Picture taken at a site along the river’s bank which at one time marked the site where the upper end of the Grandview Island once stood. (Photo Provided by John Miller)

One of the prominent sites along the stretch of the Ohio River as it flows past the town is not nearly as impressive as it once was. That would be Grandview Island.

When the new system of locks and dams along the river was completed, there was an increase in the depth of the water and as a result, new erosion took place on all islands. Weaker soils were exposed to the water’s flow and the ground was uncut.

No greater proof of this can be presented than the effect on Grandview Island. The crumbling of this landmark is unrelenting. Pictures of the past show this island at least five times greater in mass than it is today. It once stretched up the river as far as the American Legion building on Front Street and now the observer must go out of town to stand on the river’s bank and be in line with the point of the island’s first rise above the waves.

Some time ago the Ohio River islands were brought under the control of the federal government as a wildlife protected area. On one occasion in which Ted Strickland, once this congressional district’s representative to Washington, D.C., visited Matamoras I took him to Grandview to look upon the river and note the island’s erosion. I mentioned that many islands were being protected by the government by means of rip-rap or rock armor which is the placement of boulders along eroding shores. And why not Grandview Island?

Upon his return to the House of Representatives, he contacted me to answer my question. An island had to be a certain size to qualify for protection. Grandview Island was not sufficient in the area; It had been at one time but too much had already washed away by the time the criteria were established.

So, the citizens of the township watch the island erode more and more every time the river rises as new rains pour through the area. The phrase is, “It’s a crying shame.”

More on Grandview Island next week.

John Miller is president of the Matamoras Area Historical Society. Membership dues are $15 per year for single/couples. Life membership is $150. Contact the society at P.O. Box 1846, New Matamoras, Ohio 45767. Much of this column is built on the work of Matamoras’ historian, the late Diana McMahan.