The Ohio River

This picture was taken in spring of 2007, but it still looks the same today.

I attended a conference this week that included people from all over the world. We had visitors from Japan, China, Chile, Panama, Germany, Switzerland, and Americans from Boston, New York, Maryland, and beyond. I was thrilled to share Cincinnati with them, and invited them to the RiverFest fireworks this weekend, which is Cincinnati's largest festival.

The WEBN radio station pumps music out from gigantic speakers on barges on the river while audiences flock to both banks of the Ohio River in preparation for the choreographed fireworks show. It's spectacular! Not just the fireworks that explode off the barges and bridges, but the festivity of the event itself. The crowds on the Kentucky bank try to out-yell the Ohio side, and the Ohio side yells right back at them. It's odd to think that the two states are only separated by a river small enough to scream across. Especially if you consider the history.

The Ohio River was all that separated free states from slave states. Just that narrow, muddy river. Cincinnati has a rich underground railroad history. The Underground Railroad Freedom Center downtown recognizes all of that, and explains it much better than I did to our foreign visitors this weekend. But I wanted to share the beauty of Cincinnati with them; the significance of our small city, and the role it played in a part of American history. I shared the German history that founded our town, and the soap and slaughterhouses that were our early commerce.  I explained as much as I could as we stared out at the Ohio River. I am constantly awed by its beauty.