus is that they were carved between 1200 and 1700 AD. There are five sites documented around the local area. I will start at the Wellsville site.
To the best of my research the first mention of the inscriptions at Wellsville were published by Charles Whittlesey in the book "Ancient earth forts of the Cuyahoga valley Ohio" in 1871. He describes the inscriptions as rudely made and obviously the work of the red man. Nothing else is mentioned just a acknowledgement that they exist. In the 1902 book "Archaeological History of Ohio" by Gerald fowk the Wellsville site is mentioned again as a large group of sculptures consisting of a rattlesnake, turtle, bird, and human feet. He goes on to say as an eyewitness to the site that the inscriptions differ from any other site because of the double lines that were carved out for most of the images. Most of them are around a half inch deep and carved on a shelf of sandstone only visible at the extreme lowest water mark on the river. In 1902 the river was only around 5 to 9 feet deep at most and not very wider than a larger creek. When the wickets were built the width and depth of the river increased and covered over everything permanently even in the dry months. By 1959 the new super dams made the river even wider and by dredging the middle made the shipping lanes very deep.
Some of the petroglyphs were reported as being destroyed when the wickets were built. There were also petroglphs below the wickets on the same Ohio shore as well. Around 1908 and 1909 before construction and during extremely low water local historian and young fellow Harold Barth documented and photographed both areas. In later years both sites were just called the Wellsville dam no 8 site. At only 24 years old Barth documented 5 different sites on the Ohio river. He was a little ahead of his time and incorporated anyone who would help with making plaster cast and ink copies on scrolls of the exact carvings. He does credit a Rev W. W. Burton from Alliance Ohio for taking photographs of the sites and working out drawings as well. As far as I can tell all photos and drawings remained in Barth's possession and were displayed in the Historical museum he operated on the top floor of the Carnegie public library. The museum has since closed and all items have been stored and are in the possession of the Museum of Ceramics in East Liverpool.
Famed archaeologist James Swauger wrote a book entitled "Rock Art Of The Upper Ohio Valley" in 1974 that really documented the carvings of the tri state areas petroglphs. James had wrote articles and research for years for The Carnegie Museum of Natural History were he was associate director of the museum. His field of study was anthropology but was extremely interested in petroglyphs and spent his spare time researching the areas carvings. Rock art is probably the best work documenting petroglyphs in our local area. All line drawings and the only original photo used here came from his two books the other book being "Petroglyphs of Ohio" published in 1984. All of the research and photos he used were from Harold Barth. Swauger visited each site with Barth in 1940 at low water but was never an eyewitness to the dam no 8 site. He cataloged negatives and notes from Barth for all research. He credited Barth in all books repeatedly. Upon Harold Barth's death in 1974 Swauger donated a signed copy of his book to the Carnegie Public Library in memory of Mr. Barth. Mr. Swauger passed away in 2005 at the age of 92. Both men set the benchmark for all researchers everywhere. They were truly pioneers of documenting ancient petroglyphs.
Later on this summer I will be doing an article for the East Liverpool Historical Society's website. All pictures and scrolls are in their possession and can only be presented on their website. I hope to be able to present even more On the Smiths Ferry, Babb's Island, and Wellsville sites. I can not tell you how fun this was researching and finding stuff that has been out of sight for so long. The pictures alone are priceless. Everybody has an opinion on what the carvings were trying to convey. What do you think? Let me know! To think that some of these carvings still exist in the bottom of the Ohio is pretty cool.
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| Wellsville dam number 8 in the year 1912. Picture courtesy of Jim Alison and the East Liverpool Historical Society. |
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| Picture taken from the book "Rock Art Of The Upper Ohio Valley" carvings were filled with chalk and then photographed. You can make out a turtle on the left and a huge foot in the back right. |
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| More line drawings of the carvings at the Wellsville site. From the book "Petroglyphs of Ohio" by James Swauger. |
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| All that is left of the dam on the Ohio side of the river. |
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| Possible site above the old dam that could have been one of the two petroglyph areas. This was an old swimming area near the Walkers plant with huge boulders and a sandstone flat shelf out into the river. |
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| A letter I found inside the book "Rock Art" at the Carnegie library. |
For more pictures go to :
Dedicated to the memory of Penny Rose Barth who spent countless Sunday mornings with me going through pictures and research with the interest of a wonderful mother.
Resources : "Petroglyphs of Ohio" James Swauger
"Rock Art of the Upper Ohio valley" James Swauger
"Ancient Earth Forts of the Cuyahoga Valley Ohio"
Charles Whittlesey
"Archaeological History of Ohio" Gerald Fowk
The Carnegie Public Library East Liverpool
Jim Alison of the East Liverpool Historical Society
Sarah Vodrey and The Museum of Ceramics
For letting me cross reference Harold Barth's
pictures, notes, and drawings. Without his work very
little information would be known.
8/21/12 - The East Liverpool Historical website now has all of the Petroglyph pictures from the Harold Barth collection posted.
For one of a kind original photos of the Wellsville, Babb's Island, and the Smiths Ferry sites go to :
Another great post. Very informative. Sure would love to be able to see those petroglyphs.
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