My father grew up in Bellaire, Ohio and it was the thing to do to see if you could swim across the river. I also have a newspaper article about him and friends hitching a ride on some kind of riverboat--they were on a raft, got tired, and got a tow. What a different era, you wouldn't hear about either of these things happening now, I bet. There must have been barges back in the 1930s-40s, I can't imagine taking a such risk and swimming across that wide river, but I am a prissy-pants anyway. Nancy

Interesting, fascinating stories regarding the Ohio River. My dad was born and raised in Lawrence Co., at the southern tip of Ohio. He has done many of the things that have been discussed including swim racing other farm boys across the river, involved in auto races on the ice, even across the river and back. This would have been before 1920 and shortly after. But to me the most interesting was my dad describing wading the river (obviously before the dams) in the summer time when the Ohio River was no more than waist deep. The river we see today is not the same river without the dams. Henry S. Dillon