Ohio River Scenes at Covington, Kentucky

Ohio river Scenes

Ele Bowen cruised down the Ohio in 1855, and kept a detailed journal of places he passed. This is his drawing of Covington. You can read his Rambles in the Path of the Steam-Horse in its entirety at Google Books.

The Union Army built this Civil War pontoon bridge across the Ohio to get defenders from Ohio into Kentucky. Roughly where the Suspension Bridge is now. More on this bridge on our Civil War page. Sketched by A.E. Mathews

Covington Riverfront, 1800's. Note Newport Barracks.
From a Facebook post by Kim Southwood

At The Point, c. 1940's


The Ohio River, August 24, 1883 at 1 foot, 11 inches, the all time record low water mark. More on this picture is here.	Covington, looking north from the Licking
Mark Twain once remarked that the Ohio River “was so shallow, the catfish had to stand on their heads to keep their gills wet.”

Note the coal barges on the Covington side.
Coal is how your ancestors got heat, and if that coal supply was disrupted, say, by a flood, a crisis ensued.

“Covington, Ky., September 3, 1911. How do: I thought perhaps you might be interested in this bunch, particularly one. Need I say who? Notice what a prominent place he has? Hardly think these pictures were finished before you left. Don't you recognize the pier where we jumped off when going in bathing? Edna T.”

from Harper's, 1872. While a drawing, not a photo, you should view it as if it were a photograph. The accuracy on these old types of drawings are pretty accurate. Not the number of coal barges on the Kentucky side. And while we're after the Civil War, flat boats were still going down the river.

			From a Facebook post by R. Dale Flick
January, 1977. It's not just that it turned cold. For the river to freeze, it had go below freezing, and stay there for weeks and weeks. In January 1977, the low temperature dropped below 0° for 16 days, and the high temperature didn’t even get to 0° one of those days. How cold was it? Please, go to Meteorologist Scott Dimmich's site and let him explain.




The winter of 1977 was so bad that the Kentucky Post issued a set of souvenir pictures.

Looking across the river to Covington from the Island Queen's wharf boat.
from a Facebook post by John Snyder


The steamer Kentucky passes Covington.	The Steamer Cincinnati; original and colorized.
Note the old courthouse in the background of both.


Covington Riverfront, c. 1890's	Covington Riverfront, from Cincinnati	Covington from the Ohio River, c. 1964

Covington Riverfront, looking through the C & O (Bailey) Bridge

In 1914, an old-timer remembers the Covington wharf 50 years earlier.


The Covington River Front	The Covington River Front	The Covington Riverfront, from the Marmet Coal Yards in Cincinnati

An old lithograph of the Covington (far side) and Cincinnati riverfronts.
These old artists' renderings are generally pretty accurate.

15,000 turn out in 1860 to watch the elephant swim the Ohio, here.

Looking toward Kentucky, over the hull of the burned out steamer Indiana, 1916.
Note the number of steeples and smokestacks in Covington


Believed to be 1945			Taken from the Cincinnati side. same photographer; same day, but we don't know the date. Additional pics of the boat on the right, the Hercules Carrel, are at this site.


The John W. Hubbard You more likely know it as the Mike Fink Restaurant	The Julius Fleischman passes Covington. That's Mother of God in the background.	The Ferry Boat Kenton

Scott Street Ferry's days are numbered.

“The two sidewheel Cincinnati and Newport ferryboats will be sold at auction on the 10th of next month. Too many bridges at Cincinnati for the ferryboat business.” Inland Waterways Journal, April 1, 1893

“But $1,000 was offered for the two Newport ferryboats at auction at that place a day or two ago. Capt. John Williamson ordered the sale stopped, claiming that the machinery was worth at least $3000 as scrap iron.” Inland Waterways Journal, April 1, 1893

The opening of the Suspension Bridge effected the ferries. An example.

Don Sanders wrote about the Island Queen meeting her fiery end at this site.


The Sultana Burns	Outing on the Ohio, c. 1921 note the "Iron Maiden" (diving suit) in the background	Mark Twain Excursion Boat

Steamboat by Cincinnati, by Joe Rogers

Ohio River Scene

Shanty Boats along Riverside

Ice, in 1905
Looking Toward Covington


The Hattie Brown in the Ice of 1917-18 You can see the Cincinnati and the Louisville, soon to be destroyed (see below) across on the Cincinnati side	The General Lytle was crushed in the ice of 1917-1918

Ice, 1856

The ice of 1856.

Covington riverfront in the ice, February 3, 1917.
From a Facebook post by Matt Martin

We have issues with this one. It very clearly is labeled Covington, and we assume whoever took the picture did the caption, usually a definitive indicator. However. That tall steeple in the background is the Shinkle home in Covington, which was too near the Licking for this to be Covington. Also, that row of houses seems more like Newport to us. So we're confused.

The ferry Short Cut was ended in the ice of 1917-18


The City of Cincinnati in the ice of 1917-1918. That lumber pile in front of her, right, used to be the Steamer Lucinda.


Ice on the Ohio	Wharf Boat in ice	The Cincinnati	The Louisville	Ice of 1893, looking south January 21, 1893
In the days of steamboats, floods weren't the major problem (boats float), ice was. Before today's dams created larger pools, which freeze less often, ice dams were a huge danger. The formation of ice crushed wooden hulls, and when an ice dam gave way, it produced a torrent of ice floes - each of which could be as big as a house - which tore the bejeezus out of anything and everything in front of it. The sounds of the ice breaking could be heard for miles. The ice of 1917-1918, the date of the above pics, was one of the worst to hit this area. When the 1918 dam broke on January 30, 1918, the water in Cincinnati fell from 62 feet to 20 feet in 2 hours; imagine what was happening downstream. Note the old Covington Court House in the background in the far left image.

We're unsure of the location on this one, but can tell you it was likely a common scene along the C&O in Northern Kentucky in the winter of 1917-1918. A frozen river meant no coal coming in by barge, and since people heated with coal, and since it was a winter cold enough to freeze the river, people were getting cold. In Silver Grove, the C&O refused to let local people use coal from a full train, because while the train couldn't be moved because of the frozen river, the railroad authorities wouldn't release the coal, arguing it was mean to be delivered elsewhere. Image from a Facebook post by Terry Garrard


The ferry Queen City, c. 1856	The ferry Mary Cole, c. 1849

An author in 1914 writes about the Covington wharf fifty years earlier

“The Horse Ferry Boat, No. 1, is now in complete operation between Cincinnati, Newport, and Covington. It is so constructed as to accommodate passengers with a safe, speedy, and very comfortable passage; and will carry, with perfect safety, at least two wagons and teams, and ten or fifteen horsemen with any reasonable number of persons.

“The boat will leave the Licking, ever morning at sunrise, and continue to run during the day, except a sufficient time for refreshment at breakfast and dinner, staying fifteen minutes at each shore. The bell will ring at her arrival and departure. The fare will be the same as in other boats.”
from The Western Spy, Cincinnati, June 15, 1818

Rates on the ferry above were 6 cents per person; eighteen cents for a man and a horse; one
dollar for a horse and wagon; six cents per pig; and eighteen cents per head of cattle.

More info on the old and new Ohio
River Locks and Dams is here.

A page of steamboat
links can be found at this site.

“Last year the ferry at Covington
crossed over 120,000 hogs.”
The Covington Journal,January 4, 1851

The problem encountered when visiting the riverfront in 1856? Too many naked people. Story here.

Covington Landing
Newspapers reported a grand opening on August 24, 1990. And on September 15, 1990.