Campus Martius and Ohio River Museums

Known by the early settlers as the stockade or Campus Martius, the original fortification was built to house and protect the members of the Ohio Company during the Ohio Indian Wars of 1790 to 1794. By 1795, after the signing of the Treaty of Greeneville, the stockade was no longer necessary. Buildings were then dismantled, the wood planks used in the construction of some of the homes located throughout Marietta.

The Ohio River Museum features three buildings of exhibits focus on the history of the Ohio River and its importance relating to the expansion of our country, the Golden Age of the steamboat and the river’s natural history. The pride of the museum is the W.P. Snyder, Jr., the last of the steam-powered, stern wheeled towboats in the United States and a National Historic Landmark. Outside is the Tell City Pilot House, a flat boat reproduction, a restored shanty boat, and a series of poles showing the heights of some of the worst floods in recorded history to hit this area.